hannabelle

(minor spoilers) The Grace Year is probably the best YA novel I’ve read since Sharon Cameron’s The Forgetting , with a solid cast of sympathetic characters and a truly engrossing plot. When they’re around sixteen years old, the girls of Garner County must spend a titular “grace year” living together in the middle of the woods, during which they expunge themselves of all of their magic. Because this magic is sinful: it could prevent them from fully submitting to their proper roles as wives or workers; it causes upstanding men to lust after them. And it will only grow more dangerous as they enter into adulthood if they don’t fully rid themselves of it. But no one knows what happens during the grace year. Women are forbidden to speak of it, if they survive it. All Tierney James knows for sure is that many women do not survive, and those that come home are forever scarred by whatever happened to them, both physically and mentally. Most girls dream of being selected to enter into marriage ...

After their night spent with Gildor and his company of elves, Frodo considers the dangers he’s sure to face when he leaves the Shire. Gildor had reiterated Gandalf’s advice, to bring with him any friends that he trusts. But Frodo wonders if he shouldn’t go alone, leaving his friends in the safety of the Shire. Pippin doesn’t even know that Frodo isn’t really moving out to Buckland, let alone that the Black Riders they’ve seen are after him specifically. Really, Frodo shouldn’t even be taking Sam with him. Sam is quick to reassure Frodo that he has no intention of letting him go alone, and though he quotes Gandalf telling him the same, he reveals that the wizard’s admonishings are far from the only reason he’s here with Frodo now. It’s not even about experiencing the things he’s always heard about in Bilbo’s stories; after all, he’s already met elves now, as he’s long desired to. He simply believes there is something that he’s meant to do on this journey, reminiscent of Gandalf’s stated...

We are getting our first taste of the Road. Tolkien often capitalizes this word when he’s referring to the idea of a road as a path one takes on a journey as opposed to a literal road, or at least that’s how I interpret it. And I think this distinction is thematically important in a quest story, especially one where the journey the characters must go on is both physical and intrapersonal. Though the hobbits haven’t yet left the borders of the Shire, Tolkien continues to provide a good forward momentum through these pages by escalating the sense of danger. The encounters with the mysterious Black Riders are tense, especially as their appearances always prompt Frodo’s struggle with a temptation to put on the Ring. The Shire has already proven unsafe, and of course only more peril lies ahead. The appearance of Gildor and elves just in time to frighten off a Black Rider is an early example of things suddenly going right for our heroes, seemingly by chance. The Hobbit was full of such inst...

Chapter Two eases us into the wider world of Middle-earth. As the title would suggest, it expands on the theme of history established in the prologue, and we see how the dark happenings in Frodo’s time were set into motion long ago. We at last have answers to some of the questions we’ve had about the Ring, and a clear reason to leave the Shire. Yes, this chapter is mostly an exposition dump, but it manages to pick up the story’s momentum rather than slow it down.  Crucially, this chapter serves as our first real introduction to Frodo and Sam. There’s a clear difference in class between them which Tolkien emphasizes in their manner of speaking, and thus far nothing about the framing of their master/servant relationship suggests we’re meant to be critical of the hobbits’ social structure. But the groundwork has been laid to show that they are fundamentally equals, and each has had a chance to display admirable qualities.  Frodo is naturally frightened by everything he learns her...

(minor spoilers) Conceptually, this book is really cool. In its fantasy world, Cinderella and Prince Charming are important historical figures who ushered in a new age of prosperity for their kingdom. Their fairy tale is now upheld by everyone in a manner reminiscent of a religious text, with each family owning a “palace-approved” storybook that children are expected to memorize and model their lives after. Except no one seems to really care if boys grow up to be loving and gentlemanly like Charming. Girls, on the other hand, must live up to the impossible standards of Cinderella’s perfection or risk bringing shame and ruin upon their families. As the story begins, Sophia is only days away from attending a mandatory ball, at which she and all the other unmarried teenage girls will dress up in the finest their families can afford in order to be more or less auctioned off as wives to the highest bidder. This is an event that girls are supposed to spend their whole lives dreaming of; afte...

The title of the opening chapter harkens back to The Hobbit ’s “An Unexpected Party.” Just like that story, this one eases us into the fantasy setting by beginning in Hobbiton in the Shire, a region which, from its landscape to its inhabitants, resembles an idealized English countryside. Spending time here also helps us feel for Frodo later when he must leave it behind in order to keep it safe, and strengthens our desire to see his safe return. The Shire becomes home for us just as it is for Frodo. This chapter compells us to keep reading by posing very troubling questions about the nature of the ring. For readers of The Hobbit especially, Bilbo’s seeming addiction to this piece of jewelry is jarring, particularly when his defensiveness about it leads to him making some rather nasty accusations against Gandalf, one of his dearest friends. It’s a genuine relief when it’s out of his possession and he instantly becomes much more himself. Now, though, the ring has been left to Frodo, and ...