The Grace of Wild ThingsReview posted October 19, 2024.
Balzer + Bray, 2023. 8 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written June 1, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
Here's another one I loved oh, so much! This is Anne of Green Gables, if Anne were a witch child! It's even set on Prince Edward Island.
The world is somewhat different from ours, though. Our orphaned heroine, Grace, has a natural gift for magic and the strange heartbeat that marks out witches -- so she leaves the orphanage and finds a witch to apprentice herself to.
The witch lives in a beautiful cozy house by a brook, but she doesn't want an apprentice and tries to bake Grace in her oven. Once Grace gets out of that she convinces the witch to make a pact with her. If Grace can perform all one hundred and a half spells in the witch's grimoire before the cherry trees bloom, she can stay and become the witch's apprentice. Otherwise, Grace must give up her magic.
So the stakes are high. But Grace is gifted and Grace is imaginative -- and she chatters on about her imaginings just like Anne of Green Gables. Fortunately, Grace has a knack of making friends, and once she finds a best friend at the neighboring farm, she gets some help at figuring out the grimoire.
This is not a retelling but a reimagining, so the parallels are quite loose -- though I did enjoy the way magic got Grace's best friend tipsy and the witch told her mother she'd mistaken currant wine for raspberry cordial. The magic in that world is playful and fun, and I enjoyed the boy who offends Grace early - rather like Gilbert - but is actually a fairy who makes all the humans forget about him.
Anne loves poetry, and she loves to read poetry to Wind Weaver, her familiar (who is a crow). So each chapter begins with poetry from that time period, and I was surprised how many appropriately flowery poems the author found.
Completely delightful! I highly recommend this book to any fan of Anne of Green Gables. Revisit Prince Edward Island -- with a little magic.