Book of the Day Roundup: June 12-16, 2023
Twilight of the Godlings
The Shadowy Beginnings of Britain’s Supernatural Beings
Francis Young
Cambridge University Press
Hardcover $39.99 (350pp)
978-1-00-933036-7
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Nuanced and complex, Twilight of the Godlings is Francis Young’s history of pagan deities and supernatural creatures in Britain, where ancient British, ancient Roman, and medieval Christian beliefs melded and took on numerous forms. Fauns, nymphs, elves, and fairies populate the book alongside various renditions of the three Fates and their folkloric reimaginings.
Though some periods in ancient history are characterized by scant evidence, Young uses a variety of academic disciplines and their tools to trace the evolution of “little gods” in British history, beginning with the pre-Roman time period. Young discards certain hypotheses, such as the notion that contemporary fairy folk are direct preservations of pagan gods, citing a lack of evidence. Instead, Young argues for a less linear descent, whereby earlier folkloric beings were transformed through their contact with Christianity, sometimes occupying demonic spaces in the interim. Literary and theological influences also gave shape to contemporary fairy folk, with Arthurian legends and medieval encyclopedias of creatures contributing in turn.
Packed with keen observations and insights, each chapter traces a particular epoch of history: ancient Britain, Roman Britain, early Christian Britain (which nonetheless maintained some very non-Christian beliefs in nymphs), medieval Christian Britain, and the transformation of fairy beliefs in a contemporary context. Ending with ruminations on the relationship between fairy folk, aliens, and cryptids, Young asserts that people’s relationships with godlings can reveal much about humanity and its relationships with the natural world (as godlings are often associated with springs, hills, and groves).
Twilight of the Godlings utilizes centuries’ worth of folkloric, literary, and archaeological evidence to provide as complete an accounting as possible of the demonic, godly, and faerie creatures thought to populate Britain’s forests.
JEANA JORGENSEN (June 7, 2023)
Leg
The Story of a Limb and the Boy Who Grew from It
Greg Marshall
Abrams Press
Hardcover $28.00 (304pp)
978-1-4197-6360-1
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Greg Marshall’s moving memoir Leg is about finding strength in family support.
While applying for health insurance during graduate school, Marshall learned that his recognizable limp was a symptom of spastic cerebral palsy. He’d endured years of surgeries and physical therapy to lengthen his leg, which his mother had told him was the result of “tight tendons.” Shaken by the new revelation, he called his mother (who was in the perpetual process of contending with cancer herself) to ask why she’d chosen to lie to him for years. She told him that she didn’t believe in labels.
As it ponders the question of whether knowing the truth about his limp early on would have made a difference in Marshall’s life, the book also reveals how stigmas around living with disabilities have evolved in tandem with hopeful medical strides. It is marked by humor; family bonds form its inspirational core. Powered by his father’s encouragement to “never, never, never give up,” Marshall wore holes in the tops of his tennis shoes; tried his best to hide his limp and stiff leg; ran on the treadmill; and took tennis lessons. He looked up to his “marathon man” father, who survived breaking his neck while cliff diving, owned several local magazines, and contended with Lou Gehrig’s disease. Their father-son relationship saw them through Marshall’s teenage snarkiness and a charming trip to Paris.
Marshall’s memories are marked by joy and heartbreak too: in time, he became his father’s caregiver. He took the position with occasional reluctance, though always remembering to ask for reminders that he was his father’s favorite when they said goodbye.
Leg is a powerful memoir about overcoming obstacles with one’s sense of humor intact.
ERIN NESBIT (April 27, 2023)
Girlfriend on Mars
Deborah Willis
WW Norton & Company
Hardcover $28.00 (336pp)
978-0-393-28591-8
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A generation trades clicks for activism in Girlfriend on Mars, Deborah Willis’s incisive satirization of Anthropocene dissonance.
Once an Olympic hopeful, Amber is now in her thirties and dead-ending it in British Columbia. She loves her boyfriend, Kevin, who she’s been with since high school, but not in a soul-shaking way. In a fit of ennui, she rallies her remaining confidence to audition for MarsNow, a billionaire-funded reality television venture to choose the first two humans to colonize Mars. And she’s selected. Her new life is set in motion.
Trading between coverage of Kevin’s suspended life in the couple’s apartment, where he waits for Amber to change her mind and commit to their earthbound future, and scenes that cover Amber’s meteoric rise, the novel is voracious about skewering contemporary preoccupations: with (somewhat baseless) social media fame; with popularizing scientific leaps at the expense of proceeding with care; with claims of liberalism used to cover the acts of the rapacious one percent.
Amber longs for a sense of meaning, but quashes her better judgment to attain it—falling into an underbaked affair that audiences love; flirting with a tech mogul who represents everything that she detests at her environmentalist’s core. And Kevin, though he knows the world is on fire, only longs to go back—to a perfect afternoon with Amber at the lake; to a time when his shaky foundations felt safe. It becomes clear that—even though two someones who are charming but undeniably underprepared will be sent into the sky—satisfaction will evade everyone, no matter their terrestrial states. That, it seems, is the cost of valuing fifteen minutes of attention over the hard work of making true forever plans.
A precious few compete for spots on Mars before rapt global audiences in Girlfriend on Mars, a sobering speculative novel.
MICHELLE ANNE SCHINGLER (June 7, 2023)
Darkly She Goes
Hubert
Vincent Mallié, illustrator
NBM Publishing
Hardcover $29.99 (160pp)
978-1-68112-313-4
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A princess and a disgraced former knight find love despite dark magic, family secrets, and tragedy in the graphic novel Darkly She Goes.
Islen is a beautiful princess trapped in a foreboding castle full of monsters. When Arzhur is asked to rescue her, it seems like the perfect opportunity to regain his once-honored status. To escape from the true threat, the two set off together for Islen’s father’s land. There, they face the trickery of supernatural agents; Arzhur is sent to prison, and Islen faces the difficult truth about her ancestry. A final confrontation with their enemies resolves Islen and Arzhur’s issues, but not in the ways they expected.
A sword-and-sorcery tale of epic scale, the book takes the time to get into the psychology of its heroes. No character is without flaws; Islen’s changing relationship with her parents is a fascinating element throughout the book. But Islen and Arzhur try to do what’s right, and they are an appealing pair, despite their imperfections.
The art is wondrous, the work of a master of the form. From the intricate opening pages with their artful compositions of Islen surrounded by the rats and creatures that do her bidding, to the near-opposite toward the end of the book when Islen stands alone against a bare white background, every page is meticulous in terms of its design, linework, and colors.
Darkly She Goes is an exciting, engaging, and emotional grand graphic novel fantasy about self-discovery, romance, and redemption.
PETER DABBENE (June 7, 2023)
Henry the Snail
Katarina Macurova
Albatros
Hardcover $16.95 (40pp)
978-800006793-3
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Henry wants to climb the plants and flowers in the garden with all the other snails, but Henry is different in one important way: he has no slime. Determined to find his own way to climb, Henry begins training; he drags pebbles, lifts peas, and balances peach pits until he is strong enough. Facing down the tallest flower in the garden, however, Henry learns that sometimes the strongest thing to do is ask for help.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (June 7, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
