2009 December 04 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Publication: Harcourt Children’s Books; 1 edition (September 1, 2003), Hardcover, 494pp / ISBN 0152045635

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Children’s/YA

Rating:

Read: November 30-December 2, 2009

Source: Library

Summary from Amazon:

Rose has always felt out of place in her family, a wanderer in a bunch of homebodies. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him–in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family–she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she loses her heart, discovers her purpose, and realizes her travels have only just begun.

As familiar and moving as “Beauty and the Beast” and yet as fresh and original as only the best fantasy can be, East is a novel retelling of the classic tale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” a sweeping romantic epic in the tradition of Robin McKinley and Gail Carson Levine.

Review

I’m slightly familiar with the original East of the Sun, West of the Moon tale, but not enough that I could explain it coherently to anyone I talked to re:East as a retelling of that. But I do remember it was very romantic, and slightly creepy, and that I didn’t much care for the portrayal of the girl– the version I read had her slightly stupid, I think, and that she was basically a fool for doing the use-the-candle-to-look-at-the-dude-in-your-bed thing.

But it makes so much sense to do the candle thing! Who the hell wants to have a strange man sleep next to them in a bed for a year and not even know who it is? The original was kinda flawed that way, I think. Little things that make sense in fairy tales, maybe, but for sure didn’t make sense in real life situations. That’s why I like this retelling so much better than the original– Rose isn’t stupid, and even though she does the candle thing she doesn’t do it because she’s foolish. She does it because she was curious and frustrated with her situation and it made ever so much sense for her to do it. And she was so good about following the rules of a fairy tale up ’til then, and afterwards when she seeks the bear-man, that I didn’t fault her at all.

I think I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Okay, back up a bit.

Rose was a really good character. She’s adventurous and strong-willed and doesn’t shy away from doing hard tasks. She’s also got good fairy tale sense– I mean that she doesn’t try to fight the magic whatevers at every turn. She understands how things work, basically, in a fairy tale, and goes along with it until it grates too much on her normal-human sensibilities. Then the candle thing happens.

I suppose Rose might be a bit annoying (or unrealistic) because she’s so strong and barely falters at all, even when the odds are stacked against her. In that way she’s maybe less believable as a person, but c’mon. It’s a fairy tale. I’d much rather read about an uber-strong woman than one who cries at every turn, or one who lets the prince rescue her instead of rescuing herself. But Rose is slightly one dimensional. (For a good, realistic strong female character, Maerad from the Pellinor series is a good match.)

The other characters were fine. I don’t think I much noticed them, I was so focused on Rose and the white bear. But I did like Rose’s brother, Neddy, because he’s such a worrywart librarian type. He was adorable.

At first I wasn’t sure if the format of the book was good or bad. The POV keeps switching between multiple characters– Rose, the white bear, the troll queen, Neddy, and Rose’s father. At first it was a bit jarring, and I couldn’t help but wish that the narrative would stick to one POV, but then I got more into it. And it was nice seeing what other characters were thinking about, especially the white bear. Plus I think switching the POV kept some dialogue from becoming cheesy. I can just imagine how much I would have hated this book is Neddy had been forced to say some of the things he was thinking. They were fine in his thoughts, I didn’t mind them at all there. But if they had been stuck into a conversation? Gag city, baby.

The plot is pretty similar to the original tale, except that it was of course moved to Norway and the surrounding areas. Was the original tale set in Norway? I think the one I read was set in England, and it was a brown bear that showed up. Or maybe I’m thinking of another story. I do tend to mix them up, I must way.

I really liked the story, anyway. I liked that it was just a little different from traditional fairy tales, but that it kept enough of their flavor that I could recognize certain things. It was like meeting an old friend who had just gotten a new haircut, or something. I felt very satisfied when I finished reading East, and that’s a nice feeling to have, sometimes.

I would definitly recommend reading East if you have any interest in fairy tales or books set in Norway. It was fun, and exciting, and I didn’t get tired at all! Though the descriptions of the snow in the Arctic made me chilly a little.