The Onion Girl

Rating:
Summary: Heavy-handed with a dash of "been there, done that"
Review: After I finished "The Onion Girl" last night, I sat there feeling vaguely dissatisfied and tried to figure out why. I think it all comes down to what some other reviewers have pointed out: we've seen this before - numerous times and handled better than this.

DeLint's earlier books had a sense of wonder and delicacy both in his writing and in his portrayals of characters and Dreamlands/Otherlands. As you read, it felt as if the magical place he was talking about was not only real but that it could be fragile as well; it *was* real but only as long as you believed and DeLint was very good at making us believe. With this book, however, I didn't feel drawn in - more like bludgeoned. It reads along the lines of "You will believe in Newford and in the Dreamlands because I say so."

Characters in this book are not there so much to show as to tell which tends to rob the book of much of its possible emotion. We're told how wonderful Jilly is, we're told how much her friends are frightened for her or pulling for her to get better, but we're never shown it. We're surrounded by all these people who have supposedly pulled themselves up by their bootstraps or dealt with hard things in life but everyone reads the same regardless of their prior experiences. Wendy, positioned as a character with a normal (read: non-abusive) childhood, comes across no differently than Jilly or Sophie. We're told she has a hard time relating to the childhood Jilly experienced but it comes across like a line in a script read by an extremely poor actress. There is nothing to back up what we're being told to feel. Everyone is the same flat character with different names.

Raylene's "transformation" rings hollow. Her motivation in this story has essentially been payback. She's face to face with the person, has the means and the method, and she suddenly decides not to? And in such a way that intimates some noble self-sacrifice when, all through the book, we're given example after example about how she's out for what she can get for herself? There is nothing that points to this completely unbelievable change of heart except perhaps DeLint wanted a happy (or happier) ending after "Forests of the Heart".

The Newford books seem to be becoming more about DeLint's personal likes/dislikes/agenda than him setting the characters down and letting them tell the story. We're treated to page after page of a character or characters wandering around in Native American or Celtic myths/stories/dreamlands and these scenes read as a too-long "Let me show all the things I know about this culture" rather than as vital to the story. In addition, although normally I like seeing the little snippets regarding music and musicians in his book, there is one paragraph regarding a band that comes in completely from left field and seems designed simply to advertise friends of DeLint's and nothing more.

Overall, I felt the book fell flat on its face with its themes. What could have been an exploration of the meaning of family, how/if the events of the past color the future, child abuse, et cetera, were drowned out by DeLint and his Anvil Chorus. Between the coy phrasing of abuse victims as "Children of the Secret" and Jilly's apparent canonization, there is nothing real about this book or Jilly's and Raylene's experiences to hang onto. Instead, we're treated to a really long hurt/comfort fanfic.

At one point, a character says something to the effect of "children are our most precious resource". While true, it reads as the author needing to make sure we get that point and providing it via anvilicious methods. We. Get. It. Charles.

Will I read another DeLint book? Possibly - I'll at least give him one more chance. However, I definitely won't be buying it in hardback. I'll content myself with my copies of "Jack of Kinrowan" and "Trader" until his next book comes out in paperback. If his next book is the same as "The Onion Girl", I''ll sadly clear his books off my shelf and go in search of a new author who can make me feel the way DeLint used to.

Rating:
Summary: Heavy-handed with a dash of "been there, done that"
Review: After I finished "The Onion Girl" last night, I sat there feeling vaguely dissatisfied and tried to figure out why. I think it all comes down to what some other reviewers have pointed out: we've seen this before - numerous times and handled better than this.

DeLint's earlier books had a sense of wonder and delicacy both in his writing and in his portrayals of characters and Dreamlands/Otherlands. As you read, it felt as if the magical place he was talking about was not only real but that it could be fragile as well; it *was* real but only as long as you believed and DeLint was very good at making us believe. With this book, however, I didn't feel drawn in - more like bludgeoned. It reads along the lines of "You will believe in Newford and in the Dreamlands because I say so."

Characters in this book are not there so much to show as to tell which tends to rob the book of much of its possible emotion. We're told how wonderful Jilly is, we're told how much her friends are frightened for her or pulling for her to get better, but we're never shown it. We're surrounded by all these people who have supposedly pulled themselves up by their bootstraps or dealt with hard things in life but everyone reads the same regardless of their prior experiences. Wendy, positioned as a character with a normal (read: non-abusive) childhood, comes across no differently than Jilly or Sophie. We're told she has a hard time relating to the childhood Jilly experienced but it comes across like a line in a script read by an extremely poor actress. There is nothing to back up what we're being told to feel. Everyone is the same flat character with different names.

Raylene's "transformation" rings hollow. Her motivation in this story has essentially been payback. She's face to face with the person, has the means and the method, and she suddenly decides not to? And in such a way that intimates some noble self-sacrifice when, all through the book, we're given example after example about how she's out for what she can get for herself? There is nothing that points to this completely unbelievable change of heart except perhaps DeLint wanted a happy (or happier) ending after "Forests of the Heart".

The Newford books seem to be becoming more about DeLint's personal likes/dislikes/agenda than him setting the characters down and letting them tell the story. We're treated to page after page of a character or characters wandering around in Native American or Celtic myths/stories/dreamlands and these scenes read as a too-long "Let me show all the things I know about this culture" rather than as vital to the story. In addition, although normally I like seeing the little snippets regarding music and musicians in his book, there is one paragraph regarding a band that comes in completely from left field and seems designed simply to advertise friends of DeLint's and nothing more.

Overall, I felt the book fell flat on its face with its themes. What could have been an exploration of the meaning of family, how/if the events of the past color the future, child abuse, et cetera, were drowned out by DeLint and his Anvil Chorus. Between the coy phrasing of abuse victims as "Children of the Secret" and Jilly's apparent canonization, there is nothing real about this book or Jilly's and Raylene's experiences to hang onto. Instead, we're treated to a really long hurt/comfort fanfic.

At one point, a character says something to the effect of "children are our most precious resource". While true, it reads as the author needing to make sure we get that point and providing it via anvilicious methods. We. Get. It. Charles.

Will I read another DeLint book? Possibly - I'll at least give him one more chance. However, I definitely won't be buying it in hardback. I'll content myself with my copies of "Jack of Kinrowan" and "Trader" until his next book comes out in paperback. If his next book is the same as "The Onion Girl", I''ll sadly clear his books off my shelf and go in search of a new author who can make me feel the way DeLint used to.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelieveably good
Review: Artist Jilly Coppercorn is quite a talent whose paintings make the biggest cynic believe the painter has visited fairyland. Her landscape and creatures seem very real, as if she visited Fairy. However, a hit and run driver leaves the talented artist semi paralyzed. Worse than her broken body is Jilly's broken spirit as her zest for life is as paralyzed as her body.

Jilly no longer wants to live in the human realm and turns to her dreams of fairyland as escapism just as she did as a girl to evade her drunken parents and her rapist elder brother Del. Jilly fell apart as a youngster, but when she finally got her act together and returned home, she found Raylene her younger sister hated her for abandoning her to rape by Del. Raylene still loathes Jilly and can enter fairyland where she feeds on unicorns targeting Jilly for death in that realm and subsequently the mundane world.

THE ONION GIRL looks deeply inside he psyche of its' two lead female characters especially Jilly who has appeared in other Charles de Lint tales. Additionally, the novel persuades the audience to believe in fairyland, but surprisingly the tale goes at a slow pace for what sounds like an action fantasy. The fans see the reactions of Jilly and Raylene to setbacks on the human plane and how that impacts their behavior in fairyland. Though poignant and insightful, fans of epic fantasy will not enjoy this tale but those readers who relish a psychological character study using fantasy elements to enhance the profundity of the plot will love this special tale.

Rating:
Summary: What a cliche
Review: Before offending serious fans of the author, I must say that this is my first book by De Lint. Hopefully, the otehrs are better, but I do not think I will even attempt reading them.

While the idea is not very original-co-existing of muttiple worlds is not new, even if one of them is the Spiritworld, it is interesting. I particularly liked the inhabitants of teh Dreamlands as they were not superior beings, but people with flaws, similar to ours.

The plot however was full of cliches--abused children, people who have suffered but because of their generous souls have managed to overcome the hand delt to them, a whole city obviously inhabitted by nothing else but white trash, mafiots, druig dealers, corrupted cops, etc. And from these horrid surroundings, the herroine appears as a phoenix--untouched by the dirt and ashes. She is so perfect she is repulsive. Even the author's attempt to give her some humanity by briefly desctibing her dark past fails to stain her. And everyone loves her so much, that you begin to hate her. Urgh! The formula of a trash novel has been applied to The Onion Girl. But because of its clear ambition to be more than a trash novel, it comes through as cheaper and more superficial than that.
I would not recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: CDL fans will particularly like this, it's like a convention of his Newford characters. This book concentrates mostly on Jilly, one of the main characters of De Lint's Newford stories, and her attempts to reconcile with her traumatic childhood and seedy past in the wake of an accident that leaves her in a hospital bed. De Lint does a particularly good job at merging the magical and the mundane in this book. The story shifts back and forth between the "real world" and the realm of dreams and magic as Jilly attempts to escape her broken body by going to another world in her dreams, only to discover that her past follows her there, too.

A first time reader can enjoy the story on its own merits, but fans will get even more out of it by having read the background stories on the other Newfordites that appear. I enjoyed the opportunity, also, of getting to know one of my favorite characters better.

Rating:
Summary: a fantasy fan's opinion
Review: De Lint has a wonderful imagination. He is a talented writer who carries you into another realm with his words. And makes you question your beliefs about dreams and fairies. But this book just does not hold my attention. He switches off characters in every chapter and it takes almost halfway through the book before they all come together and even then it isn't interesting enough to read in a week. I am an avid reader and when I have a good book I finish it fast. I got this months ago and I still haven't finished it and have moved on to other books. Not worth buying. Borrow it if you insist.

Rating:
Summary: A great fulfillment, a sad disappointment -
Review: Fans of Charles de Lint's voluminous stories of Newford all know and love Jilly Coppercorn. Here, at last, is a novel about Jilly. I was so excited, I scraped together some emergency money and bought it in hardback! A great fulfillment for all of us true blue fans, to learn more and spend time with this charming, magical artist and Friend to All.

Its okay that some bad things happen to Jilly - she's a survivor, after all, and some great things happen to her, too. But the sudden apperance of a long-lost sister with a monster grudge is a little... convenient, isn't it? This wholly new side to Jilly's story leaves the reader feeling just a little jerked around.

The novel's a bit schizophrenic, too, the way we vault back and forth between the disconnected sisters, and forward and backward and sideways in time. Then, when at last the story is twined together, it... kinda sucks.

If you're a de Lint fan, and a fan of Newford, you really shouldn't miss this book. Everybody in Newford is affected by what affects Jilly, and so everyone's story is advanced and changed by this book. Just don't expect one of his best, or you're in for a sad disappointment.

If you're new to the Charles de Lint oevre, please don't start with Onion Girl. Really, he's written much, much better stuff. Try Forests of the Heart for a fantastic novel also set in Newford, or dive in to his short story collection, starting with Dreams Underfoot.

Rating:
Summary: A great fulfillment, a sad disappointment -
Review: Fans of Charles de Lint's voluminous stories of Newford all know and love Jilly Coppercorn. Here, at last, is a novel about Jilly. I was so excited, I scraped together some emergency money and bought it in hardback! A great fulfillment for all of us true blue fans, to learn more and spend time with this charming, magical artist and Friend to All.

Its okay that some bad things happen to Jilly - she's a survivor, after all, and some great things happen to her, too. But the sudden apperance of a long-lost sister with a monster grudge is a little... convenient, isn't it? This wholly new side to Jilly's story leaves the reader feeling just a little jerked around.

The novel's a bit schizophrenic, too, the way we vault back and forth between the disconnected sisters, and forward and backward and sideways in time. Then, when at last the story is twined together, it... kinda sucks.

If you're a de Lint fan, and a fan of Newford, you really shouldn't miss this book. Everybody in Newford is affected by what affects Jilly, and so everyone's story is advanced and changed by this book. Just don't expect one of his best, or you're in for a sad disappointment.

If you're new to the Charles de Lint oevre, please don't start with Onion Girl. Really, he's written much, much better stuff. Try Forests of the Heart for a fantastic novel also set in Newford, or dive in to his short story collection, starting with Dreams Underfoot.

Rating:
Summary: Jilly's Story...Get a box of Kleenex
Review: Finally, Mr. DeLint shared Jilly's story. I have been reading his books for many years, and I have come to dearly love Jilly Coppercorn. It was a treasure to read her story. It was also heartbreaking. It is not an easy story. Jilly is not always the wonderful, wonderous person full of grace that you may have come to know through prior stories. Now we know what shadows her smile, sometimes, or holds her back with some people. She becomes less & more all at once, because she becomes more human. It is a story about coming to know your own secrets, your own mistakes and moving on...Pethaps one of the best pieces of magic we can learn.
This may be the best, yet...I can not wait to see what happens, next.

Rating:
Summary: Suicidally Depressing
Review: First, you must understand that I am a serious Charles De Lint fan. I go out of my way to rummage through every dusty bookshop I can find for original copies, and have a special shelf just for my little treasures. Mr. De Lint's tales have supported me through some very difficult times, and brought me much joy.

That said, I must say that if you are a recovering victim of abuse - Please - STAY AWAY. This book brought back all the horrible things I lived through, ripping away all the old scabs and exposing all the wounds. Nothing was gained other than those well remembered sleepless nights and wrenching panic attacks, wondering what was just around the corner, and when the horror would begin again. I am starting to pack it away again, but it will be a long, painful process, with no good to show from it.

I don't know what twisted idea reached into his soul, but I don't think I will ever receive the same joy from one of the Newford tales ever again after reading this book.... and that is much sadder than you will ever know....