I’m not a big fan of short stories but when I saw that Melina Marchetta would be releasing one staring Lady Celie from the Lumatere Chronicles, well….I mean, if Melina wrote a page in the dictionary I’d read it for entertainment.
I don’t even know where to start with this review. In true Marchetta fashion I found the mystery to be easy to solve (stop laughing Kate. Just because I didn’t see something obvious before doesn’t mean I’m incapable of it) but didn’t care one little bit.
Because, of course, the story isn’t about the mystery. It’s about what drives the mystery. It’s about the characters and their passions and desires and loves and hates and fears and how all their good feelings can drive them to do bad things and how bad feelings can drive them to do good things.
And how you should always take a dead rat with you when leaving a castle on a lonely island.
I loved Banyon. And Celie. And I loved their battle of wits and their loyalty and their understated passion. And OH MY GOD HOW COULD IT END THERE?!?!?!
I generally don’t read novellas because they have the misfortune of ending just as I fall in love with the characters and Ferragost was no different.
The Readventurer recently posted an interview with Melina Marchetta wherein there were hints that she might write more about Celie and Banyon and…it had better be true.
If you purchase Ferragost you get another short story as well. Molasses by Kristy Eager.
Not having read anything by this author before but knowing that being Australian seems to just make people amazing authors, I had high expectations without knowing what to expect.
And I really, really liked it. I can’t say I loved it but that’s mostly to do with it being a short story.
The characters had depth and problems and there was a bit of a mystery with an awesome payout at the end. And I simply loved the magical realism portions. I loved that this ONE problem had a bit of a magical solution but there were all these other, more down to earth problems that were about the characters taking charge of their lives and…well, setting the pigeons free.
It has definitely made me want to try out more from this author. Also, I seem to recall reading in the introduction that she has a story about vampires on a shipwreck. I don’t even like vampires and I find this intriguing.