Flint and Mirror

i was extremely excited to see that Crowley wrote a magical realist history of Ireland, especially when i saw that it includes my ancestors specifically, by name.

however it was a little too straight historical fiction for my tastes, with the magical realism mostly only present in hints and intimations. i found it hard to follow and hard to connect with emotionally.

the strongest part was the side tale of the woman and the selkie, which seemed to have no connection to, or bearing on, the larger plot.

i did appreciate the line at the end that implied it is a prequel to Little, Big.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor publishing for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

I'm DNFing this at 32% of the way in. I hate to do it, I really do, but I am bored to tears reading this book. Flint and Mirror is written the way a particularly dry text-book is written. Everything is described matter-of-factly — there is little to no imagination used in the language. Now this might be because a great deal of actual history is used in this novel, but that doesn't excuse the book being drier than the Sahara.

Flint and Mirror takes place back around the mid-1500's during Queen Elizabeth's reign. The Irish clans are fighting to keep their land, while Elizabeth and England are fighting to take Ireland for their own. Very little magic is weaved throughout that I saw during 32% of the book, but it is there.

There are little interspersed scenes of actual conversations between characters, but these are few and far between. The bulk of the book as far as I read, is just told to you. Very little showing or experiencing the actions at hand, just told as flatly as possible. Each paragraph is enormous, and sentences drag on and on before they get to the point. It's possible that's just how John Crowley's work is, but whatever the reason, I did not enjoy how Flint and Mirror was written.

There are battles in this book! Mentions of fae-like creatures. Murder! Plots and schemes. By all accounts, this book should have been action-packed; it should have been a page turner. Despite all of that, all I wanted to do was put it down, so here I am, putting it down.

Flint and Mirror comes out April 19, 2022.

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