Tina Connolly

It's easily apparent from the very start of this deceptively good novel that Ironskin is a story loosely based on Charlotte Brontë's beloved classic Jane Eyre. Fortunately for me, I have never read the original, and that's one of the reasons I think I was free to enjoy this supernaturalized version as much as I did. I had no predispositions or favorites or even opinions going in - Connolly was free to do whatever she wanted with any of the characters, or with the plot, and it all worked out show more amazingly for me. Ironskin was a creative outlet of steam (really more fey-)punk, that managed to be both entertaining, and full of surprises. A few twists were expected, but Tina Connolly managed to pull the rug out from under my feet more than once before this short-ish novel was over. With a solidly built world, and a strong protagonist who changes and develops as the pages progress, I found a lot to recommend about this novel.

A debut novel, Ironskin comes loaded with great characters, a compelling storyline, and with a unique, new interpretation of steampunk. The ideas and fey-punk (bluepacks, etc.) that Connolly has envisioned for her alternate world of fey, dwarvven, and more work well for the frame of the plot, but are not truly steampunk. There's more of a supernatural feel to Ironskin as well - from Rochart to his daughter, magic is alive and unwell at Silver Birch. Despite its clear homages to Jane Eyre that even a reader almost wholly unfamiliar with that story could pick out, this is a fantasy tale obviously flavored with Connolly's original spin on the Victorian genre of literature. The well-handled themes of love, betrayal, acceptance, and atonement are subtly interwoven into the storyline of protagonist and governess Jane's attempts to reconcile a fey-talented child into a fey-hating world.

The characters took a bit longer to gel than the rest of the novel. I was easily enraptured by Connolly's lovely and often very visual writing to the benefit of the atmosphere, but her characters were a different story. With a slower-paced novel like this one, it's more difficult to get a grip on personalities, ambitions, and more. Jane, for the fiirst hundred or so pages, can be hard to empathize with, or relate to. She wasn't as astute as could be hoped for, but in the end, her journey to self-realization makes up for it. Thankfully with this author and engaging novel, the time spent building Jane, Dorie, and Rochart into distinct beings all payout in the end. The romance between the two adults is many things: expected, tumultuous, well-handled, and slow-building. No headlong rush into instalove here! The conflicts and complications that frequently spring up between Rochart and his damaged employee are part and parcel to the up-and-down relationship the two endure as they struggle to trust one another and protect Dorie. There isn't a ton of chemistry between the two for the first 200 pages, but Connolly manages to rectify that in time with some chance meetings and subtle conversations to build their relationship into something more believable than it started out as.

With the Gothic edge one would expect of something based on a Brontë sisters work, the world and technology of Ironskin is one of the most alluring concepts; both interesting and creepy. The unsettling setting, the unknown details of Jane's life at Silver Birch, the tension between the ironskins and the rest of the populace and more make for an encompassing, suspense-filled atmosphere. Ironskin is a well-written novel where the slightly creepy ambiance is as much of a part of the novel as the plot itself or the characters that grow from outlines into fully fleshed and three-dimensional people. The world, full of history and war and curses is a complex and imaginative more. Connolly is thankfully one of those few authors that don't inundate their audience with all the details immediately in an infodump, but one that parses out small, pertinent pieces of information slowly as the novel progresses along, creating an informative, large worldview of the time and place Jane lives in.

Ambitious and impressive, Ironskin wraps up the main plotline/mystery neatly and succinctly in those 302 pages. With a few open-ended plotlines obviously leading up the next book in this series, Connolly is a writer who knows how to hook her readers. I certainly eagerly awaiting to see what new struggles and battles Jane will encounter as well as gaining more knowledge about the Great War that lead up to the current conflict. With a strong ending, an intriguing and original interpretation of a beloved classic, realistic characters with human (and otherwise..) flaws, and mysteries a plenty, Ironskin is a rewarding and fun read. show less

Taste, and its sensory twin, smell, can conjure long-forgotten memories more mysteriously and profoundly than sights, sounds, and touch can, yet flavours and aromas are harder to describe (unless you’re a sommelier or parfumier). Or maybe they’re so powerful because they’re so hard to describe.

This delicious fable feels like a folktale.
(What do folktales taste of, I wonder?)

The menu includes:
• Rosemary Crostini of Delightfully Misspent Youth
• Fennel Flatbread of Sunlit Days Gone show more By
• Rose-Pepper Shortbread of Sweetness Lost
• Lemon Tart of Profound Regret
• Bitter Chocolate of Agony Observed

For those who eat them, these carefully-crafted “Temporal Confections” kindle memories, smuggle a message, and trigger a journey - a more profound and potentially vengeful one than from Hansel and Gretel’s crumbs.

“A memory can be directed, a little, if the eater has practice… that moment trapped in time like a fly in amber.”

Image: Fossilised fly in Baltic amber (Source)

“Not all customers can be helped with a fennel-bright flatbread, a happy moment. There are many who need a more profound searching into their past.”
And not everyone deserves to relive their best moments.

You can read the story HERE. And you should.

The taste of my memories

Three memories rolled around my palette as, and just after, I read:

• A favourite tale of my child’s was Sanji and the Baker. I recalled the warmth of freshly-baked bread and of a toddler on my lap, as well as Korky Paul’s swirling art. See my illustrated review HERE.

• Eating “dans le noir”: a pitch-black restaurant, where it’s remarkably hard to identify food by flavour and smell alone. See my review of Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion, HERE.

• My mother is a good cook, except mince (minced/ground beef). Tonight, she mentioned she’s “enjoying experimenting with mince”. I shuddered, laughed, and texted my brother, who replied, “Gosh, that sounds alarming!”. He remembers, and like me, he can probably taste it again.

Image: These floral cupcakes, with different flavours for different people and moods, conjure very special memories for me.

Sometimes there’s no need for codes, keys, passwords, transcription, or symbols to send a message that awakens a memory: food can do it. show less

Forget about the vulnerable and righteous heroine of the stage musical Wicked. Think back to your childhood and the malevolent women of The Wizard of Oz, Disney’s Snow White, Baba Yaga, or Hansel and Gretel. Yes, that kind of witch. Now imagine she’s your adoptive mom. That’s the situation of Camellia “Cam” Hendrix, a 15-year-old high-school sophomore, in Tina Connolly’s Seriously Wicked.

Connolly has updated Anna Elizabeth Bennett’s Little Witch into a delightful tale for teen show more audiences — but with a fabulous twist. When Cam’s adoptive mother, Sarmine Scarabouche, summons the demon Estahoth, the demon ends up taking over the body of the new boy in town, Devon, a young man the smitten Cam describes as having band-boy blond hair and good looks. Her life already includes a werewolf cub, a dragon and spells that involve goat blood, but it suddenly gets even crazier. How can Cam free Devon? And how to send Estahoth back to the earth’s core where he came from?

I loved Connolly’s take on Cam’s life, a life full of extreme variants of every teen’s life: trying to hide any differences, uneasily navigating the whole boy-girl thing; ashamed of parents and determined to never be anything like them; discovering the importance of clever, strong, and reliable friends; finding your own place in a crazy, mixed-up world, realizing that Algebra II and magic have a lot in common (OK, maybe not that one). And maybe learning that, once in a while, your mom might have a decent idea or two. And that ending! So thrilling!

Readers, whether teens or not, will devour this book — well, like the werewolf cub devours those desiccated pet-shop pig’s ears. If you’ll pardon the pun, Cam will cast a real spell on you. I’m hoping Connolly is already working her magic on a sequel.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge in exchange for an honest review. show less

Summer 2019 (Hugo Award Nominee 2019 - Novelette);

An invitation to a Temporal Confections dinner is equally coveted and feared, but never declined.

(4.5 Stars)

Dark, deep, and decadent, is how you will find this piece. There is the endless sumptuousness of the food itself, delectable enough to tease the tongue of any reading with its gorgeous descriptions, and yet it promises (and delivers on) so much more. The stage is set as the Duke's Banquet of Temporal Confections, and though we don't show more yet know why the title calls it the last, the story, and our narrator, the Duke's TasteTester and the Baker's Wife, draw us slowly, delicately through this intrigue of both dinner and a land under siege.

The idea of the temporal confections, all of which bring up specific memories, sometimes linked and sometimes now, is wonderful. I love the idea of pastries, and breads, and sweets that would bring you back to the best and the worst of times, that would make you revisit your past to change and to bolster you with goodness, pride, and peace when you need it as well. Bravi. show less