Marcus Sedgwick (1968–2022)

Beautiful, beautiful. Somehow spare and dense at the same time, it asks questions about fate, love and sacrifice without giving any easy answers. The narrative moves like a current, each little tale it's own island and I am swept up and out to sea again.

What an extraordinary book! Marcus Sedgwick is the master of suspenseful, folklore-related tale telling, and in Midwinterblood he weaves Vikings and ancient blood sacrifice with a 20th century painting and a love story that defies time.
It is a series of beautifully written, connected stories that each encapsulate perfectly the different time settings as we follow the lovers back into pre-history. I particularly appreciated the folksong (there's a great version of it by Bellowhead by the show more way), and the Viking scald's saga.
The use of langauge throughout is brilliant and subtle - there's a great deal there to find and enjoy, like the changes in the island's name - Blessed in the present and future, Blest a little further back, but Bloed when the Vikings lived there.
Lovely to read simply as a love story, this is a book that (as is always the case with the best storytelling) can take the curious reader on a fascinating journey beyond its covers.
Make sure you look up the picture Midvinterblot http://tinyurl.com/ches8s4 show less

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Actual rating: ALL the stars.

After reading White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick last year, I knew he was an author I'd have to look out for. White Crow was simply stunning. It was horrifying and brutal and beautiful, and I just knew that Sedgwick's work was special. Now, after finishing Midwinterblood he is my new favorite author.

That's right, I went there. Marcus Sedgwick is my favorite author, and really he should be yours show more too.

Midwinterblood is seven short stories, spanning over centuries, all set on the Scandinavian island, Blessed. Each story is a totally different beast from the next one, but they are all connected by the island and other common threads. There is the tale of a journalist sent to investigate the rumors of the immortal Blessed citizens; an older painter wasting away from grief; a fighter pilot; a viking; an archeologist; and more. Each was a fascinating read and I kept trying to figure out the connection, to get to the very root of the story and to finally, finally piece together the real identities of Merle and Eric.

The writing in Midwinterblood was phenomenal, masterful. Sedgwick has a way of writing horror that is not gory or in your face. It's a subtle kind of terrifying, where the unknown is somehow even more horrible than what is there in front of you. More than once my heart was beating out of chest, and yet nothing scary had actually happened: it was the anticipation and the mystery, the wanting to know, but not really wanting to know, for the truth might be even worse than the imagined.

When I finally came to the end of the novel and all the tiny pieces clicked into place I was in shock. And awe. It was so beautiful and so final and so open all at the same time. I don't remember the last time I felt so wowed by an ending. But it was like putting together a puzzle and not knowing what it's supposed to look like; then suddenly, and not until you put that last piece in its spot, it's all bright and vivid and so, so rewarding.

Fans of horror, reincarnation, historical fiction, and love tested by time will adore Sedgwick's Midwinterblood. I truly believe this book has something for everyone, and barely passing 250 pages, it is a quick, mysterious book that begs to be read. show less

Even given the "fictional" nature of Red Blood, Snow White, this should absolutely be required reading for any high school or college course in Russian history. I feel this is Sedgwick at his best. His prose is stunning and soaked in the dark and stormy symbolism of Russia. While reading, I half-expected to look up and see a snowy, cold Muscovite street dotted with Cheka agents and international spies. As a student of Russian history ad culture, I wanted to scribble and underline all show more over...too bad it is a library book. I guess I will just have to snag a copy for my permanent library. The only reason I subtracted one star from the five that I wanted to give would be the Russo-centric interest. Without a basic understanding of Revolutionary Russia, one would be somewhat confused with all of the assumptive name dropping and WWI references. Sedgwick does a relatively good job filling in the gaps, but it could detract from the story and flow. show less