Clare B. Dunkle

I love Clare B. Dunkle's books, but I was a little leery of The House of Dead Maids. I don't usually like reading books where a different author continues a story. However, in this case I did not feel that way. This story could have stood alone from Wuthering Heights, but she made it connect wonderfully. She wrote The House of Dead Maids as a prequel to Wuthering Heights. I started it thinking "whatever", but she reeled me in. It was a very spooky book even without the ghosts, the house show more itself and the village felt evil. Tabby (the main character) was scared but level headed, a strong heroine. I kept turning pages to see what would happen and before I knew it, it was over. This book made me want to read Wuthering Heights again! show less

”Best if you was dead,” a young boy is informed in this compelling examination of the werewolf legend, for his terrible curse will isolate him from other people, and from his own humanity. ”Don't look on no one again,” he is warned, for ”You're the kind that kills them they love...”

And so begins By These Ten Bones, a short novel by the author of the Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, which follows the story of young Maddie, a weaver's daughter in medieval Scotland, who falls in love with show more the mysterious wood carver who has come to stay in her small village. But Paul is harboring a dangerous secret, and it will take all of Maddie's love and courage to free him...

I greatly enjoyed By These Ten Bones, by turns moved or terrified by it, and will not soon forget the scene in which Maddie confronts the demonic werewolf. I recall feeling almost queasy while reading it, though no actual violence was done. Dunkle is a talented author, and she is at her best here. Highly recommended. show less

A lot of this book was delightful (the first 2/3, and the mini quest at the end), and very funny. Overall I did enjoy it! But it was weirdly very misogynistic for a story with plucky girl heroines. Nothing out of step with the tradition in which it's working, but I still found it unexpectedly, and apparently unwittingly, grim and sad. Apparently, men three times your age, who stalk, harass, and torment you, and attempt to carry you off to be their unwilling child incubator, ultimately know show more what's best for you. Please don't even get me started on the whole gross 'no widows, virgins only' thing, when apparently the King on the other hand can have as many wives as he kidnaps and has die in his care. show less

The first in a fantasy trilogy for young readers, The Hollow Kingdom follows the story of orphaned sisters Kate and Emily Winslow, who find themselves at Hallow Hill, in the care of two great-aunts they have never met. Kate, who is keenly aware of her surroundings, finds herself haunted by a growing sense of unease, and after a wild and stormy night when she and Emily are brought home by a strange hooded man, she learns that Marak, the king of the goblins under the hill, has marked her out show more as his queen...

This well-written work was inspired by Elizabeth Marie Pope’s The Perilous Gard, but manages to invert many ideas presented in that earlier work. While both heroines are named Kate, and both enter underground kingdoms in order to save loved ones, this later work does not present the supernatural world as inferior or morally suspect. The melding of the heroine into another race is seen as both desirable and possible, perhaps revealing the increased pull of paganism and multi-culturalism over the last thirty years. The kidnapped bride theme also strongly evokes the Greek myth involving the abduction of Persephone by Hades, though it is never specifically mentioned.

As an aside, I should note that this title was initially published with a very different cover, and was only later re-released with cover illustrations by Matt Manley, who designed the latter two books in the trilogy as well. I myself prefer the original cover, with artwork by Megan Lightell Timmons, but what can you do? show less