Pisces season wouldn’t be complete without a foray into the fantastical realms illustrated by Brian Froud, so I’m glad I scooped this strange little book by Alexander Theroux a while back and saved it until now. Ironically, the story is far less filled with faeries than I am used to from a Froud book, but it still holds a certain fey quality. Theroux tells a tale of a pair of star-crossed lovers that centres around the titular cloak given from one to the other, which later becomes a symbol for the plagues that wracked Europe during the Middle Ages. For all that the characters of the story contain a certain amount of comedy (quietly ridiculous names and funny turns of language abound), the tale of Master Snickup and his love Superfecta is darkly grounded in the harshness of the real world. Froud’s limited palette of naturalist colours suffuses the story with a grounded tone that carries our protagonists through their love affair, Superfecta’s forced marriage, and Snickup’s monastic exile with an essence that feels borderline Biblical. Mirrored by Theroux’s bardic voice that pushes together antiquated rhythms with the occasional modernist vocabulary, the resulting narrative is an exercise in strangeness that is still surprisingly successful. We are drawn in to the majesty of Master Snickup’s cloak and beguiled by the fey creatures who come to call him neighbour, and are left wondering at the fate of the now almost-invisible Superfecta as her place in the narrative is taken by her bombastic husband. The tale concludes in an epic fashion, with an inventive set of compositions by Froud, as Snickup’s death brings the Black Death to Europe and the village that he left is in turn brought to its knees. Is this the faerie story that I expected Froud to have helmed: no; but, the mythical overtones of Theroux’s carefully wrought morality tale that keep us one step away from reality were a strange delight, nonetheless. ( )

Master Snickup was an orphan who at a young age fell in love. The object of his love was a girl he grew up with in the orphanage, a girl who grew into great loveliness. It was she was gave Master Snickup his blue cloak, she who promised to be his bride, she who choose to be with another for wealth and broke Master Snickup's heart, starting a chain of events both desperate and disastrous.

Master Snickup's Cloak was a gift, a symbol of love and fidelity, a promise for the future. But all too soon that promise was broken in the face of obsession and greed. The result of this is a story of heartbreak, sorrow, deprivation, and the Black Death. This medieval fairytale with its artistically wryly and complementary images is darkly charming but not recommended for children. ( )

Switched to this book to read the corresponding fable in [b:Darconville’s Cat|193408|Darconville’s Cat|Alexander Theroux|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312055651l/193408._SY75_.jpg|187037]. Brian Froud's muted grotesqueries illuminate Alaric's fable as told to Isabel. ( )