Promises to Keep

De Lint is one of my favorites and I love Jilly just like anyone else who has read the Newford books, so it was nice to get some more background into her life and especially her early days in Newford. I liked seeing how the relationships I have read about in previous books were formed and grew. That being said, I think this was probably my least favorite of any De Lint I have read. My biggest issue was the semi-stream of consciousness narrative that made the characters feel kind of flat. He does this in many of his books, but it just didn't seem to fit here. It almost seemed like he was trying too hard to tie up all the different loose ends from his previous books by explaining them all in this on 190 pg. book. Despite my complaints it show more was still an entertaining read and I'm glad I got the background, I just had higher expectations for it. show less

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

Confession time: This is my first ever Charles de Lint book. And yes, I’m suitably embarrassed that I run a blog called All Things Urban Fantasy and haven’t read the Father of Urban Fantasy. In my defense, I discovered the genre through Buffy, and it was quite a while before I even heard about Charles de Lint. My ignorance excuse ran out a long time ago, but I still shied away because once I understood exactly who de Lint was and what he means to this genre, I was terribly afraid I wouldn’t like his books and that would mean my UF love was really a sham.

My fear was 100% unfounded.

As I said, PROMISES TO KEEP was my first visit to Newford, but I never once felt like I’d missed something. show more Jilly Coppercorn, "the heart and soul of Newford” according to her creator, has been working hard at keeping her life together and putting a past that included physical and sexual abuse, drugs, and prostitution behind her. De Lint weaves episodes from Jilly’s past throughout the narrative at the exact moments I began to wonder. He gave me every piece of the puzzle I needed precisely when I needed it to understand Jill and the journey that brought her to where she was. Jilly is the perfect example of a character who you root for. One of the most damaged characters I’ve ever encountered, yet I was completely engaged in her story.

Glancing over de Lint’s website, I learned just how numerous and varied the creatures who populate Newford are, but in PROMISES TO KEEP, there really aren’t any. As one reviewer on Goodreads put it, “there seemed to be less of that whisper of magic that brings Newford alive and fills me with joy.” Instead, it’s the place that is the fantasy, and I’m not even talking about Newford, which comes off as nearly completely mundane. Mireya is the magical city in this book, but in a very subtle way. In fact, I would describe it as more lucky than magical.

For my first foray into Newford, I found PROMISES TO KEEP to be a strong character driven tale with the barest hint of magic, but with an easy going narrative style that forced the pages to fly and made me long for my next visit. If you have yet to try a Charles de Lint book, now’s the time. He’s the father of urban fantasy for a reason.

Sexual Content:
References to child molestation and prostitution. show less

Jilly, one of the most popular and enduring characters is the centerpiece of this novella. The narrative is split between a typical urban fantasy plotline, and flashbacks to Jilly's struggle to reclaim her life from the difficulties of her past.

Unfortunately, the curtailed length of the novella prevents either of these storylines from ever reaching full potential. The flashbacks felt like connecting the dots, filling in the last remaining gaps in our knowledge of Jilly's life between her childhood and her fully formed adult persona. There isn't much of an arc for her here, or rather, the arc we get is too big to be supported by the short scenes that present it.

The other plotline was stronger, and is quintessential Charles de Lint. show more Unfortunately, most of the atmosphere he created was squandered at the end by a consequence-free, deus ex machina ending.

I would not recommend that a new reader start Charles de Lint here. But I enjoyed it as one last chance to visit a favorite character, which is always welcome. show less

(Amy) Yay, new Charles de Lint book! And I actually have another one on my to-be-read shelf, too. Talk about riches beyond measure.

Ahem. Yes, as you may be able to tell from this, I am a frothing de Lint fangirl. Raving, even. I have a former roommate to thank for this obsession - I honestly can't remember now if she gave me a copy of Memory and Dream, maybe, or if I just read some of her de Lint books, or what, but I know I was hooked. I also seem to remember getting a copy of Jack of Kinrowan around about that time, but I think that was from a mutual friend. Anyway, it doesn't so much matter how I got that way, the pertinent fact is that I adore very nearly all de Lint books.

(Very nearly all. I didn't care for Moonheart.)

Anyway. This show more is, as was The Onion Girl, a book about Jilly. This, however, is a younger, edgier Jilly, before she was quite so comfortable in her skin - which, if you know the Jilly from later on (especially anytime before The Onion Girl), is a rather odd concept to contemplate. Plotwise, it is set sometime not long after she first got her feet under her following her time on the streets, and deals with her being, essentially, offered a life of ease in a city full of dead people. Which sounds way weirder when you spell it out up-front than it did in the book...

On the one hand, this is a fun look into the earlier lives of Jilly, and Geordie, and assorted other members of Jilly's crowd of friends, and is enjoyable just for that. On the other hand, it's a look at why, when someone offers you all you've ever wanted and doesn't ask for anything in return, you might want to think twice before saying yes.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2008/01/promises-to-keep-charle... ) show less

This is Charles de Lint.

Promises to Keep is a novella about everyone's favorite Newford artist, Jilly Coppercorn. But this time we're seeing Jilly when she's fresh off the streets and getting started as a student at Butler University. The transition isn't easy, especially when Jilly's best friend from her street days shows up with an offer Jilly finds hard to refuse.

Apparently this started out as a short story about Jilly, but it grew into this little book. I devoured it in a few hours.

I really enjoyed it. I liked seeing Jilly when she was so young and just learning to be "relentlessly cheerful" and how to open up and make new friends. I also liked reading about Jilly's first meetings with Geordie, Sophie, and Wendy.

If you like Charles show more de Lint, especially if you like his short stories (this little book does keep the feel of a short story), read this one for sure. If you're just looking for some fantasy that's not too out-of-this world, with some really good characterization as a bonus, read this one. You won't be disappointed. show less

I love Charles de Lint, and I love his Newford books. I haven't read all of them, but I've read most of them.This book fills in some of the story of Jilly's past. She's referred to these events frequently, and she's told the story of how she emerged from her life of abuse before. There's another part of her story that I haven't encountered before, a part where she explores a world that isn't the same Otherworld that Newford has such a strong link to, but a world the de Lint explores in [b:The Mystery of Grace|863521|The Mystery of Grace|Charles de Lint|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266661318s/863521.jpg|14299557].This being de Lint, it's pretty much a given that there will be characters with depth facing real challenges. There will show more the not so nice side of life in our world, but presented through the eyes of characters that don't make it seem easy, but keep it from being so impossible as to be dreary reading. There is magic in the story, and magic in the storytelling.Certainly, any Newford fan should read this book. It disappoints mildly primarily in being short and in spending time revisiting known territory, but there is plenty of new content here. Even if you've only spent a little time getting acquainted with Newford,this book is fine to pick up any time. There are no spoilers for earlier books, and there are no plot points that hinge on earlier events.But should someone who hasn't read a Newford book start here? Certainly, there isn't a need to have read the previous ones to follow the plot, and I think the characters are compelling exactly as the appear here. However, part of the fun was seeing early incarnations of some of the other characters that appear in the books, and in feeling like a layer of depth is being added to Jilly.I don't know that I'd start here, but I would recommend visiting Newford if you haven't already. show less

This book may not mean much to those who are new to the series and have not come to love Jilly, the heroin of this particular book and also favorite character of the author himself. For me, though, it was treasure. I got from it exactly what I wanted, and the only thing that could possibly have been missing that the other Newford books didn't give beyond the clues of. I'm a well satisfied de Lint reader.

This book explains a bit more about Jilly herself, and her past between her life in Tyson and her life as a college graduate. You see a part of Jilly that is not her stand guard self, but rather her journey on the way to becoming such. Besides the obvious, it had me thinking of Memory and Dream, the first book I read by de Lint and the show more second, if not first, book in the series. I'm thinking a rereading, if not of the complete series, then of part of it, is due soon.

I would imagine anyone who reads The Onion Girl, or that book as well as Widdershins would surely be interested in this book. show less