Plain Kate

Let me start at the end: I was reduced to not a slightly teary, not a delicately weepy, but a blubbering, sobbing mess at the end of this book. I haven't cried so much because of a book since I struggled to read the last chapters of Tolkien's The Return of the King through a veil of tears, a comparison which may give you an indication of both how invested I was in the characters and the effectiveness of Bow's world-building.

Bow's prose certainly reflects the fact that she is a published poet, with phrases like "the sky had slid shut under a lid of low clouds" (p. 30) appearing throughout. This lyricism lent itself well to the dark, magical world that Plain Kate inhabits and tries her best to make her way safely through. The book is very show more atmospheric, and I could almost feel the cold damp of the fog traveling upriver, or hear the mud pulling at the bottom of Plain Kate's boots. The novel has a distinct Medieval, Eastern European feel to it, with towns and cities located at great distances from one another and tinkers and merchants selling their wares in outdoor markets.

Plain Kate is an evocative main character. She reveals herself slowly to other characters as well as to the reader, and coming to know her gradually made her feel all the more real. Her constant companion, Taggle the cat, is a wonderful comic foil to Plain Kate's seriousness while remaining an exceedingly loyal companion (despite his derision for dogs). Secondary characters, such as Drina and Behjet, are three-dimensional with their own tangled beliefs and personal sorrows that are hinted at and not always explained, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. As in reality, people and events were not always tied up neatly, which makes it easier to believe that the world in Plain Kate has no boundaries and continues to exist.

Although it took me a few dozen pages to get truly sucked into Plain Kate, once I was in it I wasn't prepared to leave until I got to the end. Had someone asked me after the first chapter if I would be an emotional wreck at the end of the book, I would have given a definitive no. I am exceedingly glad that I would have been wrong, and I will be recommending this book to many. show less

Summary: Plain Kate may not be beautiful, but she was trained by her father to be a skilled carver. However, when her father dies, Plain Kate is left to fend for herself, and suddenly her carving skills become evidence that there is something different about her... and different is a dangerous thing to be when her small village is stricken with hunger and illness. Kate knows her carvings aren't real magic - not like the magic being done by Linay, the strange man who appeared in town on his boat, and has offered to trade Plain Kate's heart's desire in exchange for her shadow. But when the whispers of "witch" grow too loud, Plain Kate has to leave town in the company of a band of Roamers. All Plain Kate wants is somewhere to belong, where show more she doesn't have to feel alone, but she can't survive forever without her shadow, and getting it back from Linay is not going to be an easy proposition.

Review: This book was a wonderful surprise. It's mid-grade fantasy, which can be hit-or-miss for me, but in this case, it was a big hit. The setting is vaguely medieval, as is a lot of fantasy, but in this case, it's Russian-flavored medieval, which was an interesting change, and I liked the incorporation of eastern European folklore into the plot. The characters were great - Plain Kate's incredibly sympathetic, and Taggle is perhaps the best literary cat that I've come across in a long time (and I am not a cat person.)

But what I thought was best, and what surprised me most, was the level of depth and of maturity throughout the book. I called it mid-grade, and there's nothing in the style or the content that would make it inappropriate for that age. But at the same time, it's a story that doesn't pull its punches, that puts its characters in some difficult places and forces them to make horrible hard decisions. It's a story that is not about black and white, but lives in the grey area, with understandable motivations on everyone's parts, and with even the heroine making some questionable choices. The writing style is also surprisingly mature - again, not anything that couldn't be handled by a kid, but more lyrical and lovely and poignant than I was expecting.

It's a quick read, but it does take a fair amount of time before the book gets down to the business of the main plot. But I was drawn in by Bow's writing style and by her characters right from the get-go, and stayed totally absorbed until the last page. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Definitely recommended for fans of young adult or mid-grade fantasy. It's an original story, not one that I've seen done before, although it does incorporate some folkloric elements, and it's beautifully told with some real emotional depth. show less

Kate's world was built extremely well. As far as fantasy novels go, it was above and beyond many that I've read before. I'll even overlook (for now), the creep factor of the magic rules. The characters were authentic human beings, neither perfectly good or totally evil, and they didn't always do what you'd expect them to. I kept listening, long after I wanted to stop, because I needed to know how the story would play out. Some parts were obvious, and if you've read it, too, you'll know what I mean. But I was kept guessing about how other elements would play out, and I totally did NOT see them coming.

Campbell's voice was a good match for Kate. Though it was sometimes hard to tell her voices apart from each other (there were several show more moments of confusion when I thought one character was speaking and it was another), there aren't enough different voices for it to have too much of an impact on the story.

That brings us to my two star rating. Please do not get me wrong; this is a well-written fantasy novel that I'm sure would appeal to a wide variety of people. However, there were a few drawbacks for me. I am not the sort of person who enjoys hearing about bloody scenes. There are several instances of cutting one's skin and blood-letting/spilling, and since descriptions of these usually cause me to pass out, highly frowned upon while operating a motor vehicle, I was not particularly comfortable listening to them. I believe the technical term is "having the willies". This book should also come with a disclaimer on it: Do not read before an important engagement, since this book has been known to cause significantly puffy eyes and red face due to extreme crying.

Recommendation: You've heard the good and the bad, and I'll let you form your own opinions. My own thoughts are to only read this book if you like to have your heart thrown on the ground and trampled on. show less

When Arthur Levine raves about a book and makes comparisons to one of his previous acquisitions, The Golden Compass, I stand up and listen. And this fantasy did remind me of Pullman’s masterpiece in some ways – both authors show respect for their young readers by telling stories that are sometimes dark and always complex, without ever writing down. And this is genuinely dark – much more than I expected it to be. Russian folklore provides a rich base for Bow’s story, and her characters are wonderful. This is one to watch for.

In an world where unusual can be marked by death, Kate is the daughter of a carver. She's not old enough to be an apprentice but she loves carving wood. She carves luck-pieces for sale and her work is well-regarded. Until her father dies and her world starts to crumble and rumours of witchcraft start to dog her. Then she has to flee and finds herself caught up in magic and a mystery.

I loved this story, even if it was pretty short. I empathised heavily with Kate and really got caught up in the story. I liked how the legends were more eastern European as well.

Delicately somber tale of loss, survival, and love.

Plain Kate is one of those sad stories that will tug on your heart strings, hell maybe even rip them out a bit. It portrays the cruelties that people are capable of to a haunting extreme. I don’t know what is scarier, imagining the evil things an author can conjure in their books or knowing that people really can be that petty and cruel. It was amazingly written.

Though there was a lot of darkness and superstition (throw in a lot of finger pointing, and crying of witch), at the same time this book renewed my faith in the unexpected kindness of others. Think….what would you do for someone you truly love? I’m not talking about romantic love here.

Kate is a phenomenally gifted wood show more carver, learning the trade from her father. But he falls ill from the sickness while she is still a child. He dies and leaves her an orphan, and as she isn’t an adult and was never officially apprenticed she can not take over her fathers business, no matter how talented. Thus, Kate is turned out and must fend for herself. She survives by living inside a drawer in their old work booth in the market and selling what little things she can.
Unfortunately, she is a target for the town’s superstitious residents. Her character is a sad and lonely but determined survivor. At least she has a cat. I have a soft spot for stories with a cat or dog companion in them.

When a traveling peddler comes to town making trouble for her, in order to pressure her to trade her shadow, she is forced to flee. That is when we really see what she is made of. I don’t want to spoil anything but must say she meets both wonderful and terrible people and experiences such things befitting both. I was amazed this was a debut author as it was crafted so well. This is a book I would read again and recommend to friends! show less

I started Plain Kate thinking I’d be getting a fairly simplistic YA fantasy story. Instead this book ended up ripping my heart out and stomping on it!

Kate is the orphaned daughter of a woodcarver who exists on the scraps of money she makes from her carving and the town residents’s good graces. But whenever Kate’s homeland hits hard times, murmurings about witches begin. And eventually someone is burned. As the crops fail, Kate begins to be blamed. In an effort to escape she makes a deal with a shadowy man known as Linay. She sells her shadow in exchange for the goods she needs to escape, but as her shadow fades away, she’ll look more and more like a witch.

Plain Kate reminds me of the fantasy stories I grew up with, particularly show more those of Diana Wynne Jones. It’s not focused on action or romance (of which there is none) like the majority of current YA fantasies. It has something of a fairy tale about it, but it’s unexpectedly dark in that it doesn’t flinch away from showing the brutality and hatred of the witch hunts. It’s simply but gracefully told, and by the end I was unexpectedly emotional.

Most of the genuinely intriguing elements of Plain Kate come in to play during the second half of the novel, limiting my ability to talk about them much here. I will say that the character of Linay took on greater depth than I initially supposed and became a surprisingly sympathetic villain. I also liked that one of Kate’s most important relationships was her friendship with another girl, as female friendship doesn’t often get such focus.

Plain Kate is a gem of a book, one that I’d recommend for fans of old school YA fantasy like Garth Nix’s Sabriel or Diana Wynne Jones’s work. I would highly recommend it.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less