Tower of Thorns

Tackling the second book in a series can be a tricky business when the first one happened to be an amazing read: I'm often afraid that the "magic" will not be there with the same strength as it was in that first, remarkable read, so that I tend to postpone my approach to the next volume. Well, I should not have done that with Juliet Marillier's Blackthorn and Grim, because this second book is even better than the first--and consider that Dreamer's Pool was already an incredible find.

Tower of Thorns starts some time after the events of Dreamer's Pool, showing how wise woman Blackthorn and her companion Grim seem to be quite settled in their life at Winterfalls: despite Blackthorn's prickly character and Grim's broody silence, the two have integrated well into their life in Prince Oran's household, finding a modicum of peace, although the ghosts of their respective pasts still haunt them. This quite fragile equilibrium is unbalanced by the move of the Prince's retinue to the king's palace, due to a temporary absence of the sovereign: leaving what the two have come to think of as their safe place is not easy, but the advanced pregnancy of Lady Flidais, the Prince's wife, compels Blackthorn to insure her presence--and it's clear that, despite her grumblings, the healer has developed a strong attachment to the community she lives in, while Grim has gone even beyond that.

Neither of them has much time to adapt to their new surroundings when two things happen that upset once more the status quo: Lady Geileis, the ruler of a nearby land, comes asking for help against a creature that has taken residence in an abandoned tower, its day-long wails upsetting both the people's spirits and the health of crops and cattle; and Flannan, an old friend of Blackthorn and a wandering scholar, makes his appearance, stirring up old ghosts and the healer's never mastered need for vengeance. Blackthorn's acceptance of Lady Geileis appeal for help--the monster's curse might be lifted by a wise woman--is simply the means to leave the court and explore the possibility of following Flannan south and connecting with a net of rebels bent on exposing Mathuin's wrongdoings and finally bringing him to justice.

This story is told in what I have come to envision as expanding concentric circles, each new one adding some more information to the plot, and this is particularly true with the mystery of Geileis and her wailing monster, imprisoned in a tower protected by an impenetrable barrier of thorns. The flashbacks to what appears to be a classic fairy story offer more and more information about the terrible curse weighing on Geileis' land, and her own part in it: it's a fascinating tale, one that provides some much-needed clues to what basically is a very mysterious character, one who appears from the start to have an hidden agenda, and the will to bring her plans to fruition, no matter the cost. As I learned the details of her past, I was caught between pity and dislike: on one side Geileis is a tragic figure, considering the heavy curse hanging over her domain, with a tower-bound monster howling all day long throughout the summer, its cries dredging the saddest thoughts from the listeners' minds and sometimes bringing them to extreme acts, even affecting the cattle and the crops. On the other, there is a core of ruthlessness in her that renders her uncaring of any consequences might be visited on those who choose to help her: the glimpses we see of the younger Geileis made me think that probably she never grew out of her teenage selfishness, so that her plight did not touch me as deeply as it should probably have.

Despite being at the core of the inciting incident for this story, Geileis is far less central to its economy than Blackthorn and Grim, especially the latter who--in my opinion--often takes the center stage here, while part of his past his revealed. Blackthorn is a woman caught between two powerful forces: the need to see justice done for the wrongs Mathuin visited on her and other helpless victims, and the equally strong need to keep true to her pact with the fae Conmael. The arrival of Flannan makes the latter's pull less strong, and day by day her need to throw caution to the four winds becomes more compelling, tempered only by the curiosity toward the riddle she wants to solve and--even more important--her loyalty toward Grim. The relationship between Blackthorn and Grim keeps being the beating heart of this series, and here, where it's sorely tested, it shines even more brightly: should she decide to follow Flannan south, toward vengeance, she knows she has to deceive Grim in order to keep him from following her toward what Blackthorn believes will be a sure death, and this causes her great anguish because complete honesty lies at the root of their relationship, one forged not on romantic attachment but on the kind of trust that only family can engender.

For his part, Grim perceives the distance that has come between himself and Blackthorn and while he can only guess at its reasons--and is hurt by it--he refuses to forsake the role of protector, confidant and friend that he needs to exercise just as much as Blackthorn knows she needs it herself. To say that my heart went out to him in these circumstances would be a massive understatement, especially when observing other people's dismissive reaction to his silences and his oh-so-deceptive simple-mindedness, that under its surface hides a keen mind and a deep capacity for selflessness. Whatever compassion I might have felt toward Grim's character, however, went several steps further once the massive disclosure about his past came to the fore: it's a huge, earth-shattering revelation that completely upends any theory I had about his background and shines a very different light on his personality, and his soul. Tower of Thorns is very much Grim's story more than anyone else's, and the pages where we learn about the events that destroyed his past and shaped him into the man he is are among the very best of the novel, the intensity of feelings described with a sort of lucid compassion that is nothing short of breath-taking.

In Tower of Thorns both Blackthorn and Grim appear to have mastered some of the ghosts from their past, or at very least to have come to more comfortable terms with them, and even though it's clear they still have a long road before them, it's also clear they know - with the absolute certainty they had not reached until now - they can totally depend on one another, that despite their flaws they can count on each other for support, and strength.

There's an intensity of feeling in Blackthorn and Grim's relationship that touched my heart in such a deep way I have not experienced in a long time: to me this is the mark of stellar writing. With the first book I discovered an amazing author, but with this second I have become a staunch fan.