Jess Richards

The story of two teenage girls on a very remote Scottish island incorporates a good deal of myth and magic and is fairly enjoyable if you like that sort of thing (I generally do), but it has some problems.

Mary lives with her Da and 3 year old Barney after her mother died in the recent past. They survive by trading Mary's embroideries and her father's fishing catches to the "tall men" who visit their island and trade them food, candles, and other items. When Barney becomes the latest in a string of boys to disappear from the island after the tall men have visited, Mary is driven to try to find him, and in the process remembers some harrowing repressed memories.

Morgan lives with her parents and sisters behind a 13 foot high fence which is always locked closed by her mother. They are the only non-natives on the island, having fled from the mainland. Her mother is deeply troubled with anxiety and persecution complexes, and Morgan reads fairy tales and dreams of escaping her prison. When she gets out, she runs into Mary and sort of bumbles around the island, acting as a witness to developing events.

Fantastical elements include the Thrashing House, a building which a tree on the island formed itself into on its own initiative and which kills anyone put in there, transforming them into a physical object with symbolic meaning. The island's women, the power brokers, use it to punish transgressors and criminals.

Mary is able to recall the memories of people who have previously held metal keys when she has those keys in her hands. Also one of the main characters of the novel turns out to be a Selkie and abruptly disappears when she finds her lost seal skin and returns to the sea, presumably losing all interest in the mystery of the missing boys. Bye then.

Problems include dropped plot points. A couple of instances are provided of women seeming to go mad because the Thrashing House key has disappeared and no one can get in to the bell tower attached to it to ring the bells which are said to take away the dreams of the sleeping. No bells means no escaping dreams, which is a problem? But then that's dropped and we don't hear any more about that idea. Nevermind.

The missing boys are traded for by the tall men, who take them to the mainland for... some reason. I don't know why. Seems odd they'd give up trading goods out of benevolence so the boys could go get educated in larger society, it runs counter to their cold business like approach, but that seems to be the best argument presented. Doesn't make much sense.

I was also bothered by how this island could exist in such isolation. We're not told what time period this is, but clues are given that indicate it is pretty close to the current day. The island may be remote, but it's not unknown... islands off Scotland aren't exactly well hidden... the tall men trade with it and sail around, so word would get out. Some of the boys from the island went to the mainland. So... how can there be total absence of things like tourists, and national government, and such? I doubt very much any mainland government would leave law and order on the island up to women putting people into a Thrashing House that kills them as the means of maintaining law.… (plus d'informations)

I read this novel after Simon and Gavin of The Readers podcast announced it as their July book club pick. It sounded like something I wouldn't pick up on my own, but I was in the mood to step outside my comfort zone.

Although I'm usually put off by dialects, it didn't take long to get into the rhythm of Mary's and I was quickly drawn into the story, curious about the lives of both Mary and Morgan, the two main characters, whose stories are told in alternating chapters. Mary grew up on the isolated island that is visited regularly by the tall men who arrive in boats to trade products from the mainland for the embroideries that the island women make and the fish that the men catch. Morgan's family came to the island in an attempt to calm the mother's neurosis. Mary's younger brother disappears and Morgan yearns to escape the fortress that her parents have created to keep others out and their family in.

Snake Ropes is one of the most original stories I've read in a long time. The setting and sensory details are superb--I could feel the cold, hear the seashore, imagine character's voices. The plot and characters are unique, yet familiar in some ways due to the underpinning of mythology and fairytale woven throughout the story and its feminist critique.

Magical realism enhances this tale and doesn't seem gimmicky at all (as it often does to me). The community is matriarchal, but that doesn't mean its a paradise for Mary and Morgan. Both young women suffer due to parents' emotional problems, tradition, or the schemes of elders, but there's hope that together they'll find peace and healing, and create a safe home together.… (plus d'informations)

I haven't given this book a chance - only read 10 pages. Already I guess there's a lot of metaphor here with identical twins, one of them genetically engineered (so not identical twins after all) and the city of Paradon definitely standing in for something. The author kept 'telling' me things instead of 'showing' them and I am impatient with this. The hardcover book is beautifully produced and the texture of the cover feels lovely to hold but I'll move it on the the Oxfam shop and maybe somebody else will enjoy it better.… (plus d'informations)