The Onion Girl (Newford)

zumbador reviewed The Onion Girl (Newford) by Charles de Lint

Review of 'The Onion Girl (Newford)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A difficult book to read. Onion Girl deals with the effects of child abuse, on the survivors and everyone else in their lives. I cant say I enjoyed it, exactly, but it is a compelling read. Charles de lint manages to get you to sympathise with characters who in another book, would be the villains. And no - those are not the abusers. The abusers are almost peripheral to the story.

He also manages the incredibly difficult task of writing about fairies, sprites and other magical beings without seeming twee. I prefer "Memory and Dream", of which this is the companion book, but still worth reading.

Bethany reviewed The Onion Girl (Newford) by Charles de Lint

Review of 'The Onion Girl (Newford)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was the perfect antidote to the last book I read, so I fell in happily to De lint's world of fairies and worlds beyond. The characters are kind of idealized. They're the cadre of best buddies that everybody wants, but I think few people rarely have.

Nevertheless, I was up for some wishful idealized relationships so I don't fault De lint for that because it made reading the trials of the main character that much easier knowing she had all these friends that constantly spew unconditional love at her.

My one problem with the book was the southern accent that came with one of the POV characters. It was bad, and if it had been relegated to the dialogue only, I wouldn't complain. It was everything within that character's POV though. Being from the south, I've never met anyone with grammar that atrocious and certainly not anyone who …

This book was the perfect antidote to the last book I read, so I fell in happily to De lint's world of fairies and worlds beyond. The characters are kind of idealized. They're the cadre of best buddies that everybody wants, but I think few people rarely have.

Nevertheless, I was up for some wishful idealized relationships so I don't fault De lint for that because it made reading the trials of the main character that much easier knowing she had all these friends that constantly spew unconditional love at her.

My one problem with the book was the southern accent that came with one of the POV characters. It was bad, and if it had been relegated to the dialogue only, I wouldn't complain. It was everything within that character's POV though. Being from the south, I've never met anyone with grammar that atrocious and certainly not anyone who uses more colorful metaphors per minute than Mike Huckabee (who is himself a somewhat dishonest characterization).