Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick is a novel of reflection and refraction, of love and loss, of fear and hate but most of all it is a novel about sacrifice.
The main part of the story deals with journalist Eric Seven as he travels to the Isle of The Blessed and finds himself falling for young islander Merle who he feels he has met before. Meanwhile there are a variety of disturbing goings on involving the islanders. This section is loaded with suspense and is chillingly beautiful as Sedgewick uses evocative language to describe the disturbing events which are going on.
The description of the island is infused with an eerily haunting magic. Merle and Eric are both wonderfully real and relatable characters, something which is true even at the very beginning but becomes even more so by the end of the book. The book travels back in time telling the story of Merle and Eric's previous reincarnations via short stories, which means we see their characters in many different roles and come across many different facets of their personality.
Midwinterblood writes the short stories into its plot, making them indispensable parts of the story's soul. Each story occupies a different genre, though they all have the dreamlike quality that pervades the entire novel. The stories reflect and refract the different elements of each other.
The Unquiet Grave is a quietly sad and slightly unnerving ghost story; The Airman is a story of bravery in the Second World War concerning a downed pilot and a family who protect him; The Archaeologist is a story of a struggling group of archaeologists finding something which could make their careers; The Vampire is a dark and primal Gothic tale; The Painter is a quietly beautiful story about a friendship and the final story Midwinterblood explains the plot of everything that has happened so far.
Of the five short stories (excluding the main tale of 2073) The Vampire is probably the best; it radiates darkness and dread with every scene making the story more disturbing. It is the very darkest and most horrifying form of Gothic tale, with a black fairytale feel to it. The weakest is probably The Archaeologist, through no real fault of its own. It gives us a breather after the unnerving dream-like beginning, and roots us in the present day to move away from the dream state most of the novel is told in, which perhaps means it can't be as beautifully dark as the rest of the book.
The Archaeologist also doesn't fit the pattern of the other stories: two gothic, two stories which explain the plot and two stories which you just know would win Oscars were they films, The Archaeologist is the odd one out and doesn't belong in any of these pairings.
Other then this minor problem, however, Midwinterblood is a story which draws you in again and again, making you experience the dreamlike state of the novel repeatedly. It is a wonderful, beautiful and elegant story which is at the same time deeply unnerving.
4.5/5
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