Publishers Weekly
British author Langrish (the Troll trilogy) shifts venue to the British Middle Ages, when Christianity holds sway but Pagan elements also thrive. Wolf, bound to monks at age six, runs away after one beating too many and finds himself on a haunted moor, fleeing wolves, hounds, and men on horseback. In the melee, he catches sight of a strange creature, soon revealed as a naked, terrified girl child, who Wolf is convinced is an elf. The two are taken up by the local lord, Hugo, whose daughter, Nest, sees the elf-child as a last chance to achieve something special before her arranged marriage. Like Nest, Langrish is ambitious: she seeks to create a moment when all beliefs hold a kernel of truth, and supernatural creatures of any origin can overlap. Christian spirituality proffers moments of beauty (on Christmas morning Wolf and Nest witness angels dancing in the sky), while underlying the book's instances of abuse and social oppression. It's a lot of metaphysical freight for one story, but Langrish hasn't lost her touch for vivid action and sympathetic characters. Ages 10–up. (June)
Eoin Colfer
Praise for Katherine Langrish:“Katherine Langrish has unearthed a captivating world. Her style is quirky and hypnotic and her characters are instantly recognizable as someone you know, or someone you wish you didn’t.”
Booklist (starred review) for Troll Fell
“Full measures of danger, suspense, heroism, magic, and just desserts. Climaxed by a well-set-up twist and a splendidly trollish subterranean wedding feast, will keep readers glued to the page.”
Booklist
"A vividly rendered, engrossing tale. Provocative [and] beautifully wrought, illustrating the power of compassion and storytelling, for characters and readers alike."
Booklist (starred review)
“A vividly rendered, engrossing tale. Provocative [and] beautifully wrought, illustrating the power of compassion and storytelling, for characters and readers alike.”
The Times (London)
Praise for The Shadow Hunt:“Langrish is a first-rate storyteller.”
The Bookbag (UK)
"Beautifully written, with real emotions, hopes, fears and dreams, and a goodly dollop of magic and mystery. Langrish fans are not going to be disappointed. Highly recommended to all fans of supernatural fantasy."
VOYA
- Kristen Anderson
Wolf has run away from the abbey where he was left by his father to be raised as a monk. The cruel Brother Thomas made his life there miserable, and he felt that it was his only option. He encounters Lord Hugo on a hunt in the woods and helps him find an elf hiding in a cave. Hugo takes Wolf home with him, where he meets Hugo's daughter, Nest, and they work together to try to teach the elf (whom they name Elfgift) to speak. Hugo is obsessed with his deceased wife and insists that she is still alive in elf land—he believes he can use Elfgift as a trade to get her back. In the meantime, Halewyn, a jongleur who is not altogether who he appears to be, arrives on the scene on All Hallows Eve and stirs up some trouble. This historical fantasy novel set in medieval Wales feels much more historical than fantastical at times, particularly since Elfgift is characterized more as a feral child than an elf. Wolf and Nest are on the young side, so this title will likely be most comfortably shelved in a juvenile collection. It is a fine story, and well written, with an appeal to middle grades. It would be a good book to give to fantasy-resistant readers who are assigned to read out-of-genre for school. Reviewer: Kristen Anderson
Children's Literature
- Sylvia Firth
Thirteen-year-old Wolf Osmundson is the main character in this wonderful fantasy set in medieval Wales. Because conditions are intolerable in the monastery where his father abandoned him at age six, Wolf runs away and is soon challenged to find his way through wild moors known as Devil's Edge. After encountering Lord Hugo and his hunting party, he rescues a strange mute elf child whom he names Elfgift. Lord Hugo then takes them both to his home, La Motte Rouge. Lord Hugo agrees that Wolf can become his squire if he can teach Elfgift to speak by Christmas, because he believes that his wife is not really dead but has been spirited away by the elves to their underground kingdom. Soon Wolf forms a strong friendship with Lord Hugo's thirteen-year-old daughter, Nest. She tries to help him with Elfgift even though she is very worried about her upcoming arranged marriage to Lord Godfrey and her father's obsession with her dead mother, Eluned. All the characters are finely drawn. A hearth hob and a wandering jongleur named Halewyn, who turns out to be evil, add further interest. The author has skillfully woven together a tale that delivers on its themes of good and evil, faith and doubt as well as sin and redemption. With a boy as a main character, it will appeal to both boys and girls who are attracted to fantasy, especially since the story is so well written and plotted. Make room on the shelves for this title. It deserves a place there. Reviewer: Sylvia Firth
School Library Journal
Gr 6–8—In this medieval fantasy, Wolf runs away from a monastery after years of mistreatment by his master, Brother Thomas. As he's fleeing across Welsh moors inhabited by ghosts and demons, he comes across a girl elfchild being chased by a pack of hunters' dogs. Wolf captures her and offers her to Lord Hugo, the head hunter. Lord Hugo is obsessed with the idea that his dead wife is actually alive and being held by the Demon Lord of the Underground, and he is convinced that the elfchild can lead him to her. He allows Wolf to accompany him home on the condition that Wolf make the mute elfchild speak. Nest, Lord Hugo's daughter, is soon to marry a man she's rarely seen but been betrothed to since she was five. To Wolf's horror, her fiancé arrives with Brother Thomas, who is furious to see him. In revenge, Wolf and Halewyn, a visiting jester, make a fool of the man, but Nest doesn't trust Halewyn. She suspects he's a demon in disguise, determined to lure her father underground in search of his dead wife. Can she and Wolf save Lord Hugo and the elfchild? This atmospheric story, set in a land inhabited by terrifying and benign magical creatures, combines fast-paced action with sensitive insights into the characters' inner fears and desires. Supernatural fantasy fans will enjoy this tale that effectively explores magic, mystery, and the struggle between good and evil.—Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton
Kirkus Reviews
Langrish blends medieval Catholicism and old folk beliefs seamlessly with the supernatural. In late-12th-century England, on the Welsh border, young Wolf flees from a monastery, desperate for a life safer and wider than a browbeaten monkhood. On the desolate landscape, a hunt erupts-Lord Hugo, dogs, wolves, horses and an eerie, naked elf, who vanishes into a hill. Seeing a position as squire as his escape route, Wolf squeezes underground and drags out the pale, ferocious elf-child to impress Hugo. Hugo believes elves hold his dead wife captive and charges Wolf with teaching terrified Elfgift to speak so she can guide Hugo to reclaim his beloved. Wolf befriends Hugo's daughter, Nest; they work together to gentle Elfgift, but Brother Thomas, Wolf's brutal former master, and Halewyn, a dangerously charismatic jongleur who never takes off his donkey-eared hood, stir up violent chaos. Wolf and Nest's religious faith never wavers as they puzzle out what's supernatural, what's dangerous and what's simply emotional yearning in a narrative that masterfully allows every possibility to exist. Never telling and always showing, this spooky yet utterly grounded story features pitch-perfect prose, suspense and redemption. (Historical fantasy. 10-14)
