Have I been gone that long?
I picked up three more hours at the library for which I work. I have done a smattering of storytelling engagements. - but enough to keep me busy and distracted. I have read. A lot. Mostly eBooks. Because actually budging to go to a library once I get home is just too much work.
So...The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. The writing in this book swept me well into the fray. There is a village. Every year, that village leaves the newest baby deep in the forest as a sacrifice? gift? to the evil wicked awful witch.
And there is a forest wherein dwells an old witch, a swamp monster whose importance can only be imagined and a dragon who never seems to grow older.
The witch gathers up each child, - always wondering why the villagers leave the infants there but never wondering for very long, - and carries the infant to the other side of the forest where loving adoptive parents wait. The witch feeds each child on starlight.
Meanwhile, in the village there is grieving and sadness and someone who feeds on both.
One day, the witch falls asleep and the infant in her arms feeds on moonlight... and everything is changed.
This is a novel about oppression and parenthood - which really are NOT the same thing. The witch finds parenting her moonfed child harder than she could imagine. The novel is also about questioning the status quo and about powerful people who are parasites. And the novel is about pain.
The novel is also a bit more complicated than I wanted it to be. It all fits together nicely in the end.
