alfreda89 | Book Review for CAROUSEL TIDES

Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finally! The book I have been waiting for since...whoa, since War for the Oaks or the last Charles DeLint I got my hands on (Someplace to Be, I think.) Come with me to Archers Beach, a tiny Maine coastal village which has barely hung on during the tourist season the past ten years or so. It’s an old place, full of fog and three-story, peeling tupelo wood cottages that once held large families and now are partitioned for multiple renters and small stores. There’s a pier that seasonally runs rides and games of chance, with a roller coaster shaped like a dragon and a carousel that could do guest appearances in a Ray Bradbury story.

Kate Archer has been in self-imposed exile for a long time, but a phone call about foreclosing on the family carousel sends her back in a panic to Maine. Her grandmother, Bonny Pepperidge, not only disappeared months ago, but she first signed over the carousel, cottage, AND the family Land into Kate’s keeping. And the Land is not just ground and buildings.

Dear Kate,

If you’re reading this, things have not gone as I had hoped and expected they would. I’m afraid I’ve left you a pretty mess, my dear, and it’s yours to decide whether or not to clean up after me.

The obligations of kinship . . . of love . . . are not always easy to bear. But, there, I haven’t told you anything you didn’t learn as a babe.

If you’re reading this . . . I’m glad you came home, Katie.

All my love, Gran

The early season starts in a month – and an antique, wood carousel needs a lot of work to have it ready for the early weekend traffic. This particular carousel needs even more work, as do many things in Archers Beach. Because behind the boulders on the shore, during low tide, and under the piers -- off the bow of the lobster boats, and up on the rocky hillsides, there’s another world. More than one of them, actually, Earth being the last and least of them.

Kate Archer is the heir to power – power she feels she has misused, and so she is dying as a result of her exile. But Archers Beach doesn’t have much time. There are wards that must be strengthened, prisoners to be guarded and strangeness to be watched and defended against. She has allies she does not know, old friends she is not sure will welcome her, and a couple of enemies who might be willing to call a truce.

There are gates between the worlds, and war she fled from as a child. There are folk who can pass through those gates with ease, when they choose. Someone came to the carousel, the end of the last season, and tried to bargain with her grandmother . . . threatened her grandmother.

Threatening a dryad on her own ground isn’t wise, but the Earth spirits are among the weakest of the many trenvay who appear in this tale. (And you will be comfortable with that word, by the time it makes an appearance – and instinctively know to who and what it belongs.)

”Did you pay your respects to the sea, Kate?” she can almost hear her Gran say. Kate always pays her respects to the sea, and its denizens, from the tiny loon to the selkies. Now they tell her that the Old Woman was expected back before the New Year. And no matter which new year you used, Bonny Pepperidge has been gone too long.

Nope. That’s all the hints you get. Trust me on this one – to try and summarize it in bits and pieces is to destroy its charm. We have magic and history, we have regret and the tiny bloom of love. Magic is used in many interesting ways, and Carousel Tides belongs squarely on the Maine coast where it is planted. Before the end, you will believe in the many gates and their worlds, and you will be rooting for Kate to pull it all off and win.

In one reading, this book is seamless, the work of a master who knows what she’s doing. It’s the best fantasy Sharon Lee has done, I’ll even say her best book, and a keeper. It’s one to remember come award time. And even better – this book can stand alone for all eternity, like the rocks it is built upon, or it can carry the weight of a sequel.

If you love contemporary fantasy, if you can’t get enough of Charles DeLint’s work, if you’ve been waiting for another great fantasy – this one is for you.
I can't wait to read it again!

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