In the first review M.J has created a snobby literary critic named Gavin Thoughtpriss.
As the Editor in Chief of The Monocled Gentleman I, Sir Gavin
Thoughtpriss, have had the misfortune of reading thousands of appalling novels. Some were simply poorly
written, others dealt with subjects so tawdry and morally corrupt that I could
barely bring myself to finish them. Few novels though have raised my irk as the
one I bring to your attention today, dear readers. It is called Winter’s Shadow, and is authored by a
literary terrorist named M. J. Hearle.
Upon glancing at the florid cover (which
by itself managed to conjure some entirely disagreeable emotions), I was
immediately suspiciously of this Hearle. What type of author chooses to hide
behind an initial and to what end? I’ve never trusted authors I cannot call by
the first name. It is a rule that has held me in good stead over the years and
one, after finishing Hearle’s ‘opus’, I shall not be abandoning soon.
First, let us talk about the language. Winter’s Shadow, is referred to as a
‘paranormal’, a genre I’m sure, dear reader, you skirt just as widely as I do
when visiting your local bookseller. It is a singularly repellent offshoot of
fantasy writing, one that fosters occult interest in young, impressionable
minds. Most paranormals (not that I would ever lower myself to purchase one for
pleasure – these insights are gathered from fanning through the pages of those
on the local library shelf) are distinguished by an exceedingly clumsy style.
The prose is generally stained with purple descriptive imagery – much attention
spent on describing the flawless physical perfection on whomsoever the lead
character desires. The lexicon of these paranormal ‘authors’ seems painfully
limited with some words being repeated over and over again to the point of
redundancy. The word ‘Adonis’ is one such word. Every man seems to be an Adonis
in these books.
Hearle, however, has written Winter’s Shadow with an irritating level
of sophistication. Or should I say a veneer of sophistication, for no real
writer would ever deign to address such base material. Nevertheless, care seems
to have been taken in establishing atmosphere, the dialogue borders on
naturalistic and most paragraphs are constructed with at least a nod to
classical form. In short, the book reads like a book, instead of the penny
dreadful I knew it to be. This, I can assure you, dear reader, angered me to no
end. If Hearle wished to write pulp than he should have adopted the appropriate
pulpish style. Reaching for something more is not only vaguely pathetic, but
insulting to those of us blessed with the literary faculties to recognise such
reaching. Know your place, Hearle! Swill merchants serve swill, not wine.
This infuriatingly Icarus-like
predilection of Hearle is evident in the books narrative as well. After the
first few chapters I was confident, in fact I was very nearly delighted to find
Hearle lapsing into cliché. His tale of a young woman, Winter Adams, falling in
love with a handsome, mysterious stranger, Blake something-or-rather is one
we’ve seen recycled innumerable times before. Veritably, it is a staple of the
genre. I was so relieved to find Hearle following the expected patterns that my
anger began to ebb. An insolence in language may be forgiven if the story
conforms to well worn conventions. I was fully confident that handsome Blake
would be revealed as a vampire or werewolf or angel or fairy or some other such
nonsense and the plot would roll towards an obvious conclusion.
But, no! Again Hearle displays
frustrating ambition by introducing a completely new supernatural mythology.
This mythology is rife with sordid invention – new worlds, new creatures
with the obligatory convoluted new rules to govern them. Such arrogance! At
least have enough respect for your audience to give them what they expect. What
they deserve! More vampires and shirtless werewolves. Or troubled angels and
their like. Not these Malfaerie, Demori and Skivers – creations seemingly
ripped straight from a lunatic menagerie.
If these fresh additions to the
supernatural canon weren’t enough, Hearle decides to create his own reading on
the philosophical concepts of causality and fate. Yes, you read that correctly.
Not content with re-writing the rule book when it comes to monsters, Hearle
believes his paranormal is the ideal forum to tackle these not insignificant
topics. Thus, we are presented with such outlandish notions as Occulumas
(glowing ‘eye lights’ which serve as battery readings for the soul), and ‘life
paths’. These inappropriate heady musings are given so much weight in the novel
that it became clear to me that the author’s intention was to try and use this
pulp about a doomed supernatural romance to offer a serious discourse on
mortality.
In this humble writer’s opinion, it is
one thing to overreach with one’s material, to employ nuance and craft when it
is entirely unnecessary – it is quite another thing altogether, to smuggle
intellectual concerns within such a crass and tawdry package. I should have stopped reading, if only to
spare myself further aggravation but Hearle uses a con artists trick – a method
of leaving his chapters hanging so the reader is compelled to turn the page. To
my immense shame, I finished the novel in one sitting. That Hearle should draw
me away from other worthier pursuits is unforgivable.
Before beginning this critique, I
carefully considered the sense in covering this novel at all. Wouldn’t it be
better simply to ignore it and hope the rest of the world did so as well? And
then I happened to stumble across one of those internet ‘chatting rooms’ whilst
searching for a rare copy of Margaret Wainwright's Guide to Geranium Cultivation and was mortified to find Hearle’s
book being discussed. Worse still, it was being considered favourably. Further
investigation proved that Winter’s Shadow, had in fact, managed to draw a
meagre but devoted following – a following that appeared to be growing. This
must be stopped! Hearle must be stopped! Already, there are rumours of a
sequel, Winter’s Light, being
published in May this year – a prospect that chills me to the core... but I am
working myself into a state. I apologise, dear reader, if I have lapsed into
hysterics during this review but I assure you my response was entirely genuine.
Winter’s Shadow is reprehensible in its complete lack of self-awareness. Should
you see it on the shelf march right past it. Do not spare the cover a second
look. For God’s sake do not open it! Otherwise, I shall not be responsible for
the turmoil and upset that befalls you. You have been warned.
Yours Sincerely
Sir Gavin Thoughtpriss
In the second review we are introduced to teenage blogger Cherie.
Hello lovelies,
Welcome back to Cherie’s Blood Crush my blog
dedicated to cataloguing the crushworthy guys of the paranormal world. I
haven’t got a vampire hottie for you today but I do have...well...something
else for you to sink your teeth into...he he he (laughs mysteriously) His name
is Blake Duchamp and he’s the brooding hunk of supernatural hotness featured in
M. J. Hearle’s Winter’s Shadow. I don’t really want to give away exactly what
Blake is because part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much was the mystery
surrounding him. Suffice to say, Blake isn’t anything you’ve ever read about
before. In fact there’s lots of stuff in Winter’s Shadow that’s new – I’m
talking new monsters people, new worlds, plenty of new awesome weirdness...but
I’m getting ahead of myself.
This book has been sitting on my ‘To Read’ pile
for the past couple of months staring at me with its big beautiful cover but I
hadn’t picked it up because I’ve been trying to get through all two and half
million Vampire Academy books. (Seriously, every time I think I’ve reached the
end of the series another one is released. Richelle Mead must write in her
sleep!)
And then I found out that the sequel to Winter’s
Shadow, called Winter’s Light, is coming out in May this year so I figured I
better read this one quick smart. The first thing I was surprised to learn was
that it was an Aussie YA. I mean the story isn’t set in Australia or anything
(at least I don’t think it is? The country’s identity seems purposefully
glossed over so it might be) but the author, M. J. Hearle, is an Aussie. The
second thing I was surprised to learn was that M. J. Hearle is a guy. The story
is told mainly from the point of view of Winter Adams who is a seventeen
year-old girl and it’s a little scary how Hearle has managed to nail that
particular voice. Winter could easily be one of my friends (or even me
sometimes!). Hearle must have had some sisters growing up or something.
So, let’s talk about the story. It’s set in the
fictional town of Hagan’s Bluff and mainly follows Winter, though it does
flashback every now and again to Europe in the 1800’s and another character
named Madeleine Bonnaire. At first I was a little confused as to what
Madeleine’s story had to do with Winter’s but by the end it all comes together.
Anyway, the core story begins with Winter in the midst of her final year of
school. She’s struggling with her grades because her parents have just died and
she’s feeling generally lost. Part of the reason for her angst is because she
lives with with her big sister, Lucy and the two of them have kind of prickly
relationship. Lucy is super–overprotective (um...yes, I can relate!). Oh, and
Winter’s got this great fiery friend named Jasmine who reminds me of my friend
Rosalyn (please don’t be mad, Ros!).
To improve her grades, Winter takes a
photography assignment to document this creepy old church called Pilgrim’s
Lament, for the school newspaper. While she’s taking photos inside the church
she sees through one of the windows a mysterious guy standing in the graveyard.
This is Blake and, as you’ve probably guessed, he and Winter are destined to
have something of a romantic/dramatic future together. That aspect of the story
more or less follows the predictable paranormal model which isn’t to say it’s
boring or cliched just that you sort of expect Winter to fall in love with
Blake and of course he doesn’t want her close to him because he has a dark
secret etc. It’s still fun reading the romance though and it’s never annoying
or cringeworthy which I sometimes find in paranormals. Mainly because Blake and
Winter seem a little more real than the cardboard cutouts that usually stand in
for these sorts of characters. They’re just not Bella & Edward clones.
Soon enough, Winter discovers Blake isn’t
exactly human (and wow - what a way to find out!) and she also learns that
there’s a whole other secret world hidden behind the one we know. This is when
the book really starts picking up – I started turning the pages so fast my
fingers burnt. Up until this point the story is really creepy and atmospheric
and I was loving just soaking in the gothic mood of it all but then it turns
into this tense thriller, with car chases, and scary (and I mean really SCARY
– like ‘you wouldn’t give this to your younger sister or brother’ scary)
sequences with grinning soul stealing monsters and cats (oh did I mention this
book is full of cats? I think Hearle might be obsessed with them) and other
kinds of nightmare fuel.
Luckily, the tender love story between Blake and
Winter anchors the whole thing and stops it spinning too far off into
supernatural craziness (not that that would be a bad thing as I was kind of
willing to go wherever Hearle took me). And then it gets to the end and
well...I won’t say anything but let’s just say I’m pretty damn happy there’s a
sequel cause otherwise I might have been sending Hearle some emails because I
NEED TO KNOW how things work out with Winter and Blake. I’m invested now. Oh
and he owes me a new box of tissues because I went through like three boxes when
I finished the last paragraph. Seriously, it left me feeling very sad and
wistful (in the best possible way).
So yeah, Blake Duchamp welcome to the club. You
are officially Blood Crush-worthy. Hopefully you won’t feel out of place with
all the vampires, werewolves and angels. If the other boys are mean to you it’s
only because they’re jealous. You’re one of a kind and I love you all the more
for it. Bring on Winter’s Light!
Cherie X
Want to find out more about M.J and The Winter Tales? Check out www.mjhearle.com. Follow M.J on Twitter! twitter.com/Mjhearle
The Winter's Shadow facebook page url http://www.facebook.com/pages/
The Winter's Light facebook page URL http://www.facebook.com/pages/
So who wants to win a signed copy of Winter's Shadow? In the comments tell us which review you like the most along with your email address. This giveaway is only open to West Australian residents, Giveaway ends 31st May!
