Claire Legrand's Winterspell spins the dark counterpart to the Land of Sweets from The Nutcracker classic. As an ardent lover of the original the new take is just as exciting as it is unsettling.
Winterspell begins in New York, somewhere between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Clara Stole, daughter of major John Stole is giving a speech to open the new Bowery Hope Shelter, in remembrance of her mother, killed in mysteriously gruesome circumstances. This opens up to the plot line of the corrupt city officials and Clara's dissatisfaction with her place in life. She later escapes to Godfather Drosselmeyer's workshop, to continue the lessons he has been covertly giving her in self-defense.
On the night of the Christmas party, Clara is confronted with a deadline by the city officials - one week to stay quiet of she hands her and her family's fate completely over to them. The party is interrupted by Godfather, seemingly gone mad. Instead he brings with him another urgent situation. He has been found by the otherworldly creatures that attacked Clara's mother. Cornered and betrayed by all sides, Clara sides with the newly awoken Nicholas. The leader of the attack captures Clara's father and pulls him through a Door to another realm, where Clara and Nicholas follow. On the other side lies Cane, now ruled by the faeries after a civil war that had forced Nicholas to Clara's realm. The pair enters into the cold and rotting nation, heading out to find and save Clara's father, and join the quietly rising revolution.
The story is told through Clara's third person perspective, sprinkled with passages revealing the history of Cane. These segments give the reader perspective, without drawing away from the progressing storyline. As with any fantasy story, the world-building can be overwhelming and convoluted, trying to relay this entire new civilization vastly different from our own. Legrand does this effectively and beautifully. She weaves some familiar ideas of the familiar Clara, Godfather, and a cursed prince into a darker story of raw power and what happens when prejudices run too deep.
Clara on her own shone. She stayed firm in her beliefs, even when pushed to her absolute limits. She was confident, ingenious, and had such a strong sense of keeping her own independence. Even in a compromised state, her reaction to captivity is "She was no one's but her own," (Legrand 265). Another strength of the book was the complexity of each character. The faerie queen of Cane was exquisitely written. As Clara questions everything, the reader will too. And thankfully, that intricacy is not saved solely for the antagonist. The relationship between Clara and Nicholas held so many labels I felt like I needed to keep a list. Parallels are drawn between characters that had been set up to be "the good guys" and the villains, keeping the story captivatingly intense.
Perhaps it was because of all that beautiful build-up that I found the climax less than matching in fervor. I found it to be rushed, and came too easily for all that the main characters went through to get to that all-deciding scene. For the complexity of the characters and the world, I hate to admit that it all tied up too neatly for my liking.
My recommendation for Winterspell would be those who are fans of dark fantasy, or fairytale retellings. While reading I was reminded of Amy Ewing's The Jewel trilogy and C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. If those two stories met, and were dipped in sickly sweet frozen sugar, the result would be Winterspell.
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