What a curious book… I need to think about it for 3.5 million years. Like obviously pulling from a multitude of folklore and myth, it’s most impressive reference is to the struggle between capital r Romanticism, and like enlightenment science and culture that it is referential to. There is a bevy of like entwined understandings that make this book so compelling and frustrating to read. On one hand the language is lush and expressive, and then sometimes the characters act without thought or motivation, seemingly purposefully stuck in an almost petulant liminality—  confined to an in between of childhood and adulthood— that marks its transition in death. Like it’s got so much sometimes feels overwhelming. I think this book does opposing forces well, the fae vs faith (the religious aspects are fascinating), emotion vs reason. If this book does anything it sets me on a desire to rewatch Labryinth and marvel at the spectacle.  Everyone go read the Erl-King by Goethe. 

Wintersong immediately reminded me of the vibes from Kingdom of Back. As someone who was always entranced by the "Goblin Market" poem by Christina Rosetti, this book was stunning. It's a lyrical debut about the price of ambition for girls. About wanting more than we we have, more than what we have to accept. Struggling fires and dreams beating against steel caged bars. If you love the "Goblin Market" poem, historical fiction musical vibes, and ambitious girls, then you have to pick up Wintersong. 

There's a heavy atmosphere of fairy tales, danger, and doubled edged swords. Liesl is driven by her love of her family. The ways she has had to sacrifice her dreams, her future, for the well being of her family. At the same time, there's this fragment of herself that wonders what it would be like to give in. To let the flames of her own creativity and ambition burn. To find someone who will challenge us, support us, and stoke our own genius instead of smothering it.