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“beautiful book. ”
LitChick wrote this review Friday, December 4 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A remarkable tale of a woman dealing with the horrors of her past... rape by her brother, drunken father, indifferent mother, drug use, prostitution. De Lint carefully crafts her coming to grips with past ghosts and by using her younger sister, shows what her life might have been if she had not run away from her abusive home.
Steven L wrote this review Monday, October 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Were it not for the painful things revealed, this would have been among my favorite books. In spite of the difficulty I have dealing with this kind of subject, the story and its ending are very satisfying.”
“Charles de Lint is a good writer. He has created an interesting, multi-faceted world and interesting, multi-faceted characters through dozens of novels and short stories set in his fictional city of Newford. His prose is always excellent, getting the job of maintaining narrative tone and telling the story done without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. But somehow, The Onion Girl just doesn't have a whole lot of impact. I am reviewing it now after reading it for the second time, but I wasn't positive I had read it before until 80 pages from the end -- and the first time I read it was less than three years ago.
PhoenixFalls wrote this review Tuesday, September 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I can't say for sure, because this is the only novel I have read by de Lint, but I suspect he may simply be stronger at short-story length than when he expands his focus. His short stories (at least the ones in Dreams Underfoot, which is the only short story collection of his that I have read) are beautiful, heartbreaking, and urgent. The characters have resonance at that length -- Jilly particularly, who, as the back of this novel says, is the beating heart of de Lint's diverse cast of characters. But somehow when de Lint looked to write Jilly's story, it felt like he took a step back from her and the rest of the characters I had met and loved in Dreams Underfoot. The tone is just a little distant whenever Jilly, Joe, Sophia, and Wendy take over the narration, and that distance made it hard for me to become truly invested in what was going on.
The only person exempt from this authorial distancing was the character of Raylene who, as far as I know, is one of the few characters invented specifically for this novel. Her bits of narration were everything I missed in the rest of the novel: distinctly her own, and alive in a way none of the other characters managed to be. The story moved when it was in Raylene's hands, while it seemed to simply be meandering in anyone else's.
I wonder if the reason for this is something de Lint talks about briefly in his Author's Note. He apologizes to the reader for including the entire text of his short story "In the House of My Enemy" because "having dealt with this element of backstory once already, I didn't have the heart to recast the events for this book simply to say it in new words. Jilly goes through enough already with what happens to her in this novel." The story fits fairly seamlessly into the novel, and it is the one bit of Jilly's narrative that has Raylene's sense of urgency about it. That makes me wonder if perhaps de Lint simply felt too bad about what he was putting Jilly through to properly render all her pain and heartache once again.
Still, despite that odd sense of abstraction, anyone who has followed de Lint's Newford stories should read The Onion Girl; there's certainly nothing bad about the novel, and if it's a little distant, it still fills in many blanks about the characters we have grown to love.”
0 of 1 members found this review helpful“I'll review it later
Naju wrote this review Monday, June 15 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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0 of 1 members found this review helpful“Ms. Ramsey introduced me to Charles de Lint. I love the mix of fantasy and urban life. The characters' abilities to see the faerie and move between worlds may leave you wondering what is beyond your sight.”
Swanson wrote this review Friday, May 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No0 of 1 members found this review helpful“Jilly is struck by a car and becomes paralyzed on her right side. She discovers she can dream herself to the spirit world like her friend Sophie has long known how to do. Her physical body remains in the hospital bed while a dream version of herself, young and not paralyzed, traverses the spirit world. There she meets her friend Joe Crazy Dog, who can travel to the spirit world while awake. He tells her he has sent for a pair of "crow" girls who might be able to cure her condition, but only after she deals with emotional wounds from her past.
Wendy B wrote this review Wednesday, April 29 2009. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Somebody breaks into Jilly's studio and destroys many of her paintings. Her friends keep seeing on the streets a woman who looks just like Jilly. They wonder if a shadow twin might be behind both Jilly's "accident" and the vandalism.
Jilly meets in the dreamlands a young man named Toby. He is an Eadar--a fictional character who acquires a physical presence in the spirit world, but whose existence depends on there being people who believe in him. Together they spend several nights climbing a big tree to get some magical twigs that may help both of them.
In flashbacks, the book gradually reveals details of Jilly's past. As a child, she was repeatedly raped by her brother Del. She finally ran away from home and by her teens was a junkie and prostitute living on the streets, until a kind cop named Lou rescued and rehabilitated her.
Back at Jilly's former home, Del turned his attention to her younger sister Raylene, who never forgave Jilly for abandoning her. Raylene finally stabbed Del and ran away with her best friend Pinky. To make money, they performed badger games and ended up killing a dirty cop. Pinky eventually became a pornstar, while Raylene started working in a print shop. There she fell in love with one of her coworkers, who taught her how to use computers, but finally died in a shootout. Pinky served several years in prison for assault, and during that time she and Raylene began having shared dreams in which they were wolves hunting unicorns.
Raylene found out her sister's whereabouts from an article. On the day of Pinky's release, Raylene bought a pink Cadillac and the two of them rode off in search of Jilly. That's when Raylene destroyed Jilly's paintings, and continued to stalk her.
In the hospital, Jilly and Sophie discover that they can share their dreams as well, and when they find themselves in a forest, they encounter a pack of wolves, one of whom Jilly recognizes as her sister. She realizes that Raylene must be the lookalike who destroyed her paintings.
Raylene is upset that Jilly has now invaded her dreams. She wants to find a way into the dreamlands while awake, so that she can avenge Jilly there. She sees Joe on the street and recognizes him from his Don't! Buy! Thai! T-shirt as he slips into the spirit world. By watching him, she figures out how to enter the spirit world herself. She and Pinky kidnap the sleeping Jilly and carry her body into the spirit world.
The dreaming version of Jilly has reached the top of the tree and found the twigs, which have made Toby no longer an Eadar, but which have no effect on Jilly's condition. But because Jilly's physical body has entered the dreamlands, she feels pulled toward it, and she must climb down the tree to reach it.
When she reaches Raylene, they begin talking. Raylene realizes how silly it is to hold a grudge against her sister for something she did when she was a kid just trying to survive. Unfettered, Pinky points her gun at Jilly and fires--but Raylene places herself in the line of fire and dies. Joe arrives at that moment with a pitbull, which kills Pinky.
Toby reaches the clearing with a wreath of the twigs, now powerful enough to cure Jilly's paralysis. Jilly instead uses it to bring Raylene back to life. Because Raylene killed all those unicorns, she must never return to the dreamlands, or else Joe's friends will hunt her down. The crow girls visit Jilly and tell her that they cannot cure her condition, but they give her feathers so that she can call them anytime she wants.
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0 of 1 members found this review helpful“Combines a 'real' story with the 'otherworld' of fairies and alternate reality. A story that seems real because there is no easy fix to the problems. THe characters are easy to identify with and care about.”
Christine C wrote this review Thursday, August 21 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
0 of 1 members found this review helpful“One of my favorite books... it takes us through the journey of self-discovery with the main character Jilly. It is not a difficult or challenging read, very easy and engaging. Charles DeLint has insightful quotes and comments about people.”
Meggly wrote this review Thursday, July 17 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
