Strands of Bronze and Gold
Jane Nickerson
ISBN: 9780375971181
Borzoi, 2013
YA magical realism retelling of Bluebeard set in the Deep South in 1855.
This was a lovely book. Creepy as hell without being overly gory or melodramatic, a nearly perfect Bluebeard, and an excellent heroine that walked a lovely line between abused mindset and pert independence.
I'd place this up there with Entwined and Beauty as one of my favorite retellings, and that's saying a lot. Bluebeard is a HARD tale to do - it's such an odd and creepy fairy tale on the surface, and the traditional "lesson" of being an obedient wife in the face of temptation is a really unfortunate one in modern days. This book beautifully works past all that baggage to revel in the gothic feeling of a creepy master of the house with the ghosts of dead wives hovering around. Heck, it even manages to get some abolitionist fervor going on as well.
I'm especially pleased with how well Nickerson puts the experience of being with an abusive partner - the power imbalance that makes it hard to tell the abuse is abuse, the attemps to define abuse as harmless personality quirks, then the abuser using their own dramatic or unfortunate past to excuse and justify their outrageous behavior, the attempts to isolate the victim, to use their family circumstances to trap them with the abuser, the violence towards animals or beloved possessions of the victim... all done excellently well.
Like Sophia, I felt sorry for Bluebeard at first, only slowly realizing that he wasn't nearly the victim that he made himself out to be. I even felt sorry for his poor house manager.
The ending differed a bit from canon, but I didn't mind, and I actually thought that the alterations built the strength of the portrayal of an abusive partner very well. The ending in this version remains a satisfactory end for all involved.
Required reading to counteract all of the Edward Cullen-loving fangirls who think that possessiveness and control are attractive qualities in a mate.
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