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Little Sister Kara Dalkey 9780140386318 Books

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Little Sister Kara Dalkey 9780140386318 Books

3 1/2 stars, I guess? Really, the imagery and the prose itself is worth more than that, but I felt the story wasn't quite up to 4 stars, so I don't know.

Short, elegant, and entertaining. It was very cinematic, and I could see the whole thing unfolding in my head like animation (I could totally see this as a Miyazaki film - the sweeping visuals and sense of wonder were very similar in style to Miyazaki movies, actually). I loved the bizarre imagery of the underworld. The prose had that poetic, understated elegance thing going on, purposefully imitating the feel of Heian-era poetry - the clever humor of it, too.

I can't speak as to historical accuracy, since I know little about the era beyond surface details.

(An aside that no one else in the world but me will care about: I did find a couple of mentions of incense a bit odd. In one, a person is lighting "sticks" of incense; while I could be mistaken, it was my understanding that Japanese joss sticks are a relatively recent creation, and incense of the time would either be neriko (kneaded, aged balls of incense) or chipped mixtures of woods and spices to be heated over charcoal. At another point, a character complains her kimonos "stinks of incense" - but wouldn't that be normal? Didn't nobles generally deliberately perfume their robes with incense, and have contraptions specifically for the purpose of hanging them over heating incense?)

I felt like the story would have been better without the last little segment added on at the end - it felt off, and left me with a weird sort of feeling. Still, it was very well written, and a fun read.


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Little Sister Kara Dalkey 9780140386318 Books Reviews

"Little Sister" is a little book, but with a big story inside it. Kara Dalkey crafts a poignant, suspenseful fantasy, with plenty of Japanese folklore and a dash of romance. It keeps going at a fast clip and is written wonderfully, although it feels somehow unfinished. (Since there's a sequel, don't worry about it)

Mitsuko is a shy young girl in the Court, overshadowed by her older sisters, especially the newly-married Amaiko. But when warrior monks threaten her family, her father sends them off to a country estate -- except that the monks attack, and kill Amaiko's husband Yugiri. Amaiko, lost in grief, seems to fall into a coma -- her soul is gone to look for her dead husband.

After her family is captured, Mitsuko embarks on a desperate journey to find Yugiri, so that Amaiko can get on with her life. She ends up with an unusual helper -- a tengu (birdlike demon) named Goranu. He takes her to meet gods and devils, down into the depths of the netherworld. But can Mitsuko find Yugiri and rescue her family as well?

Ah, if only other historical fantasies were as pretty and rich as this one is. Dalkey clearly has a handle on her Buddhist and Shinto folklore, as well as her historical knowledge of politics and customs. And she makes it all an integral part of a touching, intense plot.

Dalkey's writing is spare and vaguely formal, but she gives plenty of detail to the supernatural scenes. And the intricate plot is a convincing one, with Mitsuko struggling to do all sorts of things to rescue her family, and lay Yugiri's ghost to rest. The only downside is that while the ending wraps up most of the loose ends, it feels like it's leading to the next book.

Mitsuko is an excellent heroine. She starts off timid, but her courage and strength start growing through the course of the novel. And Goranu is a real winner -- he's a trickster with an acid tongue, but he's actually very kind and eventually loving to Mitsuko.

"Little Sister" is a beautiful little historical fantasy, with plenty of action, romance, and a sweet little romance woven in. Dalkey wrote a winner with this one.
Author Kara Dalkey flies quietly under the radar, not attracting too much attention to herself. Like some kind of authorial fairy, she drops delightful little books and stories hither and thither for those readers canny enough to discover her. I first noticed Ms. Dalkey after reading her original take on "The Snow Queen" in the collected book of stories, "Firebirds An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction". Aside from that, one of the only other works of children's fiction she's ever published is the unassuming but delightful, "Little Sister". Culling myth, religion, and legend from a variety of sources and placing her book squarely in twelfth-century Japan, Dalkey produces a story in which the fantastic and the mundane integrate seamlessly with one another. This is undoubtedly Dalkey's finest work.

Mitsuko does not consider herself to be of much worth. She is the younger sister of the stately and kind Amaiko and part of a rather noble family as well. When Amaiko is engaged to be wed, Mitsuko is as thrilled as anyone. All the more tragic then that while en route to their father's summer home, the girls are attacked by a clan of warrior priests. Amaiko's potential husband is killed, sending his fiancée into a stupor from which she will not leave. Determined to save her sister from wasting away, Mitsuko sets out to find Amaiko's dead husband and bring him back (thereby bringing back her sister to herself). Along the way she befriends a mischievous tengu, or shapeshifter demon. She tells her tale to deities, visits various hells, meets her ancestors, and outsmarts her enemies time and time again. By the end, the quest has not turned out the way she expected it to, but Mitsuko is no longer the trembling child she was when she began.

The book is an interesting take on the lives of Japenese women in the 13th century. Mitsuko begins the book with pounds of prejudice weighing on her head. By the book's end, she's shed these ideas, though she still carries some of them with her unknowingly. Her quest has the original bent of not being a search for her own beloved, but for her sister's. She's like Orpheus's stand-in. The quest itself bears many similarities to classic folktales like, "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", in which a young woman must make friends and defy enemies carefully. What made the book so delightful, however, were the characters. Mitsuko isn't your typical blank slate without thought or opinion. She's feisty and opinionated, even if she suffers from a classic case of low self-esteem. Goranu, the tengu who falls in love with her, is somewhat similar to the character of Nawat in Tamora Pierce's, "Trickster's Choice". In both cases, crows are potential lovers as well as warriors.

One of the best elements in the book were the poems that dot it continually. I don't exactly consider myself a scholar of haiku. For me, Jack Prelutsky's, "If Not For the Cat", is the height of haiku brilliance. Dalkey, however, has a real ear for it. No matter what her predicament is, Mitsuko continually composes little haikus to herself to keep her hopes up or to give her problems form. These poems are small little jewels that encapsulate the action perfectly. They're worth the price of the book alone.

I don't imagine that "Little Sister" will get the attention it so richly deserves. It's a ruby in the dust. A beautiful little book hidden amongst shelves of mediocre ones in bookstores and libraries everywhere. But for the kids out there that like adventure and fantasy with strong female characters (and aren't afraid of learning a little about the late Heian period of Japanese history), there are few books I'd recommend as highly.
3 1/2 stars, I guess? Really, the imagery and the prose itself is worth more than that, but I felt the story wasn't quite up to 4 stars, so I don't know.

Short, elegant, and entertaining. It was very cinematic, and I could see the whole thing unfolding in my head like animation (I could totally see this as a Miyazaki film - the sweeping visuals and sense of wonder were very similar in style to Miyazaki movies, actually). I loved the bizarre imagery of the underworld. The prose had that poetic, understated elegance thing going on, purposefully imitating the feel of Heian-era poetry - the clever humor of it, too.

I can't speak as to historical accuracy, since I know little about the era beyond surface details.

(An aside that no one else in the world but me will care about I did find a couple of mentions of incense a bit odd. In one, a person is lighting "sticks" of incense; while I could be mistaken, it was my understanding that Japanese joss sticks are a relatively recent creation, and incense of the time would either be neriko (kneaded, aged balls of incense) or chipped mixtures of woods and spices to be heated over charcoal. At another point, a character complains her kimonos "stinks of incense" - but wouldn't that be normal? Didn't nobles generally deliberately perfume their robes with incense, and have contraptions specifically for the purpose of hanging them over heating incense?)

I felt like the story would have been better without the last little segment added on at the end - it felt off, and left me with a weird sort of feeling. Still, it was very well written, and a fun read.