The Book of Love by Kelly Link

I would like to thank Ad Astra for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Ad Astra

Published - Out Now

Price - £22.00 hardback £6.02 Kindle eBook

Supernatural beings and chaos descend on the small seaside town of Lovesend, Massachusetts, in the wake of the unexpected return of three missing teenagers.

Laura, Daniel and Mo disappeared without trace a year ago. They have long been presumed dead. Which they were. But now they are not. And it is up to the resurrected teenagers to discover what happened to them.

Revived by Mr Anabin - the man they knew as their high school music teacher - they are offered a chance to return to the mortal realm. But first they must solve the mystery of their
death and learn to use the magic they now possess. And only two of them may stay.

What they do not realise is their return has upset a delicate balance that has held - just - for centuries.

‘Lord, what fools these mortals be!’ Is a famous quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream as the fairies in the enchanted wood get bemused by the petty issues of young humans and artisans they come across. It’s a unusual blending of world with these all powerful magical creature who can warp minds and reality and well us - but it’s also a little two faced of Puck as the play shows the various squabbles between Fae royalty kicked the whole play off. Fantasy has been mixing the human and the divine for millennia - Greek Gods, Arthurian myths and more recently even American Gods. As always while who doesn’t enjoy magical shenanigans I think the real point of these tales is to explore humanity itself and now in Kelly Link’s impressive modern fantasy The Book of Love magical bargains, flawed humans and powerful immortals collide in a richly textured story exploring all the bonds of love that connect us.

College students and members of a band Laura, Mo and Daniel find themselves late at night in the classroom of their music teacher Mr Anabin. They find themselves with a mysterious stranger with mismatched eyes who gets named Bowie. The trio also find out they’ve been dead for many months and are now restored in magical bodies having escaped the realm managed by a man (sometimes wolf) named Bogomil. The young people now find themselves entered into a magical contest by Anabin and Bogimil rules are unclear but the penalty for failure is death again. Their little town of Lovesend is being reconfigured the students are now beloved to have just been to Ireland; Bowie is left to their own devices and now more magic than anyone can handle is coming to town as is a certain Goddess of the Moon…and Death.

So plot wise this sounds like the usual magical contest of good and evil but what I loved about this is how everythingisn’t quite what it seems. Anabin and Bogomil we find are less opposing forces and more strangely working together. We don’t have four heroes per se but instead four very flawed humans whose natures may get in their way of saving themselves and most of all this small town is about to find reality is loose and danger is close.

Character wise we have four young people - Laura who wants to succeed; asks all the questions and is incredibly repressed about her sexuality. She also has an older sister Susannah that merely being near will create waves of hostility . Daniel is Susannah’s on/off/on boyfriend who last time he saw her had broken up for good. Daniel doesn’t want to be involved in these magical games and has no desire to use magic apparently even if that means he dies. Mo is one of the few Black students in the town; he’s gay and yet to properly fall in love and he hates to share aspects of his life with anyone. The more mysterious Bowie can do magic easily but is not revealing any of their secrets just yet. There is always someone who think young college students means this must be a YA title but this is very much looking at these characters in the round and for me Link delivers the a very mature exploration of the characters warts and all. We may recognise many aspects of this group - the people we used to be and the many good and bad choices that await them.

Now based on the title is this a kissing book? Most affirmatively yet and indeed goes past kissing stages a few times. But the central themes go beyond just high school romance. Here in our characters’ lives we get to explore love in all its forms - sisterly, family, parental, friendship, workplace, unrequited, toxic, lustful and that first experience of true love to knock you off your feet. The dangers of love leading you to seek revenge or to put people in danger. Intriguingly we find Mo’s grandmother is an acclaimed romance writer which gives us a comparison of earthly love the the kind our imaginations bring to life.

Link has a fantastic approach to telling this complex story each chapter will be called ‘The Book of …’ with a focus on one character at a time. But my goodness each chapter sings with high quality writing, a small tale in miniature with style, humour, pathos and emotion that on its own is like a well crafted song but the mix Link deploys makes this feel more like a well judged album. We get little scenes in. Coffee shops but also magical chases, temples and family squabbles. Characters we may have found annoying become immensely human, we over the course of the book learn how they tick, we understand this town more and more and then of course there is the small matter of magic.

Here the forces of Anabin and Bogomil are soon joined by a more malevolent and chaotic woman named magnificently Malo Mogge all searching for something that may or may not be connected to our characters first set of deaths. Here magic is not simply raising the dead but we get moments of wonder such off floating cars driving off cliffs, clouds of moths taking flight, people changing into animal forms but also more dangerous tricks - forcing someone into another shape, changing their memories and we do find sometimes shockingly people can come to harm if you cross the wrong powerful Immortal. Just when you think this may be a light hearted novel there are darker scenes that make you work out actually no one may be safe here.

Alongside this is the character of Susannah the sister Laura left who is complex, spiky and also not wiling to do what the others tell her. Just as much about saving people’s lives it’s a key plotline that everyone has to work out where they stand with each other and where are they going next? It’s a great tale where we have people we both cheer on and also roll our eyes at when they are following their worst instincts. But it’s also quite clear the magical side of the world is no better. Just like the younger characters their obsessions change them into selfishness and a callousness that may ruin themselves. I suspect few will give these beings a pass.

There is a lot of story in this novel. I really enjoyed the encounters and watching characters and themes grow. There is a sense though of so many plotlines there is no way to nearly wrap everything up but for me that works. The characters left at the end are not always wiser but perhaps at the least learnt something about themselves to set up new paths to follow. A touch of ambiguity if love will end happily ever after feels far more realistic.

The Book of Love is a totally immersive modern fantasy novel exploring us, magic and that many textured emotion we call love. Kelly Link shows again that they are a highly skilled fantasy writer and I can’t wait to see what they have for us next.