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Summary
Summary
A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book
A young seamstress and a royal nursemaid find themselves at the center of an epic power struggle in this stunning young-adult debut.
On the eve of Princess Sophia's wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches: brocade and satin and jewels, feasts of sugar fruit and sweet spiced wine. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne's heirs, and a courtier's wolfish hunger for the king's favors sets a devious plot in motion. Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem - and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined with that of mad Queen Isabel. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.
Author Notes
Susann Cokal is the author of two adult novels, Mirabilis and Breath and Bones, and her short stories and literary criticisms have been widely published in literary journals and The New York Times Book Review. This is her first novel for young adults. Currently an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, she lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
"I have always loved a fairy tale." So says Ava Bingen, a young seamstress in the palace of the fictional Scandinavian city of Skyggehaven. Dark and bloody fairy tales inform this dense, 16th-century narrative, richly layered with multiple viewpoints: Ava, the mad Queen Isabel, the dangerously weak King Christian, the diabolically ambitious Lord Nicolas, and the mute, literate African nursery-slave, Midi Sorte. In her first novel for young adults, adult author Cokal (Mirabilis; Breath and Bones) explores the landscape of the female body as it has been for so long: property of parents or husband, subject to the needs of family and state. During a time of deadly court intrigue and disturbing portents-a new star in the sky, a muddy vortex in the earth-Ava, Midi, and Isabel negotiate their individual paths of survival until their fates are woven together, giving them a chance to save the kingdom and each other. Though the novel's frank and upsetting depictions of rape, child-marriage, miscarriage, and syphilis mark this title for mature readers, its brutality, eloquence, and scope are a breathtaking combination. Ages 16-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In this taut, fraught (and not for the squeamish) story of court intrigue in a fictional 1570s Scandinavian city, three women brought together by bad events realize that men are at best self-interested "users of women." Diseases (especially STDs), poisons, and cruelty abound; Cokal is clearly fascinated by Renaissance medical remedies. Vivid writing and a coldly intelligent narrative voice suit the clever plot and fiercely drawn cast. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Skyggehavn, a fictional sixteenth-century kingdom, is a desperate place plagued by madness, disease, and mercury poisoning. Political intrigue, murder, and manipulation abound as Cokal wends the troubling tale of Ava, an aspiring royal seamstress, and Midi, a mute foreign nursemaid, who together orchestrate a daring gambit to ensure both the continued power of the reigning queen and the downfall of the cruel man who sadistically took advantage of them both. The author seamlessly interweaves crooked fairy tales throughout her dark story, which only serves to underscore the grim realities of the women who suffer terrible violence at the hands of brutal men. The graphic depictions of sex and rape make this a difficult read and reserve it for the most mature readers though Cokal gives a powerful and poignant voice to both Ava and Midi, whose indignation simmers until they enact a gruesome form of revenge. Despite the challenging content, the book's lyrical writing, enthralling characters, and compelling plot will give older readers lots to ponder.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
LIKE A FAIRY tale, "The Kingdom of Little Wounds" starts with a pin's prick and a drop of blood. Ava Bingen, a seamstress and the book's main character, must quickly mend Queen Isabel's gown, which has ripped in the midst of a ball. Her needle slips and she pricks royal flesh. It's 1572 in the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn, and Ava, for her incompetence, is thrown into the dungeon. It's a fitting start to this dark young adult novel by Susann Cokal, who writes that "history itself is a fairy tale." Cokal previously wrote two novels for adults: "Mirabilis," set in 14th-century France, and "Breath and Bones," which takes place in the American West of the 1880s. Disease hangs over both narratives, plague in one, tuberculosis in the other. "The Kingdom of Little Wounds" takes syphilis as its central metaphor. The queen suffers from rashes and sores, as do the royal children, who are being slowly poisoned with the mercury meant to cure them. Ava is afraid of the fires, as the servants call syphilis, and so is Midi Sorte, a slave, who is first presented to court naked, covered in sugar crystals, with a plum in her mouth. Queen Isabel is already going mad from the "Italian disease," her own name for the malady, and she is dazed, uncertain about what is going on around her. We see King Christian less frequently and, when we do, he is usually on the toilet. This is lucky, as the king, who is known for his faithfulness, is actually in love with his Groom of the Stool. Christian sits brooding on the pot, while his beloved, Lord Nicolas, waits patiently for him to finish, before picking up the stick with the sponge attached to the end, dipping it in vinegar and lovingly cleaning the sovereign's behind. This is lewd and raucous territory for a young adult novel, almost de Sadean in its rich, sumptuous details. Ava and the queen, when her gown rips, retreat to "the red draped damask and candles of her formal apartments." The moon is a "white burst" that looks "like a headache." And in the king's inner chamber, he and his advisers sit under "an ethereal painted St. Sebastian." Lord Nicolas's penis is "a bird fallen from its nest into a patch of brambles, lost and in need of solace." The sex here may be more conventional than in de Sade, but there is the same undercurrent of corruption. The body is polluted. When the king's oldest daughter, Sophia, dies on her wedding night, the corpse is examined to see if the girl died a daughter or a wife. There is also a lot of blood. Childbirth and menses are constant motifs. Sophia's blood is compared to "rubies," more precious to the kingdom than real gems. When Ava miscarries, her blood spills out in front of the cathedral. Even when the king is wounded, he bleeds "like a woman in her courses." Besides the complicated intrigue between courtiers and servants (Ava must make an unholy alliance with Lord Nicolas in order to get out of prison), magical events also befall the kingdom. Nearly every woman becomes pregnant; some will birth monsters, others healthy babies. A giant sinkhole opens up in the courtyard. A new star is discovered, and Princess Sophia becomes Perished Lily, a wraith, able to slip under doors like a letter. AS IF THE EVENTS in Skyggehavn were not mysterious and perplexing enough, Cokal intersperses surreal tales of female anxiety between chapters. These, perhaps, are the tales told to the royal children, to distract them from their ailments. In one, a father locks his daughter and her baby in a tower until they waste away to just "a few hairs and a fine scrap of softness." In another, a mother saws off her own legs and cooks them for her daughter's wedding banquet. Finally, Cokal narrows her story, following Ava and Midi as they escape the kingdom and its oppressive patriarchy. Being treated as chattel has bruised not only the bodies of these women but also their souls. To be happy, Cokal suggests, Ava and Midi must also try to escape their own fraught and chaotic psyches; they must create a girl world, a refuge where they will be the wise ones, healers, able to cure female maladies, broken hearts, leaky wombs, even Swedish Fire. DARCEY STEINKE is the author, most recently, of the memoir "Easter Everywhere." Her new novel, "Sister Golden Hair," will be published in October.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 11 Up-Cokal here paints an unflinchingly grim portrait of 16th-century palace life as experienced by both servants and royalty. Something is rotten in the fictional Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn as doomed Princess Sophia prepares to wed a man nearly twice her senior. During the celebration, royal seamstress Ava Maria Bingen accidently pricks Queen Isabel during an emergency gown repair, but instead of facing the requisite dismissal (or worse, death), Ava is recruited by narcissistic Lord Nicolas. Stationed in the royal nursery as a spy, Ava's destiny becomes entwined with that of mute nursemaid, Midi Sorte. Betrayal, murder, and political intrigue abound as these women struggle to survive in an environment that uses and abuses them in horrific ways. Cokal's prose is lyrical and beautiful. Characters-even minor ones-are exquisitely rendered, each with complex and often heartbreaking backstories. Reader Susan Duerden is exceptionally versatile. The story and its inhabitants spring to vivid life through her expert touch. However, some caution: frequent and explicit accounts of sexual acts, abuse, disease, and death make this one inappropriate for all but the most mature listeners. It is a superb audiobook, but consider the limited teen appeal before purchasing.-Alissa Bach, Oxford Public Library, MI (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In the royal Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn, in 1572, two women who work in the palace find themselves involved with poisons, intrigue, violence and history. Many voices weave together to form the narrative. Ava Bingen, a seamstress whose fortune changes when she mistakenly pricks the queen with a needle, narrates many chapters. Midi Sorte, the "Negresse" taken aboard a slave ship from an unnamed part of Africa and now a royal nursemaid, tells her story in a stylized, lyrical voice ("I do not like to hold a pen....It feel a silly thing to me, to tell a story through the fingers"). A third-person omniscient narrator adds more perspectives, among them the pained, ineffective king, Christian V, who loves a ruthless male adviser, and Christian's petulant, bloodthirsty daughter, Beatte. Interspersed throughout are short fairy tales with dark twists--a princess rewarded for her craftiness when she steals from a girl who eats a poisoned apple, for instance. The story never disguises the grotesque and public nature of bodies or the violence of the court. Readers frequently see Christian talking to his beloved Nicholas while seated at his toilet stool or doctors meticulously examining royal women's genitals. Both Ava and Midi experience rape at the hands of a powerful man, and Midi in particular is routinely dehumanized, lending the story a sad ring of authenticity. Though the publisher suggests a 16-plus audience, it is not beyond sophisticated younger teens. Sometimes bleak, but complex and carefully crafted--mesmerizing. (Historical fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
