Book Review: Night Calls, by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

This review was originally written on September 11, 2014

Night Calls, by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel 

After all the failures to launch I've read lately, I have to say, this was a totally unexpected and very welcome surprise.

There's probably no need to recap the plot, but I will say that, on the surface, it's not exactly new. Night Calls takes a witchcrafty view of magic; rituals, herbs, spirits...but even though there are tons of witch books (though if we're being precise, Alfreda is a practitioner or wizard, not a witch), Kimbriel did a really, really good job with it.

I think this book is classified as YA, but let me assure you: this is not one of those YA stories that's so juvenile or simply told that an adult can't enjoy it...and considering Alfreda opens the story at age (I think) 11, that's saying a lot. It helps, I think, that the setting requires the main character to be more mature than one of today's pre-teens. The story has a distinct Little House on the Prairie feel to it, and even though there's action, it's interspersed with a lot of regular life and learning. Those who require a non-stop joyride in their books may not take to this story. Personally, I think it's nice to not have to read something that has my pulse going at warp speed through the whole thing; I like a substantial story, and the style allows the time we readers need to grow with the characters.

From what I could tell - which may not be much considering I'm not a historian - the author did her homework with respect to realism and accuracy. Sometimes, even when a book is only nominally historical (for instance, set in a different world with medieval-level technology), you find little anachronisms that jar you out of the story. Not so here. From the geography to the culture to the religion, I was impressed by how far I was able to immerse myself in Olde Tyme Michigan Territory.

One of the things that most surprised me was how literary the book was. That adjective came to me while I was reading the story, and afterward, I read a thing on the author's Goodreads page about how she's been deemed too literary for regular readers and too regular to be classed as literature. (That's paraphrased.) Now, that could very well represent the views of the publishers, but I'd have to disagree with them. This author actually combines the best of both worlds into something that is artistic and enriching and amazingly entertaining all at once.

(Frankly, I think whoever does the marketing for her publisher ought to have his or her legs taken off at the knees. I devour fantasy, and even though the book has been around for nearly 20 years, I'd never heard of it or her. I feel cheated!)

Truly, I'm astonished, enough that I'm adding this to the short list of my all-time favorites. The sequel doesn't disappoint either (I may have liked that one even better than this first book), and I'm typing this now to kill time before book 3 is released tomorrow.

Especially if you like themes of witchcraft and coming-of-age - and really, even if those aren't normally your thing - I strongly recommend this book. I've been trying to think of another book that would make a good comparison, and I can't. It's beyond compare. And it's one that I'll be re-reading many many times in the years to come.

9/10 stars