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Jan. 8th, 2020 08:34 pmMy first book of 2020 was Aster Glenn Gray's The Wolf and the Girl, a novella that combines several of my favorite elements: historical revolutionaries, early cinema history, and plucky young women cursed by evil magic who make the best of their situation by developing their own vaudeville acts!
Masha, the book's protagonist, is a nice Russian peasant lass living with her elderly and vaguely magical grandmother; Raisa, the deuteragonist, is Masha's school friend who ran off to join the anarchists! Unfortunately, as a result of some bad revolutionary decisions involving peer pressure and the devil, Raisa has returned home as a transformed wolf, with an evil sorceress in hot pursuit.
The first half of the book focuses on Raisa, Masha, and Masha's grandmother; the second is Raisa and Masha's adventures on the run. The silent cinema bits in the back half were especially fun for me because a.) I got the rec for The Girl From God's Country from the author and it was really enjoyable to see the bits that influenced and b.) I just really dig early cinema stuff!, but the whole novella is extremely charming -- and I've seen so, so, so many Red Riding Hood takes that are just About Sexuality, full stop, that it's so nice to be reminded that there are, in fact, other ways to take the story; going into the woods and coming of age can mean learning how to support your friends! or stand up to evil possibly-demonic sorceresses! or come into your own as a silent film ingenue!
Masha, the book's protagonist, is a nice Russian peasant lass living with her elderly and vaguely magical grandmother; Raisa, the deuteragonist, is Masha's school friend who ran off to join the anarchists! Unfortunately, as a result of some bad revolutionary decisions involving peer pressure and the devil, Raisa has returned home as a transformed wolf, with an evil sorceress in hot pursuit.
The first half of the book focuses on Raisa, Masha, and Masha's grandmother; the second is Raisa and Masha's adventures on the run. The silent cinema bits in the back half were especially fun for me because a.) I got the rec for The Girl From God's Country from the author and it was really enjoyable to see the bits that influenced and b.) I just really dig early cinema stuff!, but the whole novella is extremely charming -- and I've seen so, so, so many Red Riding Hood takes that are just About Sexuality, full stop, that it's so nice to be reminded that there are, in fact, other ways to take the story; going into the woods and coming of age can mean learning how to support your friends! or stand up to evil possibly-demonic sorceresses! or come into your own as a silent film ingenue!
