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I, Coriander
299 pages
A dark, spellbinding fairytale that bridges the grim reality of Puritan London with the dangerous enchantments of a hidden fairy realm.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping through a hidden door in a shadowy, seventeenth-century London alleyway and tumbling straight into a dark fairytale. The narrative unfolds at a steady, deliberate pace, carefully balancing the oppressive, gray reality of Puritan zealotry with the shimmering, dangerous allure of the fairy realm. The prose is lyrical and deeply atmospheric, wrapping the reader in a mood that is both melancholic and fiercely resilient. It is a story steeped in grief and the harshness of growing up, yet illuminated by sparks of defiant magic and first love. This beautifully textured experience will captivate readers who crave historical fantasy with a gothic edge, where the real world is just as treacherous as the enchanted one.
- Mood
- shadowy
- spellbinding
- oppressive
- ethereal
- Tone
- earnest
- melancholic
- atmospheric
- resilient
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- grief and loss · religious zealotry versus magic · coming of age · hidden worlds · reclaiming power
- The writing
- Lyrical and richly textured, weaving gritty historical realism with the delicate, dangerous beauty of a dark fairytale.
- The arc
- Moves from the devastating loss of childhood innocence through a dark period of oppressive captivity, culminating in a courageous embrace of magical heritage.
- Who it's for
- Fans of dark, historical fantasy who appreciate stories where the mundane world's cruelty is matched only by the perilous wonders of the fae.
Content notes
- death of a parent
- child abuse and neglect
- religious extremism
- imprisonment
About the book
The novel tells the story of a seventeenth-century girl named Coriander.
Coriander starts an adventure she cannot stop when she slips on a pair of silver shoes from an anonymous person. Her mother insists that she must not have them, whilst she herself insists she will. On Coriander's ninth birthday her mother gives in and lets Coriander have the shoes. Shortly after, Coriander's mother dies. Coriander's father remarries, to a Puritan woman with a daughter and a set of strong beliefs. She soon changes the house and brings an old friend of hers to meet Coriander, a preacher with horrible methods. Coriander's father is arrested and she is left with her stepmother and stepsister. The stepmother dismisses Coriander's favorite servant as well as friend. After Coriander hides a doll in the cupboard, her stepmother is furious with her. Coriander longs for her father's return. The preacher and her stepmother Maud unleash their fury and lock Coriander in a red chest for twelve years.
It all starts to slowly change, a thread that never ends, and one that Coriander cannot control.
She soon finds out all her mother's deepest secrets and must fight the evil Queen Rosemore, her grandfather's second wife, who has put him into a trance. To save her mother's beautiful yet deadly power and her father's faith, she falls in love with Tycho, a fairy prince from the other world, a dangerous thing for her to do. As all things she once knew vanish, she must fight the horrors of the angry Puritan world in which she lives and those of the world of magic, which holds the secret of time and all things possible.
In the end she (Coriander) ends up with the prince, Tycho, who was disguised in the Kings fair...
Description from Open Library.
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