Reviews

From Fantasy Review, 1986: Charles de Lint is an excellent writer, and Yarrow his fourth novel is terrific. Yarrow is a tale of friendship and trust, hope and honor, faith and love, with a dark eroticism for spice. It settles for no cliched scenes and no easy answers, and conveys a reality of place (modern Ottawa) not commonly found in any fiction. Novels as good as Yarrow don't come along that often. As one of de Lint's characters puts it, "while the tale itself…is of utmost importance…the trueness of the telling is what makes up a storyteller's craft." De Lint's telling is indeed true and Yarrow is highly recommended. Rambles: The cool greens of the forest on the cover pulls you in. The creature in the leaves hints at a hidden side of reality that can have a darker shade as Charles de Lint's heroine, Cat Midhir, discovers in Yarrow. The Orb trade paperback is a reissue of de Lint's 1986 novel that followed Cat's struggle to save the Otherworld, her friends, and her own life. Cat is an author whose plots and characters come from her vivid dreams. Cat has visited this dreamscape, the Otherworld, since she was young. There she met Kothlen, a bard who gave her a secret name, Yarrow. Recently, however, Cat has stopped dreaming and finds she can no longer write. As she struggles to break her writer's block, strange things begin to happen. The shadowy Lysistratus stalks Cat, hoping to steal the soul of a true dreamer. And Cat discovers that the Otherworld is not a product of her dreams, but a real place to which she is deeply connected. Along with her friends from the "real" world and a gnome named Tiddy Mun from the Otherworld, Cat has to face Lysistratus in order to save them all. In true fantasy style, the fight requires Cat to face the truths within. Charles de Lint does some of his best character work in Yarrow. All the characters are strongly drawn, even the minor ones who only appear to be killed by Lysistratus. Through his use of imagery, de Lint takes the reader effortlessly into the Otherworld, which is so richly depicted that the reader believes its reality before Cat accepts it. Although the plot may seem to mirror a number of other fantasy novels (girl enters dream world, discovers it's real and faces evil to save everyone), the strong characters and settings become very real to the reader and the end isn't certain until the last page has been turned. You care about de Lint's characters and fight with them every step of the way. Mythlore, 1986: It is always gratifying to watch a writer grow into the style that best serves his/her creative gift. This has certainly been happening with Charles de Lint. …his imagination has expressed itself with a new vitality. Yarrow: An Autumn Tale is by far his most successful work to date, and lines together the many strengths his writing has acquired. The plotting is perfect, holding reader's attention unflaggingly until the last page. …more than confirms de Lint's skill as a fantasist. BooksILoved.com: In Yarrow, Charles de Lint takes a light-hearted, yet candid look at the need for balance between reality and fantasy in our existence. Through Caitlin's journey of self-discovery, de Lint reveals that remaining distant from reality all of the time could mean missing out on a whole lot of wonderful things. Inspiration can come from many sources. But at the same time, he also reminds us of how beautiful it is to dream. Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres because it assumes that modern-day-reality and fantasy can in fact co-exist. De Lint's refreshing writing style reflects this genre, mixing everyday language with Otherworldly terms that can reach out and touch readers from any background or lifestyle. His characters could be any one of us. We can relate with them because in their lives they struggle with the same things we do. What I love the most is that de Lint treats the fanciful with reverent belief and melds it right into his characters' everyday lives. He leads the reader to stop thinking of such things as fairy tales and start believing them as the possible. Yarrow is profound truth clothed in a delightful tale. From Mythlore, 1986: It is always gratifying to watch a writer grow into the style that best serves his/her creative gift. This has certainly been happening with Charles de Lint. …his imagination has expressed itself with a new vitality. Yarrow: An Autumn Tale is by far his most successful work to date, and lines together the many strengths his writing has acquired. The plotting is perfect, holding reader's attention unflaggingly until the last page. …more than confirms de Lint's skill as a fantasist.