Publishers Weekly
★ 09/23/2013
“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.)
From the Publisher
[A]lmost de Sadean in its rich, sumptuous details.
—The New York Times Book Review
The events at court are recounted in richly detailed prose that renders immediate the sights and smells of a time when science was deeply intertwined with superstition and politics was a blood sport. ... The novel demands and rewards full immersion in its account of the everyday life, beliefs, and medical practices of the royals, and readers will definitely come away with a (dis)taste for the cultural history of the Renaissance. ... Cokal skillfully and unapologetically blurs the lines between fairy tale and history.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
[T]he novel's ... brutality, eloquence, and scope are a breathtaking combination.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This novel is distinctive in thought and elocution, but it is also dense and full of adult content.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Complex and carefully crafted — mesmerizing.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Cokal creates a mystical, shadowy setting full of intrigue and hidden passions.
—VOYA
The author seamlessly interweaves crooked fairy tales throughout her dark story... [T]he book’s lyrical writing, enthralling characters, and compelling plot will give older readers lots to ponder
—Booklist
Brazen, baroque, The Kingdom of Little Wounds plots coordinates of history, fever, and magic in such a way that each is occasionally disguised as the other. However, there's no disguising Susann Cokal's immediate rise to eminence as a pantocrator of new realms. I lived in her controversial kingdom for only a week, but I suspect and hope I shall never recover.
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and What-the-Dickens
There are deep and shallow reading experiences; this is a deep reading experience. There is nothing like it, though the fossil record flashes all kinds of petticoat. (Sigrid Undset. Margaret Atwood.) Elegant, complex, and sharp as a needle.
—Blythe Woolston, winner of the William Morris Prize and author of Black Helicopters
An epic, mercurial tale of astounding beauty, power, and madness.
—Gigi Amateau, author of Claiming Georgia Tate
Cokal's complex and dark fairy tale is not merely a primer of Renaissance cultural life — it's a window cut directly into that world.
—San Francisco Chronicle
By combining fantasy with an incredibly realistic depiction of Renaissance Europe, Cokal brings to life a world that easily could have been a true one. Her exquisite descriptions spring off the page and into your senses. Just as easily as you marvel at the ornate details of a gown, you’ll wrinkle your nose at the scent of unwashed courtiers’ bodies and uncleaned chambers. You’ll gasp at the iniquities of the time and root for the unaristocratic underdogs. Cokal makes Skyggehavn as real as any writer can make her fictional realm.
—TeenReads.com
School Library Journal - Audio
03/01/2014
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
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2013-09-15
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)
