Tender Morsels

Tender Morsels by Margo Langan is a rich, highly unusual fantasy novel, set somewhere unspecified in eastern Europe during the medieval times. Liga Longfield is only thirteen when she has her first miscarriage. She gets repeatedly raped and sexually abused by her own father, Da, and gets pregnant multiple times, the baby usually terminated by potions her da buys from the neighboring mudwife, Muddy Annie Bywell. One day, Liga decides she wants to keep her baby, and hides her pregancy from Da. When Da finds out, he is furious, and goes to Muddy Annie's to buy more abortion methods. However, after he doesn't return for many days, Liga finds him dead on the side of the road, killed by a horse and carriage. Now living alone, Liga gives birth to her baby, Branza, though misfortune still lurks around the corner. She gets raped by five town boys, and is soon pregnant again. Devasted, Liga attempts to kill herself and her baby, because life is too cruel for either of them to live. However, a mysterious force prevents her from doing so, and takes her to her own person heaven, a safe place where all evils and woes are gone. There, she gives birth to Urdda, her fiery second daughter. As the years pass by, Liga raises her two daughters in the safe world of her personal heaven. However, greedy men and magicked bears intrude on their barriers, whether accidental or not, and Liga's heavenly life is turned upside down. Tender Morsels was fantastic. The prose was unusual but extraordinary, and captured the darkness and brutality of this tale. The prologue was quite confusing since the writing was so lyrical, so I had to reread it a few times to understand it. (If you go back and reread it after you finish the book, it makes a lot more sense.) However, once that was out of the way, the first few pages were extremely grim; they documented Liga's sexual abuse and miscarriages, though I was mesmerized by the disturbingness. The author does a pretty good job of skirting around the actual rape scenes, and tends to describe the traumatic effects opposed to the action. The characters are deep, realistic, and flawed, and all have their motivations. After I finished reading the book, I just sat there for a moment, slowly surfacing out of the rich world that Tender Morsels takes place in. This book is rich and hearty, like soup, and will keep your belly full of thoughts and questions for the next few days. My favorite character was Urdda, because she was so fiery! She never hesitating in asking for the truth, and loved the spirit of adventure. Branza was more gentle, like her mother Liga, but just as realistic. The character of Bullock bothered me, for some reason, maybe because he seemed a little too bland. I rated this book only four stars because I was not partial to the ending. Though I won't unleash any spoilers, it seemed abrupt, and everybody ended up doing the wrong things and with the wrong people. Also, Branza still seemed to yearn for life in heaven, and many

This book was astounding. I couldn't get enough of it in every way possible, despite the fact that it isn't full of sunshine and rainbows. The subject matter is dark and painful, but is rendered so beautifully. However, the beauty of the story doesn't take away from the brutality that is shown as a part of the world. The language used in the novel is interesting; it has a very distinctive dialect that doesn't necesarily correspond to today's spoken word. It made the flow of the book very different and unexpected at times. You have to be constantly paying attention to make sure to understand what's going on. It didn't quite resolve how I thought it would. I was kept at a distance from the characters, but for some reason it didn't matter. My connection was to the story and the heartache that developed throughout. There's not too much to say about this book besides that it's amazing. Be warned, however; it deals with some very heavy mature themes. If sexual abuse, rape, and the cruelty that humans can exert on one another isn't something you want to read about steer clear. If you can come to terms with the content, the story is filled with hope, love, and beauty. This is a worthwhile read for anyone who picks it up.

Contrary to its location on the library shelf, this is not some soft-spun, lightly magical young adult novel. It is a brutal, heart-wrenching, heart-haunting retelling of the Snow White/Rose Red myth, complete with rape, incest, sorcery, betrayal, personal heavens, and intense love. It is a book that teaches to you read again. It requires your full presence from page one; the use of dialect, the unheralded switching narratives, the brutal violence, the characters that change(for good and bad) and grow(and die and/or are reborn) as you follow them through the narrative, demand thought and meditation. It is not an easy read. But it is an amazing story, and is an important meditation on good and evil, justice, and what it means to live a real life. It is firmly in my top ten of all time books, and I recommend it to readers who like toothsome tales.

This was a hauntingly beautiful book that had me hesitant to turn the page one minute for fear of some other horrifying act being committed, to anxiously waiting to turn the page to see what would happen next. Rarely does a book excite such conflicting emotions in me! For the most part, I can't wait to turn the page, no matter what I'm reading, but the atrocities that are committed on Liga at the beginning of this book are enough to make you shake with indignation and feel sorry for this innocent, young girl who doesn't know any better. Never fear, though, as Liga's situation drastically improves with some unexpected help from the local mudwitch, Annie. Liga's father is truly a horrifying man, both physically and emotionally. Liga hasn't left her home since her mother's death, such is the hold he has on her. Because of the horrifying things that happen to her have left her unable to cope with the real world, she is transported to her own version of heaven with her two daughters, Branza and Urdda. Branza and Urdda are daily reminders of what has happened to her, but she loves them tenderly and cares for them as any mother would do. When the mudwitch, Annie, makes a little magic for a friend, it has unexpected consequences in Liga's heaven. Here is the crux of the story: Liga's two young daughters, vastly different from each other, have differing reactions to the animals and people that travel from world to heaven. These consequences can be lasting and will change the course of the three women's lives forever. All in all this is a delicious book that is not for the faint of heart. Let me tell you, things do get better, but not necessarily before they get worse. The story is filled to the brim of love, friendship and family which will warm the heart of anyone who picks up this truly beautiful story. Notes on the Cover: I believe it's Branza with bear number one (Ramstrong) in the woods. It's beautiful and tender and shows that true happiness and beauty can come out of even the worst of circumstances.

Margo Lanagan's retelling of the fairy tale, Snow White, Rose Red is a novel that succeeds in the way that the most compelling of fairy tale retellings or fantasy novels do: through using the fantastic/magickal elements to tell a story that feels more real and believable then if the reader imagines the story without these elements. Tender Morsels explores aspects of experience many people dont like to look at closely(brutal violence against girls/women in many forms), telling not only the truths of these experiences but the truth of how deeply these violations scar the women, unspooling the layers of effects on their lives. Tender Morsels is compelling and original partly because the emotional tone conveys a depth of honesty, compassion, and warmth that is very rare. The language is original and poetic and a pleasure to read. Lanagan's central character, Liga, is so wounded by rape and abuse, that her desire for safety above all else and at the cost of every adventure, new experience, and even reality is a character not often seen in literature with this kind of sensitivity and understanding; and this makes her journey more touching. Lanagan explores some dark topics, but she does so in a way that does not dwell on the specific details, and instead focuses on the emotional significance of these traumatic events. The words that designate these dark topics conjure a graphic nature that do not convey the spirit of this book, and are to my mind, misleading when listed. Tender Morsels is an emotional journey, and like many original versions of fairy tales, the characters spend some time dwelling in the dark woods on their way to transformation and growth. Tender Morsels questions something very significant fundamental and relevant: how can we find a way to live in a world and among people when such dark devastating brutality is a part of it. This book is not about smothering us in darkness, but helping the characters and us to find a way to allow and accept the truth of a world in which the light and the dark to co-exist, so that the darkness does not consume them/us, and they/we do not either live in the false artificial light of denial. She questions what is safety? and at what cost? and how do we view those women who have suffered so that they fear everyone and everything and what place do they have in society? What is our responsibility to them? How we avoid them and deny them, some of us preferring they remain in their hidden places, others kindly drawing them into life. She poses complicated moral questions with emotional intensity and insight, and doesnt take the simple easy answers, or pretend that the answers are the same for all of us. She presents us with characters that have different experiences needs and desires, and does not tell us that one way is the right way. Her characters are imperfect, flawed and lovable. The shifting points of view are interesting and believable. She shows us how our view of the world can completel