A Curse of Magick

(Nimue, review)

I’ve thought for a long time that a lot of myths make considerably more sense if you assume the main protagonists were mostly teenagers. It’s not an unreasonable thought – people in prehistory had shorter life expectancies, with 25-30 being a lot more normal. It’s therefore reasonable to assume that active adults are in fact young adults. It makes sense of the emotional aspects of the stories, the cockiness, impetuousness, the rash choices and the choosing of preposterous hills to die on.

This is a YA novel take on the tale of Grainne and Diarmuid and the tale works very well indeed with overtly teenage characters. It isn’t a story I’ve spent a long time with, but this felt like a faithful take on the original. For anyone unfamiliar with the story I should point out that like a lot of ‘Celtic’ myths, it doesn’t go well and the ending is sad. It’s not a conventional sort of romance, and there were a few sequences that were tragic, so it pays to be prepared for that.

If you’re the sort of adult reader who, like me, appreciates a good YA tale, this is for you. If you’re looking for an accessible way into the mythology, this is a good read. It has a nice pace to it, plenty of magic, and detail and I found it a delight. If you’ve got young readers, this is a bit sexy and there are some slightly gory bits, so it depends a bit on your young human. I’d have no qualms about buying a copy for fourteen and up – Grainne is seventeen, which is something of an indicator.

I have read some of the older stories in the forms we have them. I’ve read The Tain. I found most of it to be a slog – it’s not a form of fiction I do well with. Ancient mythic stuff doesn’t tell stories in the same way we do, and there should be no shame in not getting along with it. If you want to engage with ancient stories but don’t get on with how they are told, looking for books like this is a really good option. 

Here is the link on Amazon: