Enchanted Ivy by Sara Beth Durst
… One problem I often have with contemporary fantasy is its tendency to ignore the magic of the world around us in its longing for something Other. Enchanted Ivy avoids this problem by striking a nice balance. There’s certainly a great deal of otherworldly magic, as evidenced by the dragons and faeries and talking gargoyles and cute were-tiger boys. Yet I got a real sense that all this magic was inspired by the feelings the campus of Princeton genuinely evoked in Durst. I can actually picture the author looking at the great old buildings and the gargoyles and imagining they could come to life at any second. Otherworldly magic inspired by a place that is, to the author, already magical… The plot is a bit predictable and most of the twists I saw coming. But even so, as adventure/quest stories go, Enchanted Ivy is a lot of fun. In particular, a college campus is a rather unusual setting for this sort of book, which really makes it stand out from the crowd… Enchanted Ivy promises magic, adventure, mystery, romance, and humor, and delivers on all accounts. I could easily see Sarah Beth Durst becoming a favorite author, and I look forward to more of her work in the future. Read the rest.
Looks like something I’d enjoy. Thanks, Beth!
I really want to read this too! Magic at college is a favorite concept of mine, and it’s done far too rarely. Even though it would seem to lend itself well to fantasy books. You’ve got young people striking out on their own for the first time, plenty of urban legends about features on campus, hot guys…;)
Yeah, all those things. And since my college years were some of the best in my life, I like to re-live them in stories. I teach college, now, so that’s still a big part of my life. I love college towns, I love the scholarly environment — the whole atmosphere. Something I can really relate to and that I can automatically connect with in a story.
Yes, that whole mixture of intellectual discovery and social whirl and so on…I loved college too. It was an atmosphere that felt both comfortable and exotic to me in a weird sort of way. It’s a large part of why I love Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin and Elizabeth Hand’s Waking the Moon (though the protagonist of the latter skips class far more than I ever did, lol!).
Glad to know that this is a good book. I have it on order from my library. I wanted to read it since I live in NJ and there aren’t a lot of fantasy book set here.