This was so good and also so very *different*. I only started reading Carey pretty recently, with the Pandominion duology, but of course I heard a lot about The Girl with All the Gifts and I've wondered more than once if M. R. Carey has set himself a challenge to write as disparately and range as broadly across genre as possible. 'Cause wow.

Other reviews have discussed themes in the book--found family and adventure and the dangers of bigotry--and I like those very much and they're nice, but it's not what made the book weird and unique and odd in a great way for me.

The story is set in the 12th century, and big, load-bearing structural elements of the story and worldbuilding are drawn from very old ideas about the world and its origins, which is SO NEAT. I'd rather not give much away, but aspects of early gnostic texts (and other medieval ideas) work their way into the story in ways I wouldn't have expected to encounter in fantasy.

Like some chapters of Pandominion, this book is narrated by an omniscient first-person narrator, Willem (or rather, the person who was once Willem). I mention it because some folks have Feelings about first-person POV in narration, and because I sometimes thought I detected a similar narrative voice to that of Pandominion, a telling tongue-in-cheek amusement creeping through, which I enjoyed.

This was different and fun and it felt good to read. If I had a critique, it might be that the ending was too neat and tidy, all tied up, but honestly in these days of rampant fascism, unchecked dictators, and grasping billionaires, I'm less inclined to chafe at happy endings. The writing, as I've observed in other books of Carey's, is beautiful.

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for an ARC. My views are my own.

"Unnatural things walked the land (you may trust me on this , for I was one of them )."

I’ve been wanting to read more horror so when I saw the words ‘medieval dark fantasy’ I had a feeling that it would be for me. My goodness, was I ever right! Everything about this unique tale worked so well for me, starting from the writing style. The language was exquisite; it felt appropriate for the time period, slightly archaic and yet did not lose any of its accessibility or relevance. I enjoyed noting down so many quotes!

The story is being told to us by Once-Was-Willem, a young (and entirely lovable) undead boy who is basically just a mess of bones jutting out in strange directions. He tells the story of how he came to be revived (by the evil sorcerer Cain Caradoc) and subsequently befriended a whole host of other unnatural beings in the surrounding forests. If that sounds a bit cozy and even weirdly lovely, it’s because it is! But it’s also incredibly grotesque, disturbing, and wildly infuriating at times.
Once-Was-Willem and his friends are beyond the fringes of society and their strange abilities and even odder looks scare everyone in the tiny village of Cosham. In fact they lean so hard into their fear and bigotry that it leads them into a series of terrible choices with tragic consequences. The term ‘dark fantasy’ is not used lightly and I’d describe it more as folk horror with a large dose of body horror.

I loved the soft magic system and the lore which felt almost mythological in its scope. It even included a twist on religious concepts that I ate up (I’d say more but it’s definitely a spoiler)! I feel like for such a short novel it did a lot and it did it well. Part of the reason it resonated with me is that despite the very dark themes and horrible happenings, the ending was so beautifully and painfully hopeful. It’s easily one of my best reads of the year so far if not the best!

⚔️ONCE WAS WILLEM⚔️ by @realmikecarey is a historical horror fantasy where magic is real and dark and dangerous creatures and revenants roam the countryside. Thank you to the author, @netgalley, and the publisher @orbitbooks_us for the e-ARC.

🏰🏰🏰

"I speak of monsters and magic, battles and bloodletting, and the crimes of desperate men. I speak also of secret things. Of that which lies beneath us and that which impedes above. By the time you come to the end of this account, you will know the truth of your own life and death, the path laid out for your immortal soul, your origin, and your inevitable end. You will not thank me."

A medieval fantasy mixed with horror elements and dark folklore that takes place in 12th century England, this story follows the journey of Willem, a revenant child brought back to life by the local sorcerer after being begged to do so by his grieving parents. The Willem that returns to them, however is not the same and is banished from his parents house as a monster. His loneliness is short lived when he bands together with a multitude of creatures and unexpected activists to defeat the sorcerer terrorizing the people in this new area.

I really enjoyed the unique yet familiar story here that reminded me of FRANKENSTEIN meets MISTS OF AVALON or GAME OF THRONES. The themes in the book include xenophobia and othering, empathy and tolerance, found family and fighting for what you believe in. I was charmed by so many of the characters that range from shapeshifters to nixies to boggards to magicians and all have their own reasons for joining the cause. This book is bloody, heartwarming, dark and moving. The gothic atmosphere, the urgent need for correcting past wrongs and the incredibly diverse characters kept me immersed.

I ended up listening to the audio of this one and highly recommend it for the atmosphere and narrator's exquisite cadence and storytelling voice. If you are a fan of dark fantasy this one is absolutely worth picking up.

CW’s: violence, a lot of religious iconography/talk but appropriate for the era, some body horror, death, main character is raised from the dead.



My Rating: 2.25 stars



Let me start by saying I usually LOVE Orbit’s titles.



This was a huge disappointment, because I LOVE Orbit.



Honestly. I just don’t think this book was my cup of tea. I mean, it scratched a bit of an itch in that it hit similar to a history book, or a Primary source like some kind of journal. But it just didn’t evoke a lot of anything in me initially. It took a bit to get into the book and to focus on it because it had that undercurrent of a historic novel. And it is Historic Fantasy, so that makes sense.



I think the narrator really did this book a service in that he was engaging. The chapters being shorter and titled helped too.



This is definitely a book that leans into the “historical” part of “historical fantasy” and is also character driven, rather than plot driven or driven by the magic. I would definitely say it’s also relatively low-fantasy, so there’s not a lot of world building to speak of. Which really does shift the focus of this book and the kind of audience who would like it.



This book crawls at a snail’s pace, if you’re used to reading historical/non fiction books, it’s really not that slow nor does it feel out of place. The book reads similar to an autobiography, and it essentially is an ficitonal/fantastical autobiography.



There is a pretty heavy religious component, it’s time appropriate, so it isn’t out of nowhere, but there are a lot of mentions of someone’s “Spirit” as well as “God” and “Children of Adam and Eve” throughout the novel. It honestly, for me, does detract from the novel. But this is more of a personal preference than something I think is outright badly done per se. It does pull the rating down a bit, for me, but I don’t think the religious component outwardly problematic in itself. Maybe if I were more cynical or critical, I might wonder if this era was chosen on purpose to make the religious component make sense. But I don’t know.



Anna was an okay character, she wasn’t the most dynamic FMC I’ve read, and it definitely seems she’s written as a love interest rather than another character. But I think it’s hard to find really well written, fleshed out, dynamic women/girl characters written by men. It’s just the state of writing.



The writing is very stylistic, it’s this weird religious-fantasy kind of vibe to it, it feels very much like a parable mixed with historical narrative or an old fashioned fable, but again, like mentioned prior, there’s this historical edge that almost feels too boring. The pace is pretty slow going, it moves at a snail’s pace.



I also would’ve liked to see more of Bethali’s story. It would’ve been a really good opportunity for a female-rage plotline. There could have been this element of an angry woman seeking revenge on a man (Cain Caradoc) who is a genuinely awful and selfish person. And worse, the book focuses more on this man than it does on the women who deserve attention more. It kind of seems like I was supposed to like him? I couldn’t tell. I genuinely couldn’t tell if I was supposed to like the women or not, or dislike them, or find them too angry? Because I felt none of those things but they didn’t feel like they got the attention and focus and care they deserved and all of that energy and writing was poured into Willem and Cain Caradoc, who, respectively, were boring and awful. I think it’s possible to make a villainous character/anti-hero charismatic, iconic, and funny. Some examples, Rumplestiltskin and Regina from Once Upon a Time, or the MMC from The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, which is also a good example of a FMC. More are Solomir from the For the Wolf sequel, For the Throne, all the MMC’s from The Enchanted Isles, even Sylvester from Harvest of Hearts I totally love the evil little wretch when they’re well done, this just wasn’t.



I think this book also just suffered from too many characters that are just this one-and-done kind of thing. They last a few chapters at most (many of these characters who are treated as disposable are women) and have little in the means of character arcs.



And honestly? The more I read of this book the more the writing seemed like it was trying too hard. I don’t think calling it purple prose even covers it. It just felt like the author wanted to write a novel that would become a classic or win an award. I don’t know, it just felt like this writing wasn’t organic.



Overall, I just kept hitting this problem of feeling like I could care a bit, like it a bit, and then I’d go right back to being bored of the characters, the plot, and the writing.



Honestly? I didn’t even care about the climax, about Cain Caradoc’s Cosham rising up, or his defeat. I just couldn’t bring myself to root for anyone. Even the women in the book fell flat for me. Willem felt too much like a passive observer and I was never on the edge of my seat or gripping my Kindle in anticipation. I didn’t eat this book up.



It was just meh.

ONCE WAS WILLEM by M. R. Carey is a fantasy novel set in medieval England. The publisher's synopsis describes it as utterly unique, and that's putting it mildly. A lot is going on within its pages. And I mean a lot. It's a little insane.

I loved Mr. Carey's attention to historical detail. While the tone of the story is snarky, you still get a vivid picture of what life was like back then, in all its unpleasantness. He does not glorify the era or gloss over the finer details to present a sanitized image. We get to see the unwashed masses with rudimentary education, if any at all. I like that he makes this choice, even if he does so with as sarcastic a tone as you can imagine.

Once you look beyond the historical aspect of ONCE WAS WILLEM, the rest is a hodge-podge of all things fantasy. You have an evil sorcerer, a witch ghost, shapeshifters, angels, half-angels, a zombie, and an entity made out of water. This is on top of the feudal lord in his castle, his retinue, and those living in the nearby village. There are so many characters that it becomes difficult to care about any of them.

Therein lies my issue. ONCE WAS WILLEM is insanity in a book. Highly entertaining but so outlandish that I couldn't take any of it seriously. I had no emotional stake in the action, as none of the characters made me empathize or even sympathize with them. I was purely an observer of it all, and that's not how I like my stories. I can see other readers thoroughly enjoying the craziness of it all, but I was glad I read it and even happier to finish it.

I loved this medieval horror adventure! It felt fresh and familiar at the same time. I enjoyed the found family and heart felt story within in the confines of a horror novel.

Once Was Willem takes the idea that we’d do anything for the ones we love—especially parents when it comes to their children—and turns it on its head. At what point does unconditional love become conditional? And at what point is someone you love no longer that person any longer? Once Was Willem is tragic, suspenseful, uplifting, dark, magical, and filled with action and drama.

I’ve been a fan of Mike Carey for quite some time, and have grown especially fond of his novels. The Girl with All the Gifts is a book I still think of regularly. While it initially took me a little while to get into a rhythm with reading this book, once it clicked, it really clicked, and I fell in love with the quirky cast of characters. I think if there’s anything that I can find fault with, it’s that I wanted more of the extended cast, and to know their stories. But I think that could be a fantastic set of spinoffs to bring to life down the line.

All in all, a satisfying fantasy adventure with a delightful cast of characters!

Unique story, I've never read anything quite like it. I actually really enjoyed it. M.R. Carey hit it out the park with this one. I love his writing.

An incredibly fun and incredibly strange medieval fantasy; I've really never read anything like this before. Carey creates such fascinating characters and magic, and I could barely put my copy down as I read. Definitely will be recommending!

I requested this book without knowing much about it, because I had enjoyed The Girl with All the Gifts several years ago. I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did. For one thing, the entire book reads like a fairy tale, just with a much deeper look at the characters, who become lovable even though plenty of them are objectively terrifying. I was immediately drawn in and read this in one sitting. The writing style was incredible and I loved the ways the author drew from various fairy tale tropes, while still making it wholly unique and horrifying.

Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey
Once Was Willem is a compelling, emotionally charged story blending speculative fiction with deep human themes. Carey’s character-driven narrative is poignant and thought-provoking, making this a standout read for fans of literary sci-fi.

An incredibly entertaining and truly unique blend of medieval fantasy, folklore, and horror, Once Was Willem gives us monstrous characters with more humanity than the humans around them.

Set in 12th-century England, the story follows a band of supernatural beings as they fight a growing evil. Some of these beings are newly created; others are older, more mythic, and have long roamed the land. Our main character is Willem Turling, a boy resurrected by his grieving parents after a deal with a wizard. Willem returns from the grave utterly changed in mind and body, and soon names himself Once-Was-Willem to mark the difference. Since discovering the story’s twists and turns is part of the joy, I’ll focus more on the reading experience than the plot.

Even though we stay in Willem’s POV, his keen observations offer insights into the histories and inner lives of the other characters. That lens keeps the chapters fresh, and the short length of most chapters makes it easy to fly through several in a sitting.

Carey’s use of medieval vocabulary and cadence clearly reflects the research he did on the period and genre. It strengthens the folkloric tone without ever feeling too dense. (I was glad to be reading on Kindle for quick dictionary lookups, though!) The archaic phrasing and imagery helped immerse me in the world and gave the book a dark fairytale texture that I absolutely loved.

It did take me a few chapters to get fully invested, but once it clicked, I couldn’t put it down. What at first feels like separate characters, events, and places eventually threads together in elegant and satisfying ways as the group of misfits works toward their shared goal of stopping the evil antagonist seeking immortality.

If you enjoy fantasy, found family, eerie but grounded horror, fables or folktales, or just medieval settings in general, Once Was Willem is absolutely worth your time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC in exchange for a review.

This is such a unique style of story that bucks the formula and tells a cohesive, thoughtful tale. It feels so different from anything else Carey has written and it was an absolute joy to read (although the story wasn't super happy).

Willem was a boy in Pennick until he was brought back from the dead. Unfortunately, he was no longer the same Willem. After he is forced from his home, he encounters some other people who don’t quite fit in, and they rename him Once Was Willem.

I have loved this author in the past, and this book has a very interesting premise. The characters that Once Was Willem meets have some unique qualities. Unfortunately, I found the story slow to develop and the writing style was a little sludgy. It did not hold my interest consistently. At the end, the action picked up when Once Was Willem and his colleagues have to unite to try to save a group of children. The author obviously drew upon The Magnificent Seven (or maybe Seven Samurai). There is room for a sequel at the end of the book. I am not enthusiastic about a sequel. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

First a thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this eARC.

This book reminded me a little of The Salt Grows Heavy, and also a little of The Gates, but it didn’t quite have the zhuzh of those books.

I’m a huge fan of M. R. Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts is one of my favorite books of all time and I really enjoyed reading Infinity Gate & Echo of Worlds last year. So when I saw he had a new book coming out, I jumped at the chance to be able to read it - even more so since one of my OTHER favorite authors, Buehlman (author of ANOTHER one of my favorite books, The Daughters' War called this “A masterpiece of medieval dark fiction” so all the stars seemed to be aligning…

But there was something just missing with this book. I don’t know what it was, because it had all the individual pieces that would make for a great book and one I’d really enjoy. I’m really bummed because I was so looking forward to this book.

I will definitely continue to religiously read anything M. R. Carey publishes, and I don’t think this was a bad book, but… ya know?

This was so good! One of the most original fantasies I've read in a long time. I thought Carey did a very good job of evoking a medieval setting without going overboard on the period-appropriate language. I was fully immersed in the story. There were a lot of really interesting and original ideas in this book, and they all worked very well for me.

I originally read this as a digital ARC, but I loved it so much, I went out and bought a physical copy immediately.

This was utterly captivating story about a band of unusual beings who must work to protect a village from a malevolent force.

Cosham is a small village, part of the holdings of a Baron, who is attacked and killed, along with his family, by a thief (and former Saxon soldier) and his band of hard men. The thief sets himself up as the new Baron, and Cosham mostly feels no difference.

Willem was born in the village of Cosham, and he and his family farmed their land and lived happy lives. When Willem sickened unexpectedly and died, his parents were undone, and a year after his death, travelled to a wizard to ask for Willem to be returned to them. The wizard, Cain Caradoc, is very old, but appears as a young man, thanks to consuming a part of the souls of children as payment for each job he does. He takes a bit of Willem's, and resuscitates the twelve-year-old. Problem is, Willem has been dead and buried for a year, and, well, rot has happened, so the boy who comes out of the ground is monstrous in appearance.

He's rejected by his terrified parents, and run off by the villagers, and ends up living in the woods by himself. He renames himself Once Was Willem, and wanders the forest. He meets four unusual beings, two shape changers, Ana and Kel, the spirit of a river, Peter Floodfoot, and an ancient spirit, Unsung Jill, who can send souls to hell with just a quick look at her eyes.

When Cain Caradoc comes to the Baron's castle, he decides to stay when he finds an incredibly ancient source of power in the castle. When he is soundly rebuffed by the power, he decides he needs the protection of child's soul to help him get at the immense power. And he decides to take the soul of Betheli, a sickly child of Cosham. And it's this that sets off a series of events in Cosham (including the burning of a witch) and ultimately leads to Cosham demanding the help of Once Was Willem.

This was so, so good! The writing was wonderful; I loved the way author M.R. Carey employed a style evocative of earlier English. It establishes the tone for a story set in the far past, and reinforces the mindset of people for whom religion, superstition and magic would have been held as important, and necessary for explaining the unexplainable around them.

Though the story is dark, it's also incredibly heartwarming and humorous, as Once Was Willem becomes friends with others also perceived as monsters. There's something incredibly satisfying also about how the villagers of Cosham must eventually turn to monsters to save them from a real monster, the evil wizard Cain, who initially seems not too terrible, but swiftly reveals himself as utterly awful.

I loved Once Was Willem's voice, as he narrates his own history and how he and his fellow monster become fast friends and how they defeat a wizard. I also love how Once Was Willem has their exploits into prose, and sent into the world, as this points to how important storytelling is, and how legends travel the world, and stay relevant for years after.

I will definitely come back to this tale, as I fell in love with Once Was Willem the monster and his wonderful friends.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I finished this book earlier this month but it has taken me some time to get my thoughts in order.  I think it's because of the unusual style of the novel.  The story is set in the 1100s in England.  Willem is a young peasant boy who lives with his parents in Cosham.  Unfortunately, he meets an untimely end.  His parents are distraught and visit a sorcerer named Cain Caradoc to do the unthinkable and ask for their son to be brought back to life.

This does not go well.  Willem has been dead for too long and is brought back in a monstrous form.  He is stuck in an in-between almost zombie-like fashion where he cannot die.  His parents and village are horrified and drive him out of the village.  Also Willem does not realize that the sorcerer has stolen a piece of his soul as the price for this resurrection.

Willem flees to the forest where he meets a variety of other monsters like water spirits and shapeshifters.  He makes a new life with this found family and has set his old life aside.  However, Caradoc plans an assault against Cosham with a focus on stealing the children.  The villagers ask Willem for help.  Willem's remaining humanity and compassion leads him to battle the sorcerer.

I found both the beginning and ending of the novel to be a lot of fun.  However, there were issues that led to this read being less than satisfying overall.  First is that the villagers are NOT nice people and I had a hard time caring about any of them given how selfish they acted.  It started to make me want them to suffer because of how nasty they were.  However, evil sorcerer should not win.  Also I don't like feeling hateful of characters that I should want to thrive.  Even the children had much better morals than their parents.

There were also massive issues with pacing and style of writing.  I was okayish up until the 73% mark when the book stalled big time.  I had to put down and pick up the book many times before I could keep going.  I did not get back into the flow of the story until the 91% mark,  Some of this was because of the non-linear timeline and side tangents that Willem went on.  Some of this was because of being tired of the archaic feel of the written and spoken language in the book.  Both of these things were very fun in the beginning but grew wearisome as the plot progressed.  It was other bloggers reviews that helped me finish as they said the ending was worth it.  I am not so sure even while I liked it.  Having, basically, that 18% of the book be hard going was substantial.  Also I think a lot of that section could have been trimmed down substantially.  Like the Hell and French parts.

I wonder if I would have liked this story a lot more had it been a longer novella for instance given that the style and story concepts were fun.  Plus I really did enjoy the characters of Willem, the water spirit, the village healer, and the girl in the stone.  It is a hard book to recommend given its unusual nature but if historical fantasy with monsters sounds good then give it a try.  Arrrrr!

3.5 rounded down

I last read Carey with Infinity Gate, part one of a duology. In my review I mentioned being eager for part two, but I have not yet read it. I have no excuse – it’s just that it’s sci-fi and every time I think about it, it feels unimaginably dense. My reading energy remains low and anything complex just seems too hard these days. Anyway, a friend told me about this book, and the medieval setting intrigued me.

Willem begins narrating this tale with a battle between a baron holding an English keep and the forest raider who organizes his forces to take it. The first 10% of the book felt like it was introducing me to characters who would be important later (which, in retrospect – only kind of?), but their relation to the narrator was at first unclear and I was having a hard time connecting.

The focus then turns to a village, Cosham, that is part of the baron’s holding, and Willem’s parents, Jon and Margaret. Willem is their only child, much beloved. When he dies unexpectedly (though, how unexpected was a child dying in medieval England of fever, really?), they are understandably distraught. When sometime later a mysterious wizard takes up residence in the area and begins to perform minor spells for the village inhabitants, Jon and Margaret are drawn to him, with predictably grave (ha!: pun) results.

Just a note: this isn’t the first fantasy/supernatural element introduced in the book – in the aforementioned battle, the invaders have a fighter who appears to be part bear – when he turns up later we find he’s a shapeshifter. The fantasy element grows stronger as the book progresses, and I think that worked for me – rather than being thrust into all these otherworldly concepts, I was grounded in reality first (I sometimes have a shaky relationship with fantasy, though I find it easier to handle than sci-fi).

So, Willem’s parents visit the cabin of the wizard Cain Caradoc in the woods. Their first clues that things aren’t normal come quickly: the cabin appears much closer to the village than they expect and turns out to be much bigger on the inside that it appears on the outside. Furniture, food and drink and other items appear without warning. Jon and Margaret apply to Caradoc for help resurrecting Willem, and offer a pittance – all they have in the world – as payment. The wizard has no use for their money, but instead proposes a trade of sorts: a piece of Willem’s recovered soul in exchange for the raising.

Jon and Margaret are wisely put off by this notion, but Caradoc insists that he *needs* the bit of soul in order to perform the spell. This isn’t true; Caradoc is in the habit of stealing a bit of life from who and where he can. He aspires to immortality, but in the meantime he’s just working on keeping himself alive and young in appearance, when he’s in fact two hundred years old.

I should mention that Willem has been dead for a year when the ritual is performed. This doesn’t help what follows; between Caradoc’s lack of interest in doing a top-notch resurrection job (or so it seemed to me) and the fact that what’s in Willem’s grave is not so much an intact body but something Willem himself calls bones in a “broth” (a repeated reference I could really have done without), the result is a creature whose appearance is somewhat off-putting. When Willem makes his way to his parents’ door, they are horrified and stick him in the barn while trying to figure out what to do. What that ends up being is skipping town (well, village) and suggesting that Willem do the same.

What follows is pretty sad, in an obvious”Frankenstein’s monster” sort of way. Willem feels attached to Cosham but when the villagers encounter him they do the sort of things you’d expect – scream, throw things, run away, yadda yadda. Willem eventually retreats to a nearby cave and for a time lives an almost animalistic existence, hunting with his bare hands and walking on all fours. He returns a bit toward humanity when he meets a few other, well, I’ll just call them people. A river sprite named Peter, and a pair of shapeshifter siblings Anna and Kel (the latter of whom is the bear we encountered earlier in the story) all become friends of Once-Was-Willem (the name by which Willem thinks of himself, since he no longer feels he is quite the Willem who was alive).

Meanwhile, things are happening both in the village and at the Castle Pennick. At the castle, Cain Caradoc has installed himself as adviser to Maglan Horvath, the brigand who defeated the baron and took his place. Caradoc has plans, big plans, and Horvath is just a means to an end. The wizard has been drawn to the area and identified the castle as the source of a great magical power – but how to harness it? His answer to that question is very unpleasant indeed, and eventually his scheming leads to a revolt in the village.

Thus a battle of good vs. evil is joined. Except, there’s a big old asterisk on the “good” part of that – the villagers, after all, behave like you might expect medieval villagers to (or just humanity in general, if you’re of a cynical bent). There’s their treatment of Willem, of course, and also the matter of a little witch-burning. In general they aren’t great people – fearful and ignorant and small-minded. But they love their children, and when those children are threatened, they do come together.

(The village does contain at least one truly good adult, the priest. Parson Lebone is learned and though he has lost what faith he once had, he tries to minister to the people as best he can.)

There’s a LOT going on in Once Was Willem. At least thematically – there are a lot of folklore and literary references. The entire backstory about the power that resides in Castle Pennick is biblical in nature (I had to look up Nephilim). For a novel that has some undoubtedly upsetting and unsettling elements, it feels odd to call it “heartwarming” but the family that Willem finds when he loses his own is every bit as loving as a “real” one, for all that they aren’t entirely human. This raises the stakes for the end battle, which made for compelling reading. My grade for this is a B+.

(3.5+) Every once in a while, a book comes along unlike anything I’ve read before. This book, part medieval horror, part dark fairy tale — where a zombie in medieval times must team up with other wacky and monstrous characters to stop an evil sorcerer — is one of them. Somehow, this quirky and clever book balances a weird premise, atmospheric prose, and a whole lot of heart as M.R. Carey draws from Christian myth, English folklore, and Norse mythology to make a one-of-a-kind book.

When Willem Turling was a boy, he died from a fever, so his grief-stricken parents took his corpse to a powerful sorcerer, Cain Caradoc, to bring him back to life. And he succeeded… sort of. Instead of coming back as Willem, the boy returned as a bit of a misshapen zombielike figure who had to run away to the woods after he was shunned by his family and other townspeople. But when Cain Caradoc comes back into the picture, threatening to destroy the town (and maybe the world) as part of his plan for total domination, Willem returns to town to help, bringing with him other outcasts with whom he has become friends along the way. There are Anna and Kel (Norse skin changers), Peter Floodfoot (a shy water spirit), Morjune (a ghost and a witch who was killed by the townspeople), Betheli (the spirit of a dead child with a powerful imagination), and Unsung Jill (I’m not entirely sure what she is, but she’s terrifying). They’re an unlikely family, but they’re a wonderful one.

Carey keeps the book moving at a good, consistent pace. He’s written a sharp and surprising novel with a tone fitting for a medieval story. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen “wont” before in a book — and it’s in here 16 times.) The tone is self-aware, even if it’s a bit too irreverent at times and the plot occasionally wanders a little too far from the main storyline. The story grows into itself as it asks whether you should be kind and help those who hurt you and what true humanity actually looks like. The ending absolutely makes this bizarre little book (I cried) and makes up for the disconnect I felt early on because of the three intertwined parallel narratives.

This is a dark story, but it’s a refreshing read full of love and hope and human decency (from people who aren’t exactly human). I don’t think I’ll read another book like this ever again.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for providing me with an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.