Bloodroot by debut author Amy Greene tells the story of the families that live on Bloodroot Mountain, following them from their insouciant youth to their inevitably tragic end. A series of intertwining accounts form a complex patchwork of events that portrays the lives of several generations living on Bloodroot Mountain, peppering them with love, loss, disappointment and, most importantly, magic.
The story centers around Myra Lamb, a tempestuous young girl, always struggling to run free. She is eventually physically and emotionally tamed in a brutal way by John Odom, a troubled, handsome boy whose family has been plagued by mental illness. Her grandmother, Byrdie, passes down the mystical "touch" from each generation.
While each new generation inherits magic, they also are doomed by its power to poison all those who are touched by it. As the poison spreads, it destroys marriages, eats away at the mental sanity of the characters and eventually drives them to self-destruction in a cycle they are doomed to repeat. Greene never tries to pretend that there is any possibility of a happy ending for any of her characters; however, the poignant sincerity of Bloodroot allows the reader to glimpse into the intimate lives of a family touched by events outside their control.
The novel is divided into three parts, allowing each of the three main characters to tell their own story. Each character is separated by this divide but drawn together by their relationship with each other and with Bloodroot Mountain. Each character's individual portrayal of his situation not only makes his personality more vivid, but it also more intimately shows his emotions. This makes the novel compelling, but the complexity of the narrative means the reader must read carefully to be able to thread together individual accounts as the novel progresses.
The intricacy of these interrelated perspectives allows Greene to achieve a subtlety that most novels involving the supernatural don't capture. Bloodroot delicately brings together elements such as fantasy, romance and tragedy by describing a touchingly sensitive story of a community ineffably drawn to the power of magic. The prophets, "empaths" and witches who live on Bloodroot Mountain are so powerfully portrayed that their stories seem believable instead of crude.
It is clear from the outset of Bloodroot that the characters are trapped in a depressing cycle; some of them refer to it as a curse, but all of them view it as inevitable. Sometimes, however, a novel is so tragically beautiful it does not need a happy ending.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
