Hello everyone!
Well, we made it.
Or, at least *I* made it.
The end of a trilogy that I'm still reeling about and trying to wrap my head around, because ... well, just because.
You'll see what I mean through the review itself.
It's a very original retelling of a myth that's been dear to my heart for a long while now, and I'm SO pleased I picked up the first book when it was offered for free with Kobo. I never would have found the other two otherwise, or the author herself.
As it now happens, I'm hooked and will probably hunt down other books of hers.
When you stumble over something good, readers, you might as well make sure you read it ALL.
But for tonight, for one more night, let's dive into our inner Greek.
Let's take a look at Cobweb Forest, and what happens in it.
Since this is the third book in the trilogy, you'll find the reviews of the first two which I did linked at the bottom of this blog post, or if you search through my blog in general. For now this is where I say goodbye to Vera Nazarian but I'm prety sure I'll be back with her soon and reading through other of her works.
She has a way of writing that really captivated me and I'd LOVE to read more!
But let's be super quick about what happened in the first two books of this series, Cobweb Bride and Cobweb Empire:
Death has sort of gone on holiday because his Cobweb Bride hasn't been delivered to him, so mortal maidens far and wide are travelling north to his keep to see if they might fit the bill. Meanwhile, since nobody can die, the living undead start taking over the world above, and the world itself is kind of ... disappearing, in huge chunks. A peasant girl Percy becomes Death's Champion, able to grant the undead a peaceful passing, and with the help of Sir Beltain Chidair (they fall in love), other girls besides her, and Grial (a witchy woman no one knows much about but she knows everything about everyone), she sets out to return the Cobweb Bride to Death. She thinks she brings her - even as the Sovereign of the Domain marches into the Realm with her undead Trovadii army - but they learn, upon the "bride" taking a sip from the River Lethe, that she's actually Demeter.
And this is where our story begins, as Demeter asks Death to take a sip of Lethe, and it turns out HE is none other than Hades, Lord of the Underworld.
Also, that the Sovereign is Persephone, and she's coocoo for coco puffs.
No, I mean it.
Demeter and Hades explain that Persephone is fundamentally broken and gunning for Hades, which is why she's come this far north, and that because she's forsaken her divine purpose and created this Cobweb Bride business, the life-death cycle has been broken. So now, Percy and Beltain have to go and find the REAL bride - aka one Leonore, who they'd freed next to Demeter, and who'd gone into hiding with her parents.
Meanwhile the others who'd been waiting at the Keep, the girls and Amaryllis and Nathan, all get sent off wherever they wish to go - the girls to Letheburg and Grial, and the aristocratic duo to the Imperial Court.
Beltain and Persephone, meanwhile, head to where Leonore and her family are, not that they're successful.
Leonore does NOT want to die, and she says so plainly, so now what?
Now Percy heads back to tell Hades what happened, but also what she learned from Leonore, who remembers that Persephone had visited her long before she became a Lady-in-Attendance, and that she was asked to look after a cup filled with some strange water. And that Persephone had drunk from that cup, once, twice, three times, emptied the cup, and nothing happened.
Hades understands: to forget the woe of Melinoë, the shadowy daughter she and Hades had conceived together, she'd tried the Lethe cure before Demeter and Hades got round to it, and it failed, but broke something inside her immortal soul.
As for Melinoë, the story's sad: Persephone and Hades, upon first meeting, started the cogs of their divine purpose, the cycle of life and death, during which she comes to him in the heart of Autumn but they cannot consumate their relationship until the heart of Winter, after which she returns to the surface again at once to bear the fruit of their passion and prepare the world for Spring. And each time Persephone makes this passage, she dies, sacrificing herself for the world Above, voluntarily. But when Persephone wanted more, she birthed Melinoë in the Underworld, and then wanted to take her from Below to Above, against Hades' better wishes - and their daughter didn't survive the trip, which started Persephone's whole downward spiral.
Now, Hades tasks Percy to bring him the jar with his daughter's ashes, explaining some more ... intimate details of what goes on between him and Persephone to Beltain, who'd followed after Percy when she thought she'd left him asleep way back there. Going after her, they find Grial, who is actually Hecate, and she hands them the jar then sends them on their way, since she's kind of busy, but we'll get to that in a moment.
With the jar now safely in his possession, Hades goes to hide it, sending Percy and Beltain back to Leonore, where they realize that entire slabs of land are disappearing, and fast, and if anyone gets caught in the mists, they disappear, too. Percy gets the desperate idea to ferry the people through the shadows to Death's Keep, and then on North, or wherever they would go, and after giving a peaceful passing to the former Lady, she follows them, only to find herself in what seem to be Chidair forests in the north - but with Letheburg much too close for comfort.
Remember Letheburg?
By the end of the second book, it was besieged by none other than Beltain's father, Hoarfrost, the Blue Duke, or as I like to call him the Coocoo Duke, and it's starting to go ill for the city when Hecate, freed from the spell which had lain on her and prevented her from helping out more actively, suggests a circle walked around the walls of the city by the highest ranking noble among them, who calls the city their own. Only with their inner desire to keep it safe will the magic barrier be erected - and as the King is essentially a coward who likes others to do things for him, he asks Claere, the Infanta of the Realm, to do it.
Which she does, admirably so, and afterwards no one and nothing that isn't invited can pass through the barrier - but sadly as Vlau, her faithful shadow, and the man who loves her (and whom she loves in return, because LOVE), has managed to freeze overnight to stay with her forever, they're sort of icy sentinels up top when Persephone arrives.
Demeter pops in for a chat, not that she can do much around her daughter, and then Persephone makes Hoarfrost into Old Man Winter, creating a new elemental deity, because since he's an element, he can use it to pass through the barrier and surrender the city to her. Hecate, in answer, makes Claere into the Snow Maiden and Vlau into Jack Frost, giving them immortality, a chance to be together - and the powers to deal with the puffy Winter Grouch, keeping Letheburg more or less safe.
Until, that is, the land keeps disappearing, and first the Silver then the Sapphire Court drop down right into Letheburg, destroying the barrier, at which point Persephone walks into the city.
It should be noted here that, while Old Man Winter was a-blowing, Persephone went to Hades and attempted to get him out of his Throne so she could go Below and wreak havoc downstairs, but he expelled her - at a huge cost to himself because he's weakened by his own desire, from an unfulfilled cycle, and the power spent on kicking her away.
Since the Sapphire Throne and Hades' Throne are out of the question, Persephone guns for Hecate's Throne, her rocking chair, not that she can budge the goddess from it. But they sit down, with Demeter, to give some last-minute information about what else happened that the other gods don't know about, those who had sworn never to speak of what had happened after the trio drank from the Lethe: and Persephone says she never gave her daughter's ashes to the jar Hecate kept, but stored them in her mother's sacred city. Only Demeter, while still in oblivion from Lethe, and after failing to revive Melinoë which caused the Sapphire Throne to shatter and its power to disappear, she went and tossed the ashes into the air, letting the wind take them wherever.
But as Melinoë was a child of the Underworld, this is the reason why land is disappearing: into the Underworld!
So Hoarfrost/Winter is under control, land is disappearing, Letheburg has effectively fallen, Hecate's about to be unseated, and Percy learns that Hades can't help her - and also, that Persephone has control over her now with her forest of cobwebs (title reference!), and wants to make her Priestess and HER Champion, proven when Percy sends one of the undead on and Persephone takes revenge by killing Beltain.
This breaks Percy and she snuffs out EVERY SINGLE UNDEAD IN VICINITY.
Like, woah girl. RESPECT.
And then she asks Ebrai Fiomarre, older brother of none other than Vlau, to take her to Persephone, where she and Ebrai move Hecate from the chair, and Percy takes the cobwebs Persephone had woven over the other goddess, gasping control over Persephone herself in the moment of her death - as she is still Death's Champion - and sacrifices herself by sending the goddess into oblivion. Because, essentially, she is dead, her soul, her divine purpose is dead - and so is she.
Waking up in the Underworld, Percy learns that everyone and everything that had disappeared from Above is now Below - and her older sister tells her that whatever sacrifice she made has restored Persephone to her original state, reminded her of her divinity, and she and Hades are just then consumating the Long Night. Hecate then coaxes Percy's spirit back Above, explaining that by showing Persephone the White Bridegroom, her husband's aspect which she never normally sees as that is essentially her counterpart - she managed to heal her broken soul.
But unfortunately, Beltain and Percy are both still dead, and not even Hecate can bring them back.
But maybe Persephone can.
She appears in all her glory, and since hers is the power of Life and Resurrection, she thanks Percy and explains she owes her two lives - but she must take two others in return. Which is where Amaryllis and Nathan get their chance to shine, as, after pretty much everyone volunteered to die for the two who died for them already, the aristocrats, touched by Lethe and longing for oblivion - and each other - pass into their next great adventure together.
The rest of the Realm and Domain disappears down Below - a kingdom for Hades and Persephone to rule together, and only Hecate's old house still stands, in LUXEMBOURG, of all places! And Hecate explains that no one will remember what was here before, except them.
Resurrected, Percy and Beltain say goodbye to both Claere and Vlau - who say they'll watch after Hoarfrost/Winter and that snow and cold will never harm their friends - as well as Persephone, who admits that she knew Melinoë would die, but brought her Above anyway, causing the hairline fracture which began the Sapphire Throne's demise. Hades makes a final appearance as well, taking back what he gave Percy so she could do his will in the world, and saying he would see her at the end of her journey - as he would with all mortals.
And then our heroes sail from France on a ship bound across the Mediterranean, and in passing they spy underwater a bright throne of many hues in blue - and, as the author herself says:
"Percy and Beltain looked overboard and gazed with wonder at what was surely a splendid chair, made of translucent glass . . . as though the wind had stolen itself underwater and taken the fluid form of a throne.
It was the Sapphire Throne of the Domain!
The only remainder of the past, it would thus grace the dreamland of the Mediterranean waters, and one day, a goddess might reawaken upon it and rise forth, bursting in delight, to play upon the waves."
Cobweb Empire, p. 266
If that isn't an introduction for Aphrodite, I don't know WHAT is!
xx
*images not mine
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