Heart’s Blood – Juliet Marillier
Pan Macmillan, 2009
410 pages
RRP: AU$32.99
ISBN: 978-1-4050-3943-7

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Heart’s Blood is an enjoyable fantasy story, loosely based on Beauty and the Beast, set in Medieval Ireland. Since B&B has always been my favourite fairy tale, I jumped at the chance to read this novel written by Western Australian author Juliet Marillier. I’d only read Marillier’s young adult titles before (Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret), so I didn’t have many preconceptions about what I would find. I ended up staying up almost all night to finish it, so it’s safe to say that this was a great read.

The story opens with Caitrin, our heroine, being dropped off in the middle of nowhere with only her bag and writing box. She has run away from home after her father’s death. She has no money, no friends to call on for help. Although the townsfolk of Whistling Tor warn Caitrin about the otherworldly beings that
live on the hill, she has no choice but climb to the chieftain’s fortress in order to seek work as a scribe, translating and collating the chieftain’s library. As she settles in to life in the eerie fortress, Caitrin learns that there is a bigger mystery at Whistling Tor than just its reclusive chieftain, Lord Anluan.

The heart’s blood of the title refers to a rare herb which can be made into a prized and very expensive ink. Caitrin stumbles across a heart’s blood plant in the gardens of the Tor just before her first meeting with the angry Lord Anluan, and the plant provides a symbol of hope for much of the story.

Caitrin is an engaging protagonist who is easy to follow into the story. She has vulnerabilities due to her past, but she moves past these quite quickly in order to grow into adulthood and control over her own life. As a reader looking into the traditions of medieval Ireland, it was reassuring to see Marillier exploring
modern ideas, such as Caitrin’s struggle against her world’s accepted view that women could not be respected craftspeople.

While the plot explores a familiar good against evil theme, the vivid description and meticulously created, interesting characters push Heart’s Blood far beyond generic high fantasy. Heart’s Blood is a beautifully crafted novel that tugs at the heart while taking a new look at a traditional tale.