asianamlitfans | Entries tagged with s. jae-jones

A Review of S. Jae-Jones’s Wintersong (St. Martin’s Press, 2017).

By Stephen Hong Sohn

It’s been a little bit of time, since I’ve sat down with young adult fiction with paranormal themes. Wintersong has already had a lot of buzz, and I recall this book being touted as an anticipated release for 2017. S. Jae-Jones’s debut novel definitely has a unique conceit because it focuses on a fictional world populated by goblins, changelings, and nixies. At this time, I’ve pretty much thought I’d read it all: you have fairies (Julie Kagawa), vampires (Andrew Fukuda and the aforementioned Kagawa), soul-less creatures (Yvonne Woon), angels and demons (Susan Ee), magicians (Evelyn Skye) and magic-wielding entities (Sherry Thomas, Eleanor Glewwe), zombies (Linda Watanabe McFerrin); the list sort of goes on and on. B&N provides us with a pithy description of the plot: “All her life, Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, dangerous Goblin King. They’ve enraptured her mind, her spirit, and inspired her musical compositions. Now eighteen and helping to run her family’s inn, Liesl can’t help but feel that her musical dreams and childhood fantasies are slipping away. But when her own sister is taken by the Goblin King, Liesl has no choice but to journey to the Underground to save her. Drawn to the strange, captivating world she finds—and the mysterious man who rules it—she soon faces an impossible decision. And with time and the old laws working against her, Liesl must discover who she truly is before her fate is sealed.”

This summary is pretty spot on: basically, Liesl must engage in a series of games to win back her sister, Kathe, who has become ensorcelled by the Goblin King. As with Roshani Chokshi’s The Star-Touched Queen, the dastardly Goblin King, we soon discover, is not so dastardly after all, and Liesl begins to realize that there is a context for the construction of any monster. The basis for the reason why the Goblin King must marry a human female is because this marriage allows the mortal world to retain its regular life cycles. The problem is that the Goblin King’s marriage never lasts; the bride eventually wears out and literally begins to lose her senses the longer she stays in the Underworld. In this sense, the author is obviously riffing off of the myths related to Persephone. Liesl ultimately sacrifices herself for Kathe (and this “replacement” narrative is something we’ve seen a number of times in other narratives; we won’t forget the most “famous” one in Suzanne Collins’s trilogy). While Liesl is imprisoned in the Underworld, she begins to understand how the Goblin King has come to be. The knowledge that she gains helps provide her with a better perspective of the Goblin King’s actions, and why the Goblin King so desperately needs someone like Liesl, who contains so much life.

Readers should be forewarned: there is a fair amount of sexual situations in this novel; some scenes have already been the subject of some controversy in reviews. Another critique that has been levied is the novel’s length; here, the author does tend to allow certain plotting events overwhelm and sometimes even squash narrative momentum. Finally, I’d be interested in exploring a longer conversation about this novel, especially with respect to its European cultural contexts. I know so little about these areas, but I’ve increasingly seen Asian American writers invoking such terrains, geographies, cultures, and historical periods in their work; Marie Lu’s Young Elites series (Italy), Evelyn Sky’s Crown series (Russia), and this Wintersong, with its German cultural milieu, are all clear examples. For those who enjoyed this particular installment, you can expect more from S. Jae-Jones as Wintersong is set to have its sequel come out in 2018.

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Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Leslie J. Fernandez

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Leslie J. Fernandez, PhD Student in English, at lfern010@ucr.edu

A Review of S. Jae-Jones’s Shadowsong (Wednesday Books, 2017).
By Stephen Hong Sohn

So I remember having a rather bifurcated reaction to S. Jae-Jones’s Wintersong. I really enjoyed the exploration of the Goblin Underground, but found the so-called requisite romance plot to be a little bit overwrought. Nevertheless, this young adult debut seemed to wrap up fairly neatly, so I was surprised to see that there was a sequel (making these publications a duology) called Shadowsong (Wednesday Books, 2017). We’ll let B&N do some descriptive work for us: “Six months after the end of Wintersong, Liesl is working toward furthering both her brother’s and her own musical careers. Although she is determined to look forward and not behind, life in the world above is not as easy as Liesl had hoped. Her younger brother Josef is cold, distant, and withdrawn, while Liesl can’t forget the austere young man she left beneath the earth, and the music he inspired in her. When troubling signs arise that the barrier between worlds is crumbling, Liesl must return to the Underground to unravel the mystery of life, death, and the Goblin King—who he was, who he is, and who he will be. What will it take to break the old laws once and for all? What is the true meaning of sacrifice when the fate of the world—or the ones Liesl loves—is in her hands?”

What I thought most compelling about this work was the exploration of the brother-sister bond, which formed a rather intriguing triangle, precisely because Josef becomes a kind of narrative competitor to the Liesl’s Goblin King. If the first installment seemed more invested in Liesl’s willingness to save Kathe (her sister), then this sequel seeks to explore Liesl’s complicated attachment to Josef. For those that don’t remember—and here is your spoiler warning—Josef is actually a goblin changeling, who had taken on Josef’s life. This process somehow involves amnesia, as the changeling does not seem aware of this usurpation, and Liesl never reminds Josef about this fact. The revelation of this secret is key to the plot as it revolves, but Jae-Jones takes her time to get there: we have to follow Liesl and Josef, as they attempt to make a life in Vienna. They are later courted and then kidnapped by a powerful Count and Countess and must find a way to deal with the corruption between the “real world” and the Goblin “underworld.”

The conclusion was not my cup of tea, as it reminded me too much of the “sacrifice trope” that I’ve seen being used in numerous YA books, as of late, most prominently in the last of Marie Lu’s “Young Elites” series. Readers may be split upon Jae-Jones’s choice to move most of the narrative outside of the Goblin Underground. This shift gives Jae-Jones the opportunity to consider the so-called deviance of humans and gives this work a kind of magical realist generic critique that I found useful to consider. Otherwise, academics, scholars, and teachers of YA might find most intriguing Jae-Jone’s consideration of various forms of social difference: (1) mental illness, (2) racial difference (via Josef’s partner Francois), (3) queerness and associated sexualities (via Josef and Francois), and (4) monstrosity/ deviance (via the Goblin King/ changelings etc).

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Entries tagged with s. jae-jones

A Review of S. Jae-Jones’s Wintersong (St. Martin’s Press, 2017).

A Review of S. Jae-Jones’s Shadowsong (Wednesday Books, 2017).

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