4.75 out of 5 stars
Kindle Edition. 1st edition. 36 pages. Published December 1st 2018 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
Banyn, a fae, escorts the souls of children to Magh Meall,
but one Christmas, he comes for a lad who isn’t quite dead, and he breaks a
rule rather than wait while John fights a battle he’ll ultimately lose. So
begins a long-running affair that crosses the border between life and death,
the human and fae realms, and even oceans to strange countries with different
gods and rules.
John Rourke renounced a religion that had no place for him
and returned to the old ways. Convicted of theft, he is sentenced to transportation
and suffers brutal punishment—until he escapes to live on his own terms as a
bushranger. When vengeance against his tormentor consumes him and threatens his
life, John finds he has only one holiday wish—to see his fae lover one last
time.
A Story from the Warmest Wishes: Dreamspinner Press 2018 Advent Calendar
Likes:
- Trans character.
- Amazing ending.
- Historical and magical setting.
- Felt very realistic.
- The horrors John went through were implied without being explicit.
Dislikes:
- A little depressing.
- The massive jumps through time and the skipping around in time were a little distracting.
- Not much was told about Magh Meall.
Another great story from an author who is new to me. I went into this story looking forward to the fey aspect. To my surprise, the fey aspect was just one of many things I liked.
The story is told in segments, with lots of big time gaps and even some back-and-forth in time. It was distracting at first, but ended up working well for the story. The first little chunk of story sets up the immediate action, drawing the reader in while the jumps back in time show what led to that point. Because John is fatally injured at the beginning of the story – literally the first sentence is “Blood oozed between John’s fingers.” – it almost feels like he’s reliving the most important moments of his life.
Despite not being mentioned in the blurb, John being trans is a central feature of the story. I think it was handled very well. John is both sympathetic and likeable. There were plenty of hints at the horrors he had to endure, from being a starving runaway to being born in the wrong body to the atrocities visited on him, but none of them were graphic. This story could have gone down a very dark road but it didn’t.
Still, the story was a bit depressing, seeing how much John struggled. Banyn was the bright spot in his life. The lengths the two of them went for each other was heartwarming. And the ending was perfect in so many ways.
In a way, I would have liked this to be a longer story. Some things, like Magh Meall and Banyn being born human, felt underdeveloped. It would have been nice to see John and Banyn living together. Maybe get a sex scene.
Find the Warmest Wishes anthology review here and the full list of stories here.
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