Nightshade & Oak

by Molly O'Neill

Synopsis:

An Iron Age goddess must grapple with becoming human in this delightful historical fantasy of myth and magic from the author of the instant hit Greenteeth.

When Mallt, the goddess of death, is accidentally turned human by a wayward spell, she finds she’s ill-equipped to deal with the trials of a mortal life. After all, why would a goddess need to know how to gather food or light a fire?

Unable to fend for herself, she teams up with warrior Bellis on a perilous journey to the afterlife to try to restore her powers. Frustrated by her frail human body and beset with blisters, Mallt might not make the best travelling companion.

But as animosity slowly turns to attraction, these two very different women must learn to work together if they are to have any hope of surviving their quest.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I really liked Molly O’Neill’s Greenteeth, so I was definitely interested to give Nightshade & Oak a try as soon as I heard about it. There are definitely certain similarities between the two: Mallt y Nos is otherworldly, while the other main character Belis is a human, one of the daughters of Boudicca. The story’s rooted in the historical moment just after Boudicca’s failed rebellion against the Roman invasion, but also in the Welsh mythology of Mallt-y-Nos (though I know Mallt-y-Nos as a more tragic figure who regrets her choice to become what she is, which we don’t see here).

It’s a bit more of a serious story than most of Greenteeth, given the Roman rebellion that gives us the setting and motivation for some of the action… but there are also funny bits, mainly due to Mallt becoming human and thus dealing with problems she’s never had before, like stubbing her toes and not being able to walk on water. For parts of the journey, it’s quite light-hearted.

Like Greenteeth, something of the “Celtic mythology” background informs the part where Mallt and Belis have to restore the afterworld, with pretty traditional-feeling tasks, though it’s obviously fairly loose, a reimagining of what Celtic myth might have been like for some people more than sticking faithfully only to the scraps we have (at least, as far as I know various bits of it were made up). I liked the part about being able to make time go slower by suffering, since it matches up with how bad times feel — it was a clever solution.

I wasn’t expecting the way things ended for quite a while, but something clicked in my head about two thirds of the way through and I kind of predicted how things would end up for Mallt and Belis. I think that was fairly well done, and made sense for the characters — neither can turn away from what they actually are, even if they’ve grown and changed in one another’s company. It’s a bittersweet ending, but worthwhile, I’d say.

Rating: 4/5