OF BEES AND MIST, by Erick Setiawan

(originally posted on July 20, 2009)

It is rare for me to put a book down after I am finished and burst into tears, but such is the effect that Erick Setiawan's gorgeous, disturbing, exquisitely written debut novel had upon me. It works its own fairy tale magic by way of the Brothers Grimm, but throughout I felt the spirit of Angela Carter's THE BLOODY CHAMBER permeate the text, especially in the way Setiawan plays with expectations of which characters should be trustworthy and meriting the reader's loyalty and trust. Suffice to say this book did my head in for quite a while, and that sort of reaction is very, very rare.