Fantastically OK

Ysabel novel mixes fantastical shenanigans with real-world drudgery/history

TANIN REFAHI VOLUNTEER STAFF

I must admit, my earliest impressions of Ysabel were that it was just another cheesy fantasy novel. Well, it is a fantasy novel and it certainly has its cheesy moments but, and I hate to admit this, I found it rather enjoyable overall. Author Guy Gavriel Kay does a great job at putting you in someone else’s mind and life. However, while writing this book, Kay occasionally seemed to forget that it was a fantasy novel and thus left the fantasy side of the plot somewhat lacking.

Ysabel follows Ned Marriner, a 15-year-old from Montreal, during a trip to France with his famous photographer father. Though spending six weeks in Provence instead of going to school back in Canada would make most 15-year-olds ecstatic, Ned is not so happy. During his early break from school he must write three essays and hang out with his father’s three-person entourage, though this isn’t what’s bothering Ned most. His mother is in Sudan as part of Doctors Without Borders, and it’s hard to have fun when your mother is so close to danger.

Things begin to change almost instantly for Ned. On their first photo shoot, at an old Cathedral, Ned stumbles upon a new friend and something a little more supernatural. He and his new friend end up involving themselves in a story that has been unfolding for the better part of three millennia.

Ned and his new friend, Kate Wenger, accept temptation and unknowingly follow a path laid open to them by a small, bald, scar-faced, leather-jacketed man. The two find themselves somehow attached to a 2,600-year-old love triangle. It’s the old story of two men fighting for the love of one woman: Ned and Kate find that the bald man (no name No. 1) is fighting a large, long-blondehaired, occasionally antlered man (no name No. 2) for the love of a red-haired, enchantingly beautiful woman (no name No. 3). You will understand the no-name thing if you read the book, though Kay doesn’t quite clarify why it is that way. This is pretty much all Kay gives of the story, so that’s all I can give you.

The characters introduced to the reader feel like real, multi-dimensioned people, as opposed to plot-filling pawns. Rather than being blandly expository, the novel’s dialogue provides characters with depth and psychological shading, and Kay really makes you feel for these characters. Whether they are hurt or happy, he allows you to understand and empathize with them. They go through simple, real-life problems while simultaneously going through a large supernatural one.

Kay manipulates the story with graceful writing, concise, yet detailed enough to absorb you into the story to the point where you want to know every detail. This is where he disappoints, however. Though the book is written in the third person, it rarely ventures far from Ned’s perspective, and Ned doesn’t always ask the right questions or find the answers you want him to. You are never told why and how these three people are alive over two and a half thousand years after their birth. The only background info you do get is terribly confusing and vague, especially regarding the mingling of their history with that of France. As a result, the fantasy Kay offers is very limited and I was left with a feeling that I missed out on something.

Ysabel is not the most dramatic or lifechanging novel (unless the last thing you’ve read was a below-average picture book), but it is-well written and a good read. The only real issue with this book is that it is mainly a teen novel and perhaps not well suited for readers of an older age.