A Book Review Without Spoilers: The Onion Girl Peels Back Her Layers

I found it ironic as I was thumbing through a shelf of books and unable to make a purchase. If you take all the books I own which have been scattered about on three continents and put them in one room, 75% of them will be of the fantasy or science fiction categories. Still, I came across an author I had heard of before due to comments made on other books I have read. I selected a book and gave it the flip-flip once-over, taking in cover art and comments by publications. This time, however I broke my own rule - I tend to avoid opening books because there's something sensuous about cracking the cover of a book for the first time after you buy it - and I peeked into the cover to read the dedication: "for all those who against all odds made the right choice."

Needless to say this was the first time I have ever bought a book based upon the dedication.

The Author, The Book

De Lint has been called the pioneer of the contemporary fantasy genre, and after reading The Onion Girl I can understand where that comes from. He blends the traditional fantasy themes with the pure, undiluted reality of urban street life - not an easy mix, but its done in such a manner than you wonder why it would seem strange in the first place. De Lint is to fantasy novels what Amy Winehouse is to jazz - gritty and real, not settling for the fluffy, well-worn paths of others with the same talents. This isn't a bedtime story for your 12-year-old.

The book has only two parts in it which seem either overstated or slow. In the first quarter to half of the book there is a lot of focus on Jilly's story which is needed, but you may find yourself saying, "Yes, but what are you going to do about it?" In the last several pages there seems to be an overstated conclusion in that it feels as though the story is being stretched out a bit past its limits (perhaps for the sake of the series). Still, that's about 20 pages at most, so it doesn't detract from the hours spent buried between the covers.

The Onion Girl, despite being in the middle of the Newford Series, stands up just fine on its own. If I had missed all the fine print in the extra pages of the book I never would have known that there were many books before this one because you don't feel like you've been left out of a series or walked into the middle of a room with the story already half-told.

Jilly Coppercorn

The book is about a character, Jilly, from other books he has written about the city of Newford. To quote from the back cover, "I'm the onion girl," Jilly Coppercorn says, "Pull back the layers of my life, and you won't find anything at the core. Just a broken child. A hollow girl." She's very, very good at running, but life has just forced Jilly to stop.

This may sound like the usual plot for a realist-gone-fantasy story, and perhaps a bit emo as well - its anything but. Her voice is as real as our own when analyzing our own lives and stories, putting value on certain things and leaving other bits behind. Taken from Jilly's own 'statements', she says nothing is at her core, but that broken child is, in fact, something very much alive in her core and affects her on a near-daily basis, and I enjoyed the lack of psychologists and MAOI enhancements in this book despite its raw realism and psychology-related content.

The onion girl simply is - there are explanations made by the character herself, but you may find yourself disagreeing with her as much as you would a friend saying the same things. You're introduced to her world as if she is speaking to you over a cup of coffee, telling you her dark secrets as the book unfolds. She's lived on the streets as a teen - a junkie, a hooker, a lost cause - but when given the chance to leave this life behind her she does, and that's no easy thing, as any case worker worth their salt will tell you.

The darkest secret in her past comes out for viewing mid-way through the book, and much like our own dark secrets which cause us to hate ourselves, its not a horrible, shocking truth. The character of Jilly is human, and just like us, she has loads of forgiveness for other's shortcomings and regrets, and not too much of that for herself.

The Dreamlands

It goes by many names, but it is the fantasy side to this story. The characters visit the Dreamlands, believe in them, want to go there, or deny its existence as a real place. No matter what their persuasion the Dreamlands have an impact on everyone in the story. For the characters, as well as the reader, it takes you from the stone-cold reality and transports you to a place where anything is possible. Soft dreams or nightmares, this place is not for the unwary, and the book's spiritual compass, Joe, is unflinching in his matter-of-fact explanations of this.

The spirituality of a general Native American ideology reigns throughout the Dreamlands, although you won't find any $10 dream catchers in this book. This is a land where Brother Crow and Sister Corn are allowed to roam free.

Conclusion

This book is well worth the money I paid for it and interesting enough I am considering purchasing other books in the Newford Series. If you're looking for something new in the fantasy section and need something more punchy than pretty unicorns and sweet faeries, I highly recommend 'The Onion Girl'. There's enough grit to make it 'real', but not so much that the demons of Jilly's past destroy your dreaming.