Reading Room Radio: Unicorn Hunters and Greenteeth

Unicorns two ways: choose your spicy adventure! Katelyn reviews two historical fantasies that share a folkloric thread.  

Title: The Unicorn Hunters  

Author: Katherine Arden 

Title: Greenteeth  

Author: Molly O'Neill 

Reviewed by: Katelyn H. 

Created by the Podcast Team at the Harris County Public Library.
www.hcpl.net

Podcast Team Members include: Beth Krippel, John Harbaugh, Mary Mink, Dylan Smith, Sadina Shawver, Alinda Mac, John Schaffer, Jennifer Finch, Katelyn Helberg, Darcy Casavant, Darla Pruitt and Nancy Hu 

Transcript

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Welcome to Harris County Public Library's Reading Room Radio, where your to-be red pile gets a little more exciting one micro podcast at a time. I was not a unicorn girly as a kid, but already this year I've managed to read two historical fantasies where unicorns contribute to the plot in some kind of way. And I really enjoyed them both, so I wanted to talk about both of them today. The first title I have for your consideration is called The Unicorn Hunters by Catherine Arden. The main character in this novel is a real-life historical figure, Anne of Brittany. And the story is somewhat grounded in some of the real historical events of her life, but in very much an alternate reality that incorporates Breton folklore like the enchanted Brookellian Forest and The Lost City of East, a sunken city of legend similar to that of Atlantis. Unlike the next book on my list, which is a reworking of Arthurian legend, you know, a tale that's been retold in fantasy literature time and time again. The Breton folklore was completely unfamiliar to me, so much so that I should have looked up how to pronounce Brocellian and East, uh, because I'm not sure if I'm saying those right. But that already made the unicorn hunters feel really refreshing and different. Um, to be fully transparent with you, I was never much of a history buff either. So I really enjoyed reading about the court intrigue between the kingdoms of France and Austria, and Anne of Brittany doing whatever she can to maintain sovereignty in her little uh duchy. A huge part of what makes that court intrigue so intriguing is our female main character herself, Anne. Anne is the kind of character that always has a twinkle in her eye. She's constantly using her charm and wit in ways that her political opponents aren't expecting. She also becomes a bit of a chosen one when on a unicorn hunt, which began as one of her strategic moves to confound the King of France and his allies. She is approached by an actual unicorn, something she was not expecting. And this event catapults her into the really fascinating magic system of this novel that allows her to begin learning how to move through and between parallel realms and even engage in sorcery that manipulates matter to bring objects from one realm of existence into another. The whole time I was reading this, I kept thinking what a perfect read-alike this is for Naomi Novic's historical fantasy standalones. For the shared fairy tale qualities and their woman-centeredness. And I gotta tell you, the sex scene in Uprooted walked so the ones in this book could run. I don't normally gravitate toward romanticy, so there was more spice here than I was expecting. But it never retracted from the story, so I didn't mind it. What draws me most in for any book is the bros and if it's just beautiful to read. And the Unicorn Hunters fully delivers on that. Now, if spice isn't your thing, you might want to try my next featured title instead. This one's called Green Teeth by Molly O'Neill. And there is not a single shred of romance in this book, which I actually really appreciate. Or the operative words to describe the Unicorn Hunters for me would be lush or atmospheric. The keywords to describe green teeth are whimsical and cozy. The fairies in the Unicorn Hunters are a little more high court, maybe, uh, but in Green Teeth, we spend time with the lower Fey, specifically Jenny Greenteeth, who is an elder lake monster who takes her job as a caretaker of her little underwater kingdom very seriously. She's always fastidiously cleaning and caring for the lake and the other creatures living there. She's she's very much a lovable grump. And Jenny isn't entirely sure what to do when a local village woman is thrown into her lake after being accused of witchcraft. But when she decides against eating the woman and instead agrees to help her, along with the help of an old goblin friend, the story gets thrown into a very classic hero's journey with a series of magical quests to be undertaken. And yes, the final quest involves a unicorn. But that is as much as I'd like to say about that at this particular juncture. But like I said, no romance here whatsoever, but lots of warm, fuzzy, found family moments with that familiar, grumpy sunshine pairing of characters. And something else I really loved about this was that the character of temperance, that's the woman that gets thrown into the lake because she is or maybe is not a witch. She is a mother of young children. And she's a good mother. She loves her children and she's desperately working through all of the book to be able to return to them. I find new mothers in fiction can often be so singularly drawn to where they have no real function or no real conflict outside of being a caregiver or dealing with their role of being a new mom. And it was just really lovely to see Temperance portrayed as a whole autonomous person who drives the plot forward. And ultimately, she she doesn't need saving. She she is able to save herself. So those are my two unicorn inspired, fairy tale inspired uh historical fantasies for you. If you've already read them or you decide to pick one of these up, let me know in the comments and let me know what fairy tale inspired fiction I should read next. Happy reading!