I found this book through a commenter on Fuse’s Rapunzels Revenge review who suggested it as a follow up for those who were looking for more after reading Shannon and Dean Hale’s graphic novel. It sounded interesting, our library had it, I put a hold on it, and M graciously picked it up for me on Friday (because she was hoping that there would be something for her).
I’m torn about this one. I liked it very much — the art was black and white, comic strip style, but it worked well in this situation. (Though part of me longed to see the color of things. I do think that color would have overwhelmed the page in some places.) Linda Medley is a good artist, and is incredibly inventive with the world she has created.
But. I liked the story at the beginning: using the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale as a jumping off point, Medley creates a world where Sleeping Beauty’s castle is used as a refuge. A woman, Jain, makes her way there, pregnant with her lover’s baby, seeking refuge from an abusive husband. There, she finds comfort and companionship with the castle residents, whom in turn ask no questions and love and accept her odd-looking baby.
So far, so good. I was enjoying hearing Jain’s story, enjoying the characters that were a part of the castle, enjoyed the novelty of the world Medley had created. But then, for the third part of the book, Medley chooses to abandon everything she had done before, and take off in a completely different direction, telling the story of one of the castle’s residents, Sister Peace. It’s not that Sister Peace’s story was uninteresting; the story of how the Solicitine Order came to be and how Peace became to be a part of it, and of her friend Nessie escaping her abusive husband and finding a better life for herself was all very interesting, it’s just that I kept searching for some kind of connection to the story that went before, some kind of cohesiveness, and some kind of ending of the story I was previously enjoying. I never got that, and it kind of spoiled the novel for me. If only…
Ah, well.
The Book Nut 
Do some homework before you criticize others.
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Anonymous:1) This is MY personal OPINION, and I’m entitled to criticize if I see fit.2) Read the whole post. I liked the book, mostly. I was just dissatisfied with the way it ended, and the direction it went. It has nothing to do with it being a graphic novel; I say this about novels I read when I’m dissatisfied with them.3) This IS PART of my homework. The more graphic novels I read, the better I’ll get at reviewing them.
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Sheesh, Anonymous needs to chill out or do the work of typing out an explanation…There’s two things I wanted to mention about your review:1) This book compiles most of what’s been published, but it’s not meant to be the entire Castle Waiting saga. (I don’t know if it’s presented as if it is — does it say Part 1 or anything like that?) In an < HREF="http://www.sequentialtart.com/archive/nov99/medley.shtml" REL="nofollow">interview<>, Medley outlines the story she wants to tell — Jain and Pindar are only part of it, and their story isn’t even done yet. Financial considerations, as far as I can tell, have prevented her from being able to devote her time to her story. (For those of us who’ve been following the comics as they slowly came out, with years between them sometimes and no assurances about the future, this was always heartbreaking.)I don’t know if you’ve seen the < HREF="http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=114&Itemid=62" REL="nofollow">new issues of Castle Waiting<>? They go back to the stories with Jain and Pindar, and I love them — they show a lot more of Jain’s background, and the character interaction is delightful.2) The switch to the story with the Solicitines was, as far as I understand it, supposed to come later in the series; Medley went from self-publishing to publishing under Cartoon Books for the first few issues of the Solicitine arc and apparently, they insisted that she move away from the “boring” story of moving Jain and Pindar into their new room and write something more “interesting.” So she ended up moving the Solicitine arc from later in the series. After the arc was finished, she published two more issues returning to Jain’s story, and then had to stop again. So, it’s really more of a tale of financial constraints and publisher pressure than the story just going off into outer space and stopping abruptly! If you liked the stories with Jain, I really recommend you try to get ahold of the new comics. I never expected to see any Castle Waiting again, and it’s been delightful to see everyone again. It does go slowly, though, and I wonder how she’s ever going to finish the story she outlined in the interview at this rate…
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Oh — and since you ask for recommendations — are you familiar with Bone? It’s another comic series, and is often mentioned with CW, because they were both self-published, unique, mid-90s black-and-white fantasy books that weren’t for kids, per se, but were pretty kid-friendly. (Also, the two main female characters, Thorn and Gran’ma Ben, are both strong women.) Unlike CW, Bone was able to be published consistently enough that the story is complete. It was originally black-and-white, but a delightful color version is currently being published (I believe they just released the second-to-last book of the series in color).
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I didn’t care for it – I liked it in bits, but as you say, it wasn’t cohesive, and I thought some of it was silly.If you’re looking for graphic novels (which you may not be), I really liked Craig Thompson’s Blankets. It’s a really lovely memoir – if you like memoirs.
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lianaleslie — maybe that’s the homework anonymous was talking about? THANK YOU so much. Your explanation helps put things into perspective. There was no jacket flap, no explanation (aside from an introduction by Jane Yolen, which was nice, but not terribly informative) to say “hey this isn’t really supposed to be a cohesive novel in itself, rather a series of vignettes.” Had I known that, I would have approached the book differently. Thanks for the heads up on the new issues, and for the graphic novel recommendations. I have seen Bone, but I haven’t read through it. Maybe I will (eventually).
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How interesting — I’d have thought it would have been in the publisher’s best interests to make it clear there was a Part 2 on the horizon, and that there were new issues of the comic for everyone who isn’t patient enough for the next trade paperback. I’m guessing from what I’ve read about this book that Brambly Hedge, The Lucky Road, Solicitine and some extras (the Sister Peace and Leeds one-shot? Wonder if the Bone crossover is in there) were all collected, but not the letters and extras that are part of the original comic books… Picking it up as what looks like a finished product is probably a lot different than seeing it as a star-crossed work in progress that’s taken over a decade now and has so much more to go. Well, it seems like it’s been doing well in France — between that and the new publisher it seems like things are going well for her. I hope they are, anyways, because the new issues raise a lot of new questions and I’d be so sad if she had to give it up for another few years again!
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My sister just read this book this past week and had a nearly identical review. I’ll have to tell her that it’s only a part one 🙂
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I had the same problem with Castle Waiting and later learned the same thing. My copy didn’t say anything about forthcoming volumes either, and I wish it had. Like you said, I would have approached it differently. Ah, well.
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I had exactly the same problem: I thought it was uneven. But now I'm excited to hear that the rest of it is coming.
I think it was only listed as a separate book becasue it was certain that Medley would get financial support to continue the series. Now that the first book is so popular, she's continued the series.
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