Juvenile Fiction
Knopf Books for Young Readers
2010
436
Michael L Printz Honor Book 2009
Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, a world given to her in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters grow up in this soft place, protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever—magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga’s refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?
This is not a book for everyone, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for younger teens. It starts off with some very disturbing events, and while some reviewers felt these were gratuitous, or too explicit, they didn’t feel that way to me (and I have a pretty low tolerance for that kind of thing in the books I read).
The prose was beautiful, and while it was based on a fairy tale (Snow White and Rose Red), it felt very original and unique to me. I’m a sucker for retellings and expansions of fairy tales, and I loved what Lanagan did with this.
One of the things I like about reading from the list of Printz books is that they aren’t just from US authors — Lanagan is Australian, as is Marchetta (author of the winning book from 2009), and it’s nice to see at least a tiny bit of world perspective. Even more would be better.
I’m glad to have read this and Lanagan’s previous award-winning book of short stories.
