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The Kingdom of Little Wounds, by Susann Cokal
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A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book
A young seamstress and a royal nursemaid find themselves at the center of an epic power struggle in this stunning young-adult debut.
On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches: brocade and satin and jewels, feasts of sugar fruit and sweet spiced wine. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion. Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem — and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined with that of mad Queen Isabel. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.
- Sales Rank: #780928 in Books
- Published on: 2013-10-08
- Released on: 2013-10-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x 1.76" w x 6.00" l, 1.70 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 576 pages
From School Library Journal
Gr 11 Up—Cokal here paints an unflinchingly grim portrait of 16th-century palace life as experienced by both servants and royalty. Something is rotten in the fictional Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn as doomed Princess Sophia prepares to wed a man nearly twice her senior. During the celebration, royal seamstress Ava Maria Bingen accidently pricks Queen Isabel during an emergency gown repair, but instead of facing the requisite dismissal (or worse, death), Ava is recruited by narcissistic Lord Nicolas. Stationed in the royal nursery as a spy, Ava's destiny becomes entwined with that of mute nursemaid, Midi Sorte. Betrayal, murder, and political intrigue abound as these women struggle to survive in an environment that uses and abuses them in horrific ways. Cokal's prose is lyrical and beautiful. Characters—even minor ones—are exquisitely rendered, each with complex and often heartbreaking backstories. Reader Susan Duerden is exceptionally versatile. The story and its inhabitants spring to vivid life through her expert touch. However, some caution: frequent and explicit accounts of sexual acts, abuse, disease, and death make this one inappropriate for all but the most mature listeners. It is a superb audiobook, but consider the limited teen appeal before purchasing.—Alissa Bach, Oxford Public Library, MI
From Booklist
Skyggehavn, a fictional sixteenth-century kingdom, is a desperate place plagued by �madness, disease, and mercury poisoning. Political intrigue, murder, and manipulation abound as Cokal wends the troubling tale of Ava, an aspiring royal seamstress, and Midi, a mute foreign nursemaid, who together orchestrate a daring gambit to ensure both the continued power of the reigning queen and the downfall of the cruel man who sadistically took advantage of them both. The author seamlessly interweaves crooked fairy tales throughout her dark story, which only serves to underscore the grim realities of the women who suffer terrible violence at the hands of brutal men. The graphic depictions of sex and rape make this a difficult read—and reserve it for the most mature readers—though Cokal gives a powerful and poignant voice to both Ava and Midi, whose indignation simmers until they enact a gruesome form of revenge. Despite the challenging content, the book’s lyrical writing, enthralling characters, and compelling plot will give older readers lots to ponder. Grades 10-12. --Sarah Hunter
Review
Brazen, baroque, The Kingdom of Little Wounds plots coordinates of history, fever, and magic in such a way that each is occasionally disguised as the other. However, there's no disguising Susann Cokal's immediate rise to eminence as a pantocrator of new realms. I lived in her controversial kingdom for only a week, but I suspect and hope I shall never recover.
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and What-the-Dickens
There are deep and shallow reading experiences; this is a deep reading experience. There is nothing like it, though the fossil record flashes all kinds of petticoat. (Sigrid Undset. Margaret Atwood.) Elegant, complex, and sharp as a needle.
—Blythe Woolston, winner of the William Morris Prize and author of Black Helicopters
An epic, mercurial tale of astounding beauty, power, and madness.
—Gigi Amateau, author of Claiming Georgia Tate
Complex and carefully crafted -- mesmerizing.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
[T]he novel's ... brutality, eloquence, and scope are a breathtaking combination.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This novel is distinctive in thought and elocution, but it is also dense and full of adult content.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
The events at court are recounted in richly detailed prose that renders immediate the sights and smells of a time when science was deeply intertwined with superstition and politics was a blood sport. ... The novel demands and rewards full immersion in its account of the everyday life, beliefs, and medical practices of the royals, and readers will definitely come away with a (dis)taste for the cultural history of the Renaissance. ... Cokal skillfully and unapologetically blurs the lines between fairy tale and history.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
[A]lmost de Sadean in its rich, sumptuous details.
—The New York Times Book Review
By combining fantasy with an incredibly realistic depiction of Renaissance Europe, Cokal brings to life a world that easily could have been a true one. Her exquisite descriptions spring off the page and into your senses. Just as easily as you marvel at the ornate details of a gown, you’ll wrinkle your nose at the scent of unwashed courtiers’ bodies and uncleaned chambers. You’ll gasp at the iniquities of the time and root for the unaristocratic underdogs. Cokal makes Skyggehavn as real as any writer can make her fictional realm.
—TeenReads.com
Most helpful customer reviews
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
Beautifully written, but very dark and NOT a YA book!
By Claire
This should never, ever have been brought out under a YA label. What was the editor thinking?! Even a Q & A with the author on the publisher's site indicates that she did not write this book for a younger audience. The publisher actually lists this book as suitable for ages 14 and up, which is really not right. It has a dense, complicated plot and the violence is so brutal, frequent, and graphic (think sadistic rapes, and other physical brutality, in graphic detail), that it is not a book for children. If it were a movie, it would be rated R, not PG-13. It is a dark, well-written, and interesting book for adults--that older teens (mature, older teens, not 14-year-olds) could read if they knew what they were getting into. Even as an adult, I found the graphic violence unsettling, and while the book was well done, it's not really an "enjoyable" read (and I tend to like weird books that are somewhat dark, but this is seriously, unrelentingly dark). My teenaged daughter is interested in historical fiction and likes novels about disease, so we thought this would be a good read, but she was too disturbed to continue. She didn't mind the syphilis aspect, but the brutality against women was too much for her. I thought the book was a sobering look at what women's lives in the 16th century probably were like--nothing romanticized or glossed over. Readers should know that this is not a light, historical fantasy about a seamstress, a nursemaid, and a queen. (As an adult book, I'd give it four stars.)
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
A fairy tale about syphilis
By Karissa Eckert
I got a copy of this book to review through Netgalley(dot)com. I loved the beautiful cover and found the synopsis to be intriguing. I really disliked the first half of the book, but the second half was much more interesting and engaging.
The author self-describes this book as a fairy tale about syphilis (which I wish I would have known before I decided to read it) and that is pretty much what it is. The story is set in the 1500's and mainly follows two girls in their late teens, both are servants in the castle. Ava Bingen is a seamstress who accidentally pokes the queen with a needle during a gown repair and as such finds herself in the role of either facing death or agreeing to spy for the King's Secretary. The mute Midi Sorte is a nursemaid for the ailing children of the Queen and King. Both women struggle to survive in a dark atmosphere and find themselves closer to goings on of royalty than they ever wanted to be.
I think this is dubbed as YA but it should definitely be adult. There is a ton of deviant/violent sexual behavior including rape and self-mutilation. The two main young girls are repeatedly raped and abused. Although they are in their late teens, all the surrounding characters in the book are adults...so this is a very adult read. For example in the first 10% of the book we meet a man who has sewn jewels into his penis so he can keep his wealth with him and he enjoys the side effect of how much pain this gives the women he rapes.
The descriptions of things are gross and disturbing. I am talking about descriptions of the king's bowel movements, details about the queen's gynecological exams, and wonderfully (I am being sarcastic here) detailed descriptions about lesions, boils, and general disease.
This is one of those books where reading it makes me feel tired and generally grossed out. It seems to revel in the dirtiness and depravity of humanity. I know that a lot of descriptions may have been accurate for the "dark ages" but I don't feel a need to relive that.
I might be able to put up with all of the above if the characters were interesting or likable. However, the two female leads are spiteful and strangely complacent in the sexual acts they are forced to perform. This makes them seem weak and unlikable. In the first 50% of the novel, they don't band together but constantly betray one another in hopes of getting the upper hand.
The second half of the book is better than the first. The violence isn't as present and the women actually start to work together. In the end I enjoyed the irony of the fact that all of these women who suffer so greatly end up being the ones who drive many of the final decisions that rule this kingdom. The second half of the book does justify many of the awful things that happen in the first half and it was very cleverly done. I almost stopped reading this book 50% of the way through, but am glad that I finished it up.
This book might be a treatise on the horribleness of being a powerless woman in a male corrupt society. Which is not something I really enjoy reading about. There is also a heavy theme about how awful syphilis was and how it can destroy a whole kingdom. The writing style is very lyrical and beautiful, it's just too bad that the subject matter is so dark.
I actually enjoyed Cokal's afterward about the history and research that went into writing this book much more than the actual book itself. The title is obviously a reference to the numerous wounds/boils on the royal family as well as to the small hurts everyone visits on each other as they struggle to survive.
Overall this was an interesting read, but too dark and violent for me. I think a lot of people are going to have some trouble stomaching the violence and deviancy of the first half of the book, which is a pity because the second half is rather clever. I absolutely cannot believe this is a young adult book, I think many adults will be uncomfortable with the sexual violence in this book and cannot imagine having anyone younger reading this. Not recommended, there are much better and easily stomached historical fantasies out there.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A Dark Fairy Tale for Fall
By The Book Bird
In the spirit of SNL's Stefon-- this book has it all: plague ridden princesses, embroidery, random sludge filled holes in the ground, roast dolphin, strange stars/comets in the sky.
Overall, one of my favorite reads for fall, The Kingdom of Little Wounds is a beautiful dark fairy tale. Comprised of little vignette style chapters focusing on various characters (the aging queen, the wronged seamstress, the devious count), that are almost stand alone little short stories in their own right. Cokal's prose weaves an amazing tableau for the reader; I found it easy to envision this kingdom on the verge of downfall as I devoured the pages.
Definitely not a fairy tale for children (some violence and disturbing scenes)-- think along the lines of Gregory Maguire's Wicked trilogy, I appreciated Cokal writing something that straddled the line between outright fantasy/sci-fi and historical fiction. As I want to avoid giving away too much of the plot, but needless to say this one was difficult to put down. Don't expect heroines who need saving, or any other predictable scenarios!
Make sure to check out my other reviews at [...]
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