The Castle Behind Thorns

by Merrie Haskell

Overview

This magical adventure set in an enchanted castle surrounded by thorns tells a tale of the power of memory and story, forgiveness and strength, and the true gifts of craft and imagination. By the acclaimed author of The Princess Curse and Handbook for Dragon Slayers, this original fantasy is perfect for fans of Gail Carson Levine, Karen Cushman, and Shannon Hale.

When blacksmith apprentice Sand wakes up in a ruined castle, he has no idea how he got there, but the thorny brambles that surround the walls prevent him from leaving. As he begins to fix up the castle in order to survive, everything he touches somehow works better than it should. Then, as he continues to explore, Sand discovers the castle’s secrets, including its long lost heir, Perrotte. Together they must fully repair the broken castle if they ever want to leave.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062008213
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/24/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Merrie Haskell was born in Michigan and grew up in North Carolina. She wrote her first story at the age of seven, and she walked dogs after school in order to buy her first typewriter.

Merrie returned north to attend the Residential College of the University of Michigan, where she earned a BA in biological anthropology. Her fiction has appeared in Nature, Asimov's Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy: 2008 Download. She now lives in Saline, Michigan, with her husband and stepdaughter. Merrie works in a library with over seven million books, and she finds this to be just about the right number. She is also the author of The Princess Curse and Handbook for Dragon Slayers.

Editorial Reviews

A warm and lovely story about friendship, magic, the long shadow of the past, and blacksmithing.

Robin McKinley

Utterly magical . . . a fairy tale about healing a broken castle, a broken soul, a broken country, and a broken heart.

Catherine Gilbert Murdock

The Castle Behind Thorns is a graceful and enchanting fantasy that celebrates the healing magic of kindness, friendship, and love. I was utterly charmed.

Rae Carson

Sand and his passion will resonate with readers of all ages—I adored him just as much as my young patrons will.

Ally Watkins

A subtle and engaging parable of healing, The Castle Behind Thorns offers its readers a window into the human metaphor which lies at the roots of fantasy and magic.

Kenny Brechner

I loved everything about this book! From the characters to the themes, it all worked together to form a really fun and interesting story. I think it would make an excellent book club book, it just lends itself to detailed discussion.

Faith Hochhalter

Haskell effortlessly weaves together internal and external forces, leading to a tense climax. Subtle parallels to ‘Sleeping Beauty’ are omnipresent, but Sand and Perrotte’s work of restoring the castle, avenging old wrongs, and forgiving once-bitter enemies takes its own, novel course.

The Horn Book

★ 03/17/2014
While trapped in a cursed castle surrounded by thorns, 13-year-old Sand, a commoner who would rather apprentice as a blacksmith than fulfill his father’s aspirations by attending university, unintentionally resurrects Perrotte, a young noblewoman who once lived in the castle, which has been torn apart: “Nothing was whole here, nothing at all. Not a spoon, not a toothpick, not a bed, not a door.” In this ambitious historical fantasy set in medieval Brittany, Sand and Perrotte form an intense, prickly friendship as they fix what they can of the shattered castle and learn that “some things are not meant to be mended.” Haskell (Handbook for Dragon Slayers) seamlessly integrates the legends of Breton saints into her story, making the magical miraculous and grounding it in the location and era. Her characters’ passions for blacksmithing and astronomy, the details of which she accessibly describes, further anchor this fantasy in reality. Exploring a range of weighty subjects, from the horror of war to the difficulty of forgiveness, Haskell makes every subplot and character count, reinforcing the story’s elaborate metaphorical and thematic structure. Ages 8–12. Agent: Caitlin Blasdell, Liza Dawson Associates. (June)

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/01/2014
Gr 4–8—Sand awakens inside a large fireplace, in a room where "every single thing" is broken and quickly realizes that he is in the Sundered Castle, a landmark that he has seen his whole life. Everyone in Sand's village knows that the castle, which is surrounded by an impenetrable thorn barrier, was damaged in an earthquake and isn't safe. As Sand begins to explore the ruins, he discovers that every object in the castle has been broken, and he begins to use his skills as an apprentice blacksmith to fix what he can. The protagonist is soon joined by Merlin the Falcon and Perrotte, the lost heir to the castle, who seems to have returned from death. Sand and Perrotte work together to repair the damage and gather the food and supplies they need to survive. They soon discover that their improvements seem to make the thorns that surround the castle disappear. Perrotte and Sand also come to understand their own and their families' pasts as they work toward forgiveness, facing their inner and outer conflicts. The developing relationship between the two main characters is portrayed realistically; it's often as prickly as the thorns that surround them. They both come of age as they accept themselves and those around them. Fans of Gail Carson Levine's and Shannon Hale's fairy tale adaptations will enjoy the adventure and mystery here.—Beth L. Meister, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, WI

School Library Journal

2014-02-26
Faint echoes of "Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow White" waft up from this new fantasy. Sand (short for Alexandre) wakes in the ashes of a fireplace, in a castle in which every room and object has been broken: the Sundered Castle. He doesn't know how he got there, but a vicious, active wall of thorns keeps him within. Son of a blacksmith, he goes about attempting to mend whatever he can, and when he finds the body of a girl, he rearranges her limbs carefully—and she awakens. Perrotte has been dead—or asleep—for over 25 years. Like Sand, she is about 13; unlike him, she is of noble birth. The first half of the tale is about mending everything in the castle, Perrotte and Sand working together through the forging and firing and hammering. The second half, however, gets rather muddled. Perrotte withholds her complicated and violent political history from Sand, as well as the news that a knight will be coming through the thorn barrier to plunge her back into it. It's possible that two saints whose broken relics Sand mends hold the key to the future. These elements do not hang together as well as the beautifully sustained central metaphor of blacksmithing. Moreover, Sand and Perrotte seem much older than 13, and the ending preaches loudly. Still, it stands alone neatly, and the lore of blacksmith work is carried through with vivid energy. (Fantasy. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews