The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden

This book is almost achingly sweet, both in the enjoyment of imaging the tales as they are being told and of watching the relationship between the storyteller (the orphan girl who is shunned by nearly everyone in the belief that she is a demon) and the listener (a young prince, son of the Sultan) unfold. I'm planning to read the sequel - I really want to re-experience the magic that was created with this first book!Like Scheherazade, the girl weaves stories within stories. Unlike that story, though, where Scheherazade was telling stories to forestall execution, the young Prince has to resist the pressure to shun her as well and to accept the punishment meted out to him for seeking out her company. The stories capture the yearning of the characters to make their mark on the world or to be free. And while there are some villains, none of them are one-dimensional and there's a kindness in the way their motivations are described, including those who enable them.Regarding formats: I read this on Kindle, but am very tempted to purchase it as book that can be held.I would love to have this as an audio book and wonder, too, if I could read this to some of the younger children and early teens in my life.

It has been a *very* long time since I've run across a book series that I consider a "must-read." Yet here one is. I'm having trouble writing a review because the series is so complex and so layered, and the emotions it calls up are so powerful. It's hard to put it into words. I guess I'll just start by describing it.The series is fantasy, but stunningly different from the "hero goes on a quest" or "epic political struggle" that dominates so much fantasy these days. Inspired by 1001 NIGHTS, it consists of a set of nested, overlapping fairy tales that are told by a little orphan girl to a prince in the palace garden. The fairy tales are all original--that is to say, Valente created them herself--but she did so out of classic fairy-tale elements to make something that feels fresh but at the same time familiar. The stories themselves are not only nested but weave back and forth with one another in very complex ways so that by the end, you find the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I can't imagine how much work must have gone into plotting this out. It's a work of tremendous imagination with deeply memorable characters and richly drawn locations. Valentie's prose style, like that of classic fairy tales, is deceptively simple yet incredibly moving and vivid. I was literally fighting back tears at the end of CITIES OF COIN AND SPICE, the second and final book in the series.There are a couple minor things: First, these aren't books you can put down and walk away from, then come back to and pick up after a long time. The nested story structure requires careful attention to keep straight who is talking to whom about what; if you forget your place, you're going to be lost. Second, it's a good thing she stopped at two. Two was exactly the perfect length for this series; not only would continuing on cheapen it, but I suspect the gimmick might have started to wear thin over another couple books. But stopping *where* she did was just the right place. Can't say it enough--these are must-reads!

This book was incredible, I never read anything like it. Layer upon layer each story intersecting. The magic, the fantasy, the characters, all I could say is I want more. The illustrations in the book were fantastic, mesmerizing, well done. Dark and twisted tales, such imagination. A true gem!I give In the Night Garden 5 stars for its incredible tales of myths and legends.I would recommend this book to Fantasy fans.

Another brilliant work from Catherynne M. Valente featuring her unmistakable lyrical prose and her powerful storytelling. This book will delight you; enthrall you; enchant you.The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden is, essentially, the story of an orphan girl, born of nobility, who bears a curious dark, inky stain over her eyelids. The palace is unwilling to house her but cannot destroy her, fearing the wraith of a vengeful djinn. Instead, she is cast into the vast garden that surrounds the palace. There she thrives, having everything she needs to survive. She is alone until one brave boy seeks out her company. The orphan shares the mystery of her inky eyelids with him, and tells him the marvelous stories contained within.The book contains over 100 short stories, woven into two main story arcs. These stories are all related, twisting together, diverging, and reconnecting in surprising ways.The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden features something for everyone. Inside its covers you will find kindly witches, questing princes, lady pirates, wicked wizards, longing selkies, immortal body thieves, misunderstood beasts, warring papesses and astronomer bears. This book is rich and varied. It is impossible to recount all the wonders it contains.Lovers of fairy tales and folklore will quickly realize that Valente has used an impressively varied array of inspiration. Some of these tales will be familiar, some will teeter on the very edge of memory, others will delight with their newness. Valente's dark, twisted, mature fairy tales are haunting and compelling. Tales reminiscent of both western and eastern traditions are represented, as well as many in between.I cannot recommend this book enough.Do read this book if you're patient, appreciate subtly, and never quite outgrew the sort of wonder that only a fairytale can inspire.Do not read this book if you expect linear story telling, want your fairy tales to have clean cut happy endings, or find comfort in the mundane.

In years of reading being a fantasy reader; I can firmly say I've never found a book quite like this before. The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden is a remarkable piece of storytelling.Undoubtedly influenced by the fantasy, horror and satirical stories in One Thousand And One Nights; the book's opening thread is of a supposed demonically possessed young girl living in a palace garden. Shunned and feared by nearly all around her, the nameless girl tells stories to an equally unnamed boy of the royal court. This allows a linear flow into tales that are vivid, elaborate depictions of magic, blood vengeance, quests, fabulous cities and an incredible range of mythical beings as well as princes, kings, witches, deities and more. There is a touch of a reminder of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, as well as Jorge Luis Borges' The Book of Imaginary Beings, for me.What I love are the twists to the characters' stories as they appear, disappear and then are encountered again (akin to music where the refrain is heard once, vanishes, then returns to be touched on again, growing resonant with added details). Also, as another reviewer notes: there are wonderfully depicted female characters and, delightfully, they are all different with none being decoratively simplistic.However, for all the wondrous prose, I do find some elements less satisfying. I like flashes of wit and humour in fantasy writing to add dimension to themes that can, sometimes, become portentous. There are a couple of moments where I smiled or had a quiet laugh (a questing Prince obsessed with formulas and theorems and Grog the Magyr lambasting the uselessness of mermaids), but for many of the stories it seemed absent or it was lost in my reading of it.The structure of the storytelling can be discouraging at times. With so many characters across near fifty stories; it can be difficult to find an emotional connection instead of an intellectual one. It's easy to view some as just another link in a chain, where the fabulously outlandish becomes the everyday, rather than memorable individuals. The stand-out characters are in the stories of The Net-weaver, The Pale Girl and St. Sigrid. The characters' relationships to each other seemed to be far more understandable, and sympathetic, in terms of their motivations and actions. These later tales remain my favourites of the entire sequence.The interior ink drawings by Michael Kaluta (an established and talented comic book artist and illustrator) may have been commissioned to play a similar role as in The Grimm Brothers' Illustrated Tales. It is unfortunate that some of the odd, repetitive, positioning and sizing in the text does not always enhance or complement.For readers looking for a book that is a different take on classical stories, or as adult fantastic fiction, I'd recommend The Night Garden as more than worth the time to become absorbed in. I wouldn't strongly recommend it for people who want a more traditional, epic fantasy novel though.

When a story like this comes along, it is like coming home. It wraps you and warms you and you just can't get enough. An amazing tale so beautifully told. It shall remain one of my favourites. Catherynne Valente, thank you for this treasure.

Valente has created something very special with this book. She draws on legend and folklore from across the world to create an collection of powerful, gritty, thrilling and sometimes harrowing stories that nest and interlink and weave together; it's clearly inspired by the frame stories of the Arabian Nights but takes the premise to an entirely new level.If you buy this book, you should get "In The Cities of Coin and Spice" as well as they are the two volumes of a complete novel.

I love her style of writing and this book, with it's intertwined stories, is glorious. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoys folk tales or fantasy.

I am absolutely in love with this book. Although I read it on my Kindle I loved it (and the sequel) so much I am going to buy the physical versions too.