In fairy tales, there are men and there are wolves, there are beasts and dead parents, there are girls and forests.
Ofelia knows all this, like any young woman with a head full of stories. And she sees right away what the Capitán is, in his immaculate uniform, boots and gloves, smiling: a wolf.
But nothing can prepare her for the fevered reality of the Capitán's eerie house, in the midst of a dense forest which conceals many things: half-remembered stories of lost babies; renegade resistance fighters hiding from the army; a labyrinth; beasts and fairies.
There is no one to keep Ofelia safe as the labyrinth beckons her into her own story, where the monstrous and the human are inextricable, where myths pulse with living blood...
***
[It is said that long, long ago, there lived a princess in an underground realm, where neither lies nor pain exist, who dreamt of the human world]***
(@BloomsburyBooks, 2 July 2019, 320 pages, ebook, ARC from @BloomsburyBooks via # netgalley and voluntarily reviewed)
***
***
I loved the film and couldn't wait to see how the book turned out. My high expectations were met. I wasn't sure how this would pan out. I was worried it would be too close to the film or more of a screenplay. Thankfully, my worries came to nothing. This is a great book. I enjoyed every word. It's haunting, chilling and a brilliant blend of magic realism and dark fairy tales. What struck me about the book; the same as the film are the contrasts between Franco's fascist regime and the labyrinth Ofelia finds herself in. I haven't seen the film in years so cannot be sure how close or different to the movie it is though images of the movie kept popping into my head as I read. This is a corker of a book.
