The Maiden Thief by Melissa Marr
My rating: 4/5 cats
He kisses me finally, but all I taste is bitterness. I will work harder to atone. I will show him that I have choked down ashes and brine.
this is a bluebeard spin that takes place in a town long-cursed by the disappearance of one of its young females every autumn: Autumn meant harvest, a chill in the air—and another missing girl. the vanishings themselves are the only constant—the women and girls are different ages and physical types, and the only consolation is that the maiden thief never visits the same family twice.
or never used to, anyway.
verena was sixteen when her older sister karis went missing, after verena herself publicly addressed the phenomenon in a, “seriously, town, why isn’t anyone doing anything about this missing girls bullshit?” tract. their family had already endured many deaths, accidents, and reversals-of-fortune, and with her own birthday being in the autumn, verena felt a particular connection, almost a responsibility to the missing girls, even though she doesn’t really fit her town’s mold of how a girl should be.
Girls are to be seen, to be delicate, to be graceful, to be many things my sisters excel at, things I will never be—things I might not have even been if we’d kept our fortunes.
when karis goes missing, their father blames verena, that she had directed the maiden thief’s attention to their family. verena feels guilty and horrified, but also a little bit relieved that her family has been marked, so her other sister will be safe.
but there’s a first time for everything.
blamed, beaten, full of grief and self-recrimination, verena gets herself into a situation that makes her vulnerable until she sees it for what it really is—an opportunity for justice. tired of being told how how to be a girl, how to be a woman, how to be a wife, fed up with being told what to wear and how to be seen, taught that obedience and submission were valuable by a patriarchy that couldn’t even keep its girls safe, verena approaches the trials and tests of her new situation (which is also somewhat like a high school child development class project) with all the rage she’s learned from her upbringing:
View Spoiler »never underestimate a smart girl with a revenge plot
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/2016/01/27/the-mai…
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