Review: The Thorns Remain

The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

The figure extended a graceful hand. 'Join the dance.' 

It's 1919 and while the War has ended, the danger and threat of the Spanish Flu still lingers. Moira Jean's little village in Scotland keeps dwindling as boys and men were lost to the war and others to the lure of more opportunities in the cities. Moira Jean and her six friends toil as tenets to a rich family that hasn't even visited their estate in years and always with the threat of eviction hovering. When they decide to let off some steam in the woods, drinking and carrying on, a new danger reveals itself. Now Moira Jean must deal against The Dreamer, trying to get her friends back and keep herself and the rest of the village safe. 

'Careful, Moira Jean. You are safe if you are ignorant. Do not stray too close to that which you do not understand.' 

The Thorns Remains was a magical realism and fantasy story that brought back all the reasons why people line their windows and doorways with iron. I loved how all the different kinds of fae folk were added in, kelpie, brownies, changelings, glaistig, etc and The Lord of Land Under the Hill, a.ka. The Dreamer, didn't sparkle so much as be painful to look upon because of his beauty that bordered on and could shift to grotesque. 

Dying from the flu as he was trying to make his way back home, Angus, Moira Jean's fiance, has her weighed down with grief and wearing his Victory Medal. A medal that has just enough iron in it to keep her from completely falling under The Dreamer's spell when he starts the music up, after he catches her and her friends in the woods. Moira Jean sees the creatures for what they are, antlers coming out of eye sockets, vines coming out of mouths, and refuses to keep dancing and follow everyone to The Dreamer's halls. She wakes up in the morning at home with an awful hangover and no one in the village missing the six friends as they're under a spell thinking their kids are just somewhere else. This leaves Moira Jean to return to the woods and make deals with The Dreamer to get her friends back. 

'Of course we are equals,' he said, his voice low, 'but that does not make you any less mine.' 

The Dreamer is just intrigued enough with Moira Jean to bargain with her and the story starts to get a Tam Lin essence to it, until Moira Jean reads the actual story to The Dreamer and then we spin a different direction. Moira Jean bargains one of her letters from Angus to The Dreamer for one of her friend's return and we see The Dreamer be fascinated with human emotion. The story then has The Dreamer acting as if he is starting to feel love for Moira Jean and this could have easily spun into a romance but I loved the direction this took with instead having Moira Jean eventually recognizing all the ways The Dreamer had been manipulating her and how it was selfish, obsession, and controlling and not love The Dreamer was feeling for her. 

Brudonnock was alive with unseen things, and she could see them all. 

While I enjoyed how we got to know the townspeople and Moira Jean's relationship with her mother, so we could get a feel for the community Moira Jean was living in, this story was four hundred pages and a good chunk of her working, doing chores (so much laundry washing!) could have been edited out, it dragged the middle and beginning second half down so much. There is a deadline to the bargains Moira Jean is making with The Dreamer, Beltane, and that is six weeks away. Instead of a steady pace of her trying to come up with ways to get her friends back, the pace slows and feels meandering as she has to do chores. I don't think streamlining this would have cut out any feelings and instead would have vastly improved the pace and therefore story. 

She stepped into the Land Under the Hill. 

The latter second half speeds up as Moira Jean stands up to the The Dreamer and his warnings of a “tithe” and The Queen come to fruition. We get fascinating fantasy scenes in The Dreamer's world and danger from The Queen. This was told in five parts, no chapters, with a writing style that pulled me into the story and if Moira Jean had focused a little more on getting her friends back with less scenes showing her doing her chores, the return to fae being something to fear would have this a favorite read of the year, but I still did enjoy the places this went. 

He wanted her afraid, uncertain – it was how he'd always wanted her. But she had finished giving him what he wanted. 

The exploring of Moira Jean's grief, touching on how culture can be stripped from a people (Mrs. Iverach), economic opportunities, and how all love isn't good love were themes all explored in this magical realism world. The ending could easily be the last we see of Moira Jean but I can't help thinking that her last glance at the dock could lead to a sequel and I'd definitely sign up for more from the woman with iron in her soul.

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