Summary: Princess Aurelia is forced to ask James for help. A curse complicates everything.
Son of Gold and Sorrow is the third in KB Hoyle’s series of fairy tale retellings. Each book can be read independently, but for this third book in the series, it helps to have read them in order. In the first book Son of the Deep (a gender swap retelling of the Little Mermaid), James was a side character. In the second book, Son of Bitter Glass (a retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s Snow Queen), James joins the book midway through as a partner on the quest. But in this third book, Son of Gold and Sorrow, James, along with Aurelia, is the protagonist. You do not need to have read the previous books to read this book, they can be read in any order, but you will have more understanding about James as a character if you have read the others.
Son of Gold and Glass is a retelling of The Pretty Goldilocks (not Goldilocks and the Three Bears). Like the Snow Queen, I was familiar with elements of the story because it has been retold in other formats, but I had not read the original fairy tale. Again, like the last book, about half way through the book I started searching to figure out what the original fairly tale was and read a few summaries so I could see the elements and get and idea of what had been changed in this retelling. None of that is required to read the book.
Hoyle wrote an article a few years ago about the value of modern authors retelling fairy tales and I have come to appreciate the value of the classic fairy tale more over time. There are different ways to retell a story just like there are different ways to remake a movie. Some people want a movie remake to be shot for shot, but that is far less satisfying method for a book. I am almost finished with an adult fiction series that used the broad premise of the beauty and the beast as a basis for the book, but did not keep any of the main elements of the story. KB Hoyle’s Fairy Tale Collection has told the stories in a modern way with more female agency and some modern sensibilities of justice, but maintaining the idea of stories that are formative to character and virtue.
Many fairy tales are almost parable-like in their message and can be heavy handed in their message and far more brutal in result than what modern readers are interested in. (The original Little Mermaid didn’t live happily ever after with the prince. In Hans Christian Anderson’s story, she became sea foam.) I think Hoyle strikes the right balance of updating the feel of the story and not feeling beholden to the “shot by shot” elements of the older stories, but still keeping many of the themes and discussion of character, without feeling heavy handed in the message.
I am going to try to avoid too many spoilers, but if you do not want to know anything about the book, go ahead and hear that I strongly recommend the book and hope that it is widely read. There will be a few spoilers below.
One of the problems of modern romance is figuring out how to tell a story so that the couple gets to know one another naturally without just falling into bed. This is a book written for teens and it is chaste, but there is a challenge in that story element being natural. Here, Aurelia, has been cursed. Her father pledged her in marriage to a much older man. Both her father and the other man are cruel and controlling. Her father, being a wizard as well as a king, used magic to tie Aurelia to her betrothed. And so Aurelia used magic to slightly alter the curse so that her betrothed would have to complete three impossible tasks before she would marry him. The result of her father’s curse was that any man who attempted to touch her in love would die. This includes attempting to using force to make her kiss them. Aurelia is safe from rape or other sexual assault, but it also means that she avoids all touch with men because of her history at seeing the result of that curse.
The full extent of her curse and the cruelty of her father and betrothed comes out slowly. But as a plot point to give a natural reason for James and Aurelia to get to know one another and become friends through their quest, it is a perfect solution.
Having now read every book and novella that KB Hoyle has written, what I look forward to most is the subtle references and depth of the books. The only problem is that because so much is intentional, I think I might occasionally see more than what was intended. But here are a couple of subtle discussions or references that I think I saw.
Part of what I think is important and appreciate in modern fiction is female autonomy and choice being emphasized. I think it is important, especially in YA fiction, to show that women should not be obligated to to accept help, or if they have accepted help, to feel obligated to to respond in a particular way “out of gratitude.” About a third of the way into the book, James and Aurelia have helped one another multiple times but they are on a quest for Aurelia and there is a line from James. “So, if you need me, then I will stay. And if you need me to go, then I will go. Wherever you send, I will go. My…indifference for you demands nothing less.” I think the top level reading is James assuring her that she has the primary choice.
But underneath that, I think that there is a subtle nod to the biblical book of Ruth and the line where Ruth pledges to stay with her mother in law, “For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” (Ruth 1:16) Even though that is a frequent biblical text in marriage ceremonies, it was not between romantic partners. In this case, we know that both James and Aurelia are in love with one another, but they can’t express that love because of the curse. So they start using the word “indifferent” to mean love. I get the hint of the Princess Bride “as you wish” to mean love, but again I may be reading into the book my own references and connections.
A third level connection that I do not think any young adult reader will make is that Ignatian indifference. Ignatius, the 16th century founder of the Jesuit order, writes about the role of indifference to following the will of God in discernment. I have been doing long term reading project on discernment and throughout the book there is a threat of what it means to have made a choice voluntarily. James and Aurelia both love one another. Their love seeks what is best for each other, even if that endangers themselves. In Ignatius’ sense, he writes about indifference as essential to discerning the path before us not in the sense of not caring what happens, but in the sense of being open to the result of any of the choices. James and Aurelia can only really express their love to one another in the sense that they become indifferent to the benefit that love has for themselves and only care about what that love can mean to the other.
Later, toward the end of the book, James talks about finally being free. She does not see him as free because he has been constrained by the choice to stay with her. But he tells her that he is finally free in a way that he never could have been when he was wandering the world, because now he has purpose. His purpose constrains his choices, but there is greater freedom in the constraint than there was in purposelessness that he was running away from. In a sense, this is the idea of vocation. Someone who identifies their vocation and then finds meaning in that vocation has purpose in their work that is different from someone who just does what happens to be in front of them.
There are two additional lines that I want to call out. About half way through the book, James and Aurelia have to make a choice. She again tries to talk him into leaving even though she thinks that him accompanying her is her only choice of breaking her curse. He again pledges to her in a line that seems to be a wedding vow. It is a wedding vow not in the sense of being in front of friends and family and pledging together, but in the sense of pledging himself to her good. “From death into life. I am yours—forever. I am your man. As long as it is in my power, I will serve you for the rest of my life.” While it wasn’t an actual wedding, the book shows that there can be a pledge that is more meaningful than a forced marriage. James and Aurelia have pledged to one another more deeply than what could ever be possible with her and her betrothed.
The final line I am going to reference I think was intended to be a referential joke. “Where is the priest so I can free myself of this betrothal curse?” I think is referencing the line attributed to Henry the VIII, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” It is unclear historically if Henry was actually calling for someone to kill Thomas Beckett or if he was expressing frustration. Regardless of intent, several of his knights decided to kill Becket in cold blood without forcing the king to order Beckett’s death. But it works as a joke here because Aurelia knows that the only way that she can be free of the curse if she is married (which she views as a type of death) or if she or her betrothed die. It is a dark joke, but one that I laughed at.
I have already given away too much of the plot, but only in rough outlines. The rough outlines are from a story that is over 200 years old and that was based on a fairy tale that is even older. As I read through the book I was reminded of how important fiction is to presenting the “why” to character and virtue formation. I frequently read non-fiction books about character, virtue, and spiritual formation. Those can be important to thinking about character, but traditionally the “why” of character and virtue has been presented through parables and fairy tales because fiction does a better job of framing character than straight non-fiction description.
Throughout the book both Aurelia and James come to see their weaknesses rightly as they are forced to confront themselves in the struggle of the events of the book. Their character is truly revealed as they make choices. Both James and Aurelia can see the character development in the other, but they have a hard time seeing their own character development. At the end of the book there is a section where this is made more explicit in a magical way. Character is both about choices and about developing slowly over time so that those choices become natural to use. We understand this in sports or music. Musicians and athletes practice small steps over and over again so that when those small steps are combined together it is a natural progression not specific individual conscious choices. I am not saying that character is only revealed as pre-conscious choices, because sometimes character is revealed when we consciously are making choices. But I do think that part of development of character is the movement of at least part of our actions to pre-conscious responses.
Son of Gold and Sorrow by KB Hoyle Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition