Anna Noyes’s The Blue Maiden is a strange book, about a strange pair of sisters. Before we meet the Silasdottir sisters, Noyes shows us the darkest chapter in the history of Berggrund Island. In 1675, a priest manufactured a witch hunt, leading to the death of dozens of women. One of the few survivors only avoided being murdered because she was pregnant. Her descendant is Silas, the father of Ulrika and Beata Silasdottir.
The extended prologue casts a sinister atmosphere over the rest of the novel, set in the 1820s. Ulrika and Beata are odd. Even if they weren’t the daughters of the island’s priest, they still wouldn’t fit in. They love to roam the island and create their own elaborate games. They also pester their neglectful father for any information about their mother, who died giving birth to Beata. Their few attempts to interact with the other children on the island go awry, much to Bea’s disappointment.
The Blue Maiden follows Bea, for the most part, from when she was a young child to her first years as wife to an islander who left for the mainland for years before returning. As Ulrika grows less willing to conform to convention—especially after a head injury—Bea longs for a more normal life. Except Bea’s reputation is tainted not only by her heritage, but also by her desperate longing to be loved. I saw Beata pushed and pulled by expectation and desire and deep uncertainty about who she really is.
This book leaves a lot of gaps for the reader’s imagination to speculate about the characters’ motivations and goals. Until a few key pieces of information are revealed late in the novel, it feels like a lot of the characters are acting purely on instinct or just in reaction to what is done to them. One of the few things that is clear in The Blue Maiden are the plants that cover the island, which Ulrika, her friend the healer Bruna, and their female ancestors used to heal the islanders or to work magic (maybe) out of the sight of the church. The names of the plant names and their uses hint at a long, self-sufficient culture that I wish I could know more about. Readers who don’t like a spare, almost fairy-tale-like style of writing will be frustrated. Readers who like to let their imaginations loose on subtext, however, will have a blast.
As someone who garden and study plants I would like description of the plants.