If you are interested in children's literature, you have not been able to miss in recent years the phenomenon created by Christelle Dabos. The latter, still unknown a few years ago, is the author of the famous new saga La Passe-Miroir. So, as we advised for the winter 2017-2018 selection, we too succumbed to the charms of the Winter Betrothed, the first volume of the saga.
The back cover:
Ophélie, a young girl living on Anima, learns without having prepared herself that she is promised to a boy from a family living at the pole, where the air is freezing. This boy is Thorn, and the least we can say is that he too is rather frosty.
Leaving being obliged, Ophelia did not agree at all with marrying a boy – whom she had not even chosen – so quickly. Indeed, the Deans of Anima had organized this betrothal with the aim of forming a diplomatic union. Only, they may not have thought of the fact that Ophelia was surely not the best to obey such conventions. That is to say, our heroine is endowed with a power that some people in this fantastic universe can have: she knows how to read people and objects. When she puts on her e-reader gloves, she just has to touch an object or a person to trace her past and what they went through.
It is therefore with this baggage that she will arrive in this new environment in the Pole, where she is about to discover her future husband.
A real page-turner:
As soon as Ophelia begins her journey in the depths of the pole, the reader quickly becomes addicted to this story, and the way it will unfold. The pace is rather fast, which does not leave the reader longing for impatience for the next adventures of the heroine. This first volume is also and above all the meeting with the characters who will build the story of La Passe-Miroir. The pace of the novel allows you to become familiar with each of the new characters presented as you go. This is something we really appreciated during our reading.
Double-edged swords
:
:Speaking of the characters, the results are mixed. Overall, they are friendly and pleasant but some are a bit cliché. Thorn, Ophelia's future husband, is very tall and thin, a very cold attitude and very fair skin, everything you would expect from a Pole boy living in a winter environment. On the other hand, Archibald, a character we will meet later in the novel, is quite caricatured of the womanizer, who would do anything to bring girls to his bed. It seems to be a bit easy to represent male archetypes. Nevertheless, we really liked Ophélie who, precisely, was not at all cliché. She did not represent either the beautiful girl type "popular" or the girl too shy, not very pretty basic. Ophelia seems to be a rather ordinary beauty girl, who wears glasses because of her myopia, and who doesn't care a little about her dress. In short, Ophélie represents an average teenager, and we really liked this kind of representation in a children's novel. In addition, she does not seem to be very interested in boys, either Thorn or Archibald. She is kind, intelligent and brave, and pleasing a boy is the least of her concerns.
Problem about writing:
Although the novel is quickly devoured, we were not very sensitive to Christelle Dabos' writing. We thought it was a little too flat but the story of the book allows us not to really hold it against it. The book was so much appreciated that we expected something more breathtaking in terms of literary feeling. That didn't stop us from liking this novel, we just wanted a little more scope.
If you like fantasy worlds and stories of family conflicts, then this first volume The Winter Betrothed is for you. Even if it is categorized as a children's novel, it can be easily read by teens and adults alike. Between secrets, revelations and investigations, this novel is not without surprises!
Expect to see in the months following the review of volume 2, The Disappeared of Clairdelune.
