Reviews

I found the following, extracted from two reviews of A TASTE OF BLOOD WINE on Amazon…

‘I'm so glad to see that this excellent trilogy is back in print, even if it is just as an import for now - hopefully whoever has the UK rights will realise what they are sitting on and make these great books available to a wider readership. Freda Warrington is one of the best and most unjustly neglected horror and fantasy writers today - surely we should be nurturing homegrown (UK) talent of this calibre?’ … ‘Make no mistake, this trilogy rates as the best within the vampire genre. I don't say this lightly either, especially when you consider how this sphere of fiction has been milked for all it's worth… Freda is an exception and must, at some stage, consider dipping her pen into the arena again, to show the rest how it is done so perfectly....so 'believably'. I must admit to being ignorant of Warrington's fantasy writings, and was beginning to think she was either dead or had bowed out gracefully. Time for a resurrection!’

Well, not quite dead yet, not the last time I looked, anyway. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, I suppose the only thing worse than being Unjustly Neglected is being JUSTLY Neglected! 

I’ve just read The Amethyst Child by Sarah Singleton, which I picked up at her Eastercon signing. I had no idea what to expect of this young adult novel and it turned out to be a terrific read. It’s not fantasy as such, although it does have a distinctly magical atmosphere. Amber is a teenager with whom it’s easy to empathise – she feels an outsider, too sensitive and uncool to fit in, sometimes embarrassed by her conventional parents, tending to keep her head down and say what people what to hear, rather than speak her mind. She torments herself over universal concerns such as global warming, war and terrorism. Then she meets Dowdie, who is everything Amber would like to be – outspoken, fearless, flamboyant. An enchanted friendship begins as Dowdie takes her to the Community, a cult which is making ready to survive the end of the world. According to their leader, a higher power has informed him that special ‘Amethyst Children’ are being born who will shape the future with unusual and psychic powers. Dowdie convinces Amber that she is an Amethyst Child. The Community have an easy-going, welcoming, self-sufficient lifestyle that appears idyllic on the surface. However, Amber also meets a lonely, artistic, depressed boy, who tries to warn her that the leader of the cult is not all he seems. Her loyalty is torn and she doesn’t know who to believe.

There is so much to this book, about growing up and families and relationships, it’s hard to know where to begin praising it. It’s beautifully written, self-aware and full of wisdom, reaffirming my opinion that YA fiction is so often more intelligent and insightful than much ‘adult’ fantasy. The denouement, where matters at the cult go inevitably, horribly wrong, was so shocking and powerful that it haunted me for days. Highly recommended.