This is a very strange book. There are some things I liked about it - I liked the way the plot unfolded, and I thought Garner created some neat moments around the intrusion of a mythical world into a real one.

However, there are more things I didn't like about it. Sometimes the plot was really confusing, because there is hardly any narration at all - the story is told almost entirely through conversations between characters, and their conversations can be odd and hard to follow.

But the big problem I had with the book is that I don't think Garner developed any sort of relationship between the myth and the modern storyline. In Garner's story, the medieval story of Blodeuwedd has never been completed, and is relived over and over by the modern characters. But it's hard to see any clear relationship between the modern characters and the mythical ones, and it's not clear why the story is relived over and over, and it's really not clear what happens at the end of the book. So I don't think the myth really added anything to the modern story, and I don't think the modern story added any new insights into the myth. This left me quite unsatisfied at the end of the book. ( )

I loved this book so much, it was made into a tv series and refused to watch it. They showed it to us in school and I was excused from that lesson as I didn't want to ruin my imagination [at 10 years old I was pretty determined!]. A particularly spooky book. ( )

This is an award winning book from an excellent author, and set in a location very close to where I live. I should have loved it as much as I loved his other works, but unfortunately I did not connect with this book.

The story recalls the Welsh legend in the Mabinogion of Blodeuwedd. It uses the legend as a central part of the story, where an ancient tragedy is endlessly recapitulated each generation. Will this generation find a way to avoid that destiny?

Unfortunately the characterisation did not work for me. That is perhaps my problem, not the author's. Worse, some of the research was lacking - both in terms of geography and the Welsh language (the author avoids using Welsh words as much as possible, but, for instance, when he does use a name: "Lleu", he rhymes it with "Clue". It would be more closely rhymed with "Clay" in fact).

Maybe it was these niggles that put me off. Maybe to a reader unfamiliar with the area, the legend and the language would enjoy this more. But for me, it is one Alan Garner book I cannot positively recommend.

Having said that, it is not a bad read. I just think other works are better.

*EDIT: I now find myself unsure whether it was in fact "Llew" that he rhymed with "Clue". Still wrong though. Llew does not sound like "Clue". In fact it does not rhyme any English word I can think of. The "ew" being a sound like the "we" in "went" said backwards. ( )

I first read this years ago and I still love it.

Not as good as his two Alderley novels, but it's pleasant to read. ( )