“It is a day of yellow fog, and the Folk are hungry. They ate the lamb I brought them, picking the bones clean and leaving them outside the Folk Door.” – The Folk Keeper
I don’t know about you, but an opening statement like that is like a steel trap to me, my imagination immediately captured not to be let go till my curiosity has been satisfied. That exerpt is from this week’s book recommendation – The Folk keeper.
Our protaganist and narrator is Corin Stonewall, a fifteen-year-old orphan boy and the Folk keeper at Rhysbridge Foundling Home. The Folk are wicked, spiteful creatures that live in cellars wreaking havoc in the lives of the people. Nobody has ever seen them, but their presence can be felt. They rot cabbages, spoil milk, cause sickness in the livestock and a host of other calamities if a Folk keeper isn’t there to keep them in hand.
Corin is actually Corrina. She has disguised herself as a boy in order to keep her job as a Folk keeper and she prides herself in her abilities. She spends most of her time crouched in the cellar with these malevolent creatures, writing in her journal, and pacifying them with offerings of cream, salted pork and other gifts to keep them distracted.
Corrina is one of the best Folk keepers there has ever been and its no surprise as she seems to have unusual powers – she always knows what time it is, she is never cold and her hair grows two inches every night. One day, Corrina is invited by Lord Merton to become the Folk keeper for the seaside estate of Cliffsend. This is a major event in her life as Lord Merton seems to know who she is and who her parents were. Corrina also discovers that for some reason proximity to the sea seems to have thrown her internal clock off…
This book grips you from the first page and holds on until the very end. I read it in one sitting and sighed with satisfaction at the end. A wonderfully told story will do that to you especially a fairytale – which this is. There is something satisfying about a good fairytale wouldn’t you agree? I was impatient to have the mystery surrounding Corrina explained but at the same time didn’t want the story to end. Read the Folk keeper, you won’t regret it.
The Marvelous Bookworm 