Book Review of Moonheart, by Charles de Lint

By Tarma Black

Do you believe in magic? Or, do you live it?

There are different kinds of magic in the world--and a person finds what they are prepared to accept. Or, do they?

Read Moonheart, by Charles de Lint, and find out what happens when different persons having different belief systems encounter what they

  1. didn't believe in--or,
  2. hoped for but didn't believe &mdash or,
  3. believed in but didn't really think was true &mdash and,
  4. totally and irrevocably knew was true.

Watch as what they knew, or thought they knew, is changed by the world(s) they encounter .... Then, as you read this very well-crafted story, watch how your own ideas and beliefs are "swayed" by the events as the story unfolds.

Sara Kendall is a wealthy young woman living in Ottawa, Canada. She lives with her uncle, Jamie Tams, in their family residence, Tamson House. Built around the turn of the 20th century by Jamie's grandfather, the inhabitants of Tamson House can range from Bible students to bikers to poets to ballet dancers to strippers--all at the same time.

Jamie pursues "eclectic studies." A chance find of Sara's, while working in their shop (The Merry Dancers Old Book and Antique Emporium), starts an opening for a whole new world for them and those in their lives. Jamie finds out that what he thought he knew is just the surface of what 'is'--and Sara finds within herself entire worlds of possibilities.

What they do with what they learn (and what they allow themselves to learn) is the basis of an exciting, scary and extremely lyric book. Meet friends and enemies, and sometimes those who are both.

Enjoy.