What would you sacrifice for someone you've loved forever - told in seven parts and spanning ten centuries, this is a cleverly constructed, beautifully crafted love story with elements of thriller and the supernatural. Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar even when you've never been there before, or felt that you've known someone even though you are meeting them for the first time? In a novel comprising seven short stories each of them influenced by a moon - flower moon, harvest moon, hunter's moon, blood moon - and travelling from 2073 back in time to the dark of the moon and the days of Viking saga, this is the story of Eric and Merle who have loved and lost one another and who have been searching for each other ever since. In the different stories the two appear as lovers, mother and son, brother and sister, artist and child as they come close to finding each other before facing the ultimate sacrifice. Beautifully imagined, intricately and cleverly structured this is a heart-wrenching and breathtaking paranormal romance, but it also has the hallmark Sedgwick gothic touch with plenty of blood-spilling, a vampire and sacrifice.
Midwinterblood
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This is a novel that demands to be read more than once because it is only at the conclusion of the seven interlinked episodic stories that the complexity of the novel's extraordinary story of doomed love becomes clear... Sedgwick is a fine writer and this hugely atmospheric and demanding book will satisfy adults too. (Sally Morris THE DAILY MAIL 2012-07-06)
Book Description
What would you sacrifice for someone you've loved forever - told in seven parts and spanning ten centuries, a cleverly constructed, beautifully crafted love story with elements of thriller and the supernatural.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
It's 2073 and Eric Seven is a journalist visiting the remote Swedish island of Blessed to investigate claims that no one there ages and the local population do not have children. Initially welcomed by the community, he strikes up a friendship with a young local woman called Merle. Soon he becomes aware that there's more to the island than meets the eye and particularly its headman, Tor, but the more he drinks the strange tea given to him by the locals, the more he forgets his reason for coming ...
The events encountered by Eric Seven are part of a cycle started a thousand years earlier when a king and queen were cruelly ripped apart by the demands of their society. Eric and Merle are trapped in a pattern that will be repeated for eternity unless Eric and Merle can find a way of breaking it ...
Marcus Sedgewick's novel is an interesting experiment in cyclical story patterns and unusually for a children's book, features more adult characters than child characters. I liked the way that the narrative traverses such a wide period of time and there is no faulting the scope of the storytelling here or Sedgewick's inventiveness in using recurring motifs such as the strange tea that his characters drink, hares and of course the characters of Merle and Eric. I also liked the way in which Segewick incorporates real items, such as the Midwinterblood painting in the National Museum of Sweden.
The problem for me though is that this is a peculiarly slow story, made the more so because of the repetitiveness of certain elements. Ultimately I found it very difficult to feel close to either of the key characters enough to care about what happens to them and many of the stories have a bleak or sad ending, which ties in with the key themes of love and sacrifice but makes for a downbeat experience.
There are some good individual scenes - my favourites being the relationship between the painter and a young girl and the incorporation of a vampire storyline, which is really chilling. But the scene set in 2073 conversely didn't feel `futuristic' enough to convince.
If this book was by any writer other than Marcus Sedgewick I wouldn't feel so disappointed by it but when judged in comparison to his other books, it's an okay read rather than a great one.
The events encountered by Eric Seven are part of a cycle started a thousand years earlier when a king and queen were cruelly ripped apart by the demands of their society. Eric and Merle are trapped in a pattern that will be repeated for eternity unless Eric and Merle can find a way of breaking it ...
Marcus Sedgewick's novel is an interesting experiment in cyclical story patterns and unusually for a children's book, features more adult characters than child characters. I liked the way that the narrative traverses such a wide period of time and there is no faulting the scope of the storytelling here or Sedgewick's inventiveness in using recurring motifs such as the strange tea that his characters drink, hares and of course the characters of Merle and Eric. I also liked the way in which Segewick incorporates real items, such as the Midwinterblood painting in the National Museum of Sweden.
The problem for me though is that this is a peculiarly slow story, made the more so because of the repetitiveness of certain elements. Ultimately I found it very difficult to feel close to either of the key characters enough to care about what happens to them and many of the stories have a bleak or sad ending, which ties in with the key themes of love and sacrifice but makes for a downbeat experience.
There are some good individual scenes - my favourites being the relationship between the painter and a young girl and the incorporation of a vampire storyline, which is really chilling. But the scene set in 2073 conversely didn't feel `futuristic' enough to convince.
If this book was by any writer other than Marcus Sedgewick I wouldn't feel so disappointed by it but when judged in comparison to his other books, it's an okay read rather than a great one.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have to admit this is my first Marcus Sedgewick book I have read. All I can say is, WHY, why is this me just getting around to reading his books? I can assure you it won't be my last, I am fast gathering his back catalogue and I recommend you do so now.
Midwinterblood is a fantastic book, it kept me turning the page and staying up late, way into the wee hours, I just could not put it down. Marcus Sedgewick is right up there with the great story tellers, his writing flows along and has you mesmerised.
The book is about two characters Eric and Merle in various sections within seven different stories, each intertwines with their different types of relationships from mother and son, to lovers, brother and sister, etc. Starting in the future and working it's way back to the 10th century. The layers created throughout the story is so well done, it's incredible. The backdrop of the different time frames give depth to the stories, all of which could be told separates but which intertwine perfectly.
Take my advice and read this book, you will love it, I can guarantee. It's something a little different, but an easy read. You will laugh and cry and want to read every one of his books.
Midwinterblood is a fantastic book, it kept me turning the page and staying up late, way into the wee hours, I just could not put it down. Marcus Sedgewick is right up there with the great story tellers, his writing flows along and has you mesmerised.
The book is about two characters Eric and Merle in various sections within seven different stories, each intertwines with their different types of relationships from mother and son, to lovers, brother and sister, etc. Starting in the future and working it's way back to the 10th century. The layers created throughout the story is so well done, it's incredible. The backdrop of the different time frames give depth to the stories, all of which could be told separates but which intertwine perfectly.
Take my advice and read this book, you will love it, I can guarantee. It's something a little different, but an easy read. You will laugh and cry and want to read every one of his books.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By David Pearce
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I read this to my daughter at bedtime over a period of about 5 weeks and was surprised with how quickly she engaged with this novel. The story of Erik and Merle and their seven lives is a novel that plays with the usual order of narrative by reversing it. Little coincidences, explanations, clues and new questions are spread throughout the book. Although we meet the two protagonists as lovers (?) in the first section, the following sections have them as mother and child, artist and muse and twins among other relationships. Marcus Sedgwick explores the many different types of love in a way that is truthful and accessible to young readers. When you first start reading this book you may find it difficult to follow, but please persevere. What you will discover is an elegaic and thought provoking book that works on many different levels. Congratulations to Marcus Sedgwick for not treating his audience with any patronising assumptions of what they can understand. He has written a book that says, 'I will give you clues but I won't give you all the answers and I won't even ask all the questions.' That is as refreshing as it is unusual and this book could become a phenomenon.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A young adult Cloud Atlas
This is an excellent book - a mixture of genres, clever, well- written and ultimately moving. I have read it alongside many of my students and we have all found it to be... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Sharpie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Midwinterblood
Amazing amazing amazing!!! Can't wait to read another one of your books Sedgwick! Thanks so much! The Carnegie award was well deserved!!
Published 9 days ago by Charmaine Duthie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
Midwinterblood is the first Marcus Sedgwick book that I have read and I loved it. The storyline is clever and gets you thinking as to what is going to happen. Read more
Published 1 month ago by ellie horse
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lost in the time changes
As part of the Carnegie shortlist this year, I had high hopes for Midwinterblood, but unfortunately it was not to be. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Samantha2308
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Gothic
Midwinterblood is a cleverly constructed and deliciously dark read. Using reverse chronology it begins in June 2073, on remote Blessed Island, where journalist Eric Seven has... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Lovely Treez
5.0 out of 5 stars
Midwinterblood
Great
Each story between Erik and mellow gets better and better
Good going Marcus Sedgwick
If you haven't already read this book then your crazy
Each story between Erik and mellow gets better and better
Good going Marcus Sedgwick
If you haven't already read this book then your crazy
Published 3 months ago by anita Wilson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Midwinter Blood
I have read other books by Marcus Sedgewick (such as "My Sword Hand is Singing") which I found more interesting and compelling. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Phil. Topping
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fantastic Read!
I bought this book because the blurb sounded interesting. I was totally unprepared for the riveting storyline. I loved it! Read more
Published 6 months ago by Lynn Worton
3.0 out of 5 stars
Strange, but a good kind of strange
Torn apart,
By blood,
For the future.
Love so true,
To be united,
Seven times.
A sacrifice,
Both sides,
On Blessed. Read more
By blood,
For the future.
Love so true,
To be united,
Seven times.
A sacrifice,
Both sides,
On Blessed. Read more
Published 8 months ago by AshleyiSee
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another good Sedgwick story
I loved this book, as I love most Marcus Sedgwick books. There are some parts that are fairly similar to The Wicker Man, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing! Read more
Published 9 months ago by emdaw
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