{"id":8,"date":"2004-01-23T18:36:15","date_gmt":"2004-01-23T23:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=8"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:21:06","slug":"the-onion-girl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8","title":{"rendered":"The Onion Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Onion Girl<\/a><\/i> by Charles de Lint<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The only author I possibly like more than Steven Brust, is Charles de Lint. There is nothing he has written that I have not liked, and most of what he has written I really love. Despite that, and despite buying this book over a year ago, I had not gotten around to reading it until this winter, which requires some explanation.<\/p>\n

Charles de Lint has written a series of books and short story collections that take place in the town of Newford. Although the books, especially the short story collections, do not need to be read in any particular order, there is a greater sense of character development if they are read in order. This is, I think, particularly more important for the novels, where I think you get a greater sense of continuity and a better knowledge of what makes the characters tick.<\/p>\n

Onion Girl<\/i> is Jilly Coppercorn’s story, and delves into her past, and that is the reason that I hesitated for so long to read this book, for Jilly Coppercorn does not have a pleasant past, and so I knew that at least parts of this book were going to be hard to read, but probably no more so than some of his short stories. Regardless, sometimes you need to build yourself up to reading a book that you know is going to be painful in places.<\/p>\n

And it is painful in places. But it is also an absolutely fantastic book, and one that expands Jilly Coppercorn, both her history and where she has been going in the stories. My only problem is that I had a tendency to want to yell at Charles de Lint and say “Haven’t you put her through ENOUGH already? Isn’t it time for good things to happen to Jilly?” I know. I know. They’re only made up characters. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get invested and I don’t care what happens.<\/p>\n

Despite that, this was a very good book, and one that any devoted fan of Newford must read. Although this is not necessarily the first book by Charles de Lint that someone should pick up and read. I’d suggest his short story collections, but then I’m a fan of short stories, so take that advice with that particular bit of knowledge in mind.<\/p>\n

As far as this book goes, as is typical for me, his books are ones that I read in a rush, lying down and devouring whole chapters at a time. I read this book in two evenings, the first night reading the first quarter of the book, the second night staying awake until 3am to finish the book.<\/p>\n

As I said, it’s not particularly easy book to read, but then many of his short stories also have a similar dark thread running through them. Regardless, it is an excellent book, and the first to truly center around Jilly. If you have not read one of Charles de Lint’s books before, you may want to start with one of his earlier anthologies. If you have previously read Charles de Lint’s Newford stories, then you will definitely want to read The Onion Girl<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint The only author I possibly like more than Steven Brust, is Charles de Lint. There is nothing he has written that I have not liked, and most of what he has written I really love. Despite that, and despite buying this book over a year ago, I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,48,291,934,34],"tags":[71,161,212],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-female","category-paper","category-trigger-warnings","category-urban-fantasy","tag-charles-de-lint","tag-newford","tag-ptsd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/285","url_meta":{"origin":8,"position":0},"title":"Widdershins","author":"Michelle","date":"July 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Widdershins (2006) Charles de Lint Widdershins is the latest book by Charles de Lint, and I debated for about a month as to whether I wanted to buy it in hardback or wait for it to come out in paperback. First there was the fact that I own Spirits in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Widdershins.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9","url_meta":{"origin":8,"position":1},"title":"Spirits in the Wires","author":"Michelle","date":"January 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint Spirits in the Wires is the story of the Wordwood, the literary internet site set up by Holly and others that has taken on a life of its own. Saskia Madding is an independent being, created by the Wordwood, and sent out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/01\/Spirits-in-the-Wires.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/35","url_meta":{"origin":8,"position":2},"title":"Waifs and Strays","author":"Michelle","date":"July 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Waifs and Strays (2002) Charles de Lint Charles de Lint's latest short story collection is not as much for young adults as it is about young adults. As I recognized several titles in this collection from other collections, I hadn't been in a hurry to get this collection. That was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/07\/Waifs-and-Strays.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":106,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/106","url_meta":{"origin":8,"position":3},"title":"The Blue Girl","author":"Michelle","date":"August 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Blue Girl (2004) Charles de Lint I love Charles de Lint. There is nothing he has written that I have read that I have not liked, and most of what he writes I absolutely love. Yet for some reason I was hesitant to read this book. Probably because the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/08\/Blue-Girl.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/203","url_meta":{"origin":8,"position":4},"title":"Memory & Dream","author":"Michelle","date":"March 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Memory & Dream (1995) Charles de Lint Memory & Dream is not my favorite Charles de Lint book. Partially, because I keep forgetting that it's a novel and not a short story collection, so I pick up the book, start reading, and then think, \"boy, this is a really long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/memory-and-dream.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":295,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/295","url_meta":{"origin":8,"position":5},"title":"Wolf Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"August 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Wolf Moon (1988) Charles de Lint Wolf Moon is one of Charles de Lint's earlier books. It's quite short--only 245 pages. In tone, it reminds me very much of The Harp of the Grey Rose. A fantasy world that similar to, but not quite the same as, ours. Kern is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Wolf-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}