Review: Maresi Red Mantle

Maresi Red Mantle by Maria Turtschaninoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maresi has spent years closeted in the Red Abbey, learning all they could teach her, satiating her thirst for knowledge. Now she has decided it's time to return home and help her people with her new wisdom. Home is not as she remembers it, though, and she will have to find a way to fit in without betraying her true self. And always, on the edge of her perception, the Crone is waiting for her to open the door to Death once again.


I have to be honest and say that I enjoyed Maresi better than Naondel, but this third book is every bit as good as the first one, if a little slower to start. Maresi's struggles and triumphs had me gripped and I was excited to keep reading and see what would happen, even though I've never really enjoyed epistolary format. It worked well in this case, though. And the translation is fantastic, no awkward phrases or anything that pulled me out of the story.

A brilliant ending to a wonderful trilogy.



I sat wrapped up in my bloodsnail-red cloak and stared into the embers of the dying fire. My skin tingled and crawled. The ground was humming and trembling beneath the soles of my feet. The snake ring on my finger was freezing cold. Then the full moon rose over the valley and cast her white light over the silvery forest.

Suddenly a handful of stars detached and shot across the firmament, flying away like darting swallows. I held my breath. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, Venerable Mother. And there, under raining stars, I wept.

"The world is so cruel, most venerable Crone," I whispered. "And I am so small. There is so little I can do."

I had never spoken to her in this way before.
Maresi, the Crone replied. My daughter.

There was warmth in her voice, but there was also a caution. A thought struck me; if I truly am the daughter of the Crone, if I am hers, perhaps I am capable of more than I believe. Perhaps I am more than just myself.

The next day I took a fallen branch from our family's silverwood tree. I am keeping it and carving a staff. I need some support, for I have the feeling that a storm is coming.

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