As Robert Frost says, “I’d like to get away from earth awhile; And then come back to it and begin over.” It is essentially important for all of us sometimes to have room to escape ourselves from reality to live life in a better light. In that case, as a reader, I say that Mariclaire Norton’s Tara’s Journey is undoubtedly a well-wrought book of story that invites its readers into another realm with its magical and supernatural phenomena to experience the most exciting world that efficaciously blurs reality to enjoy the aesthetics of literature.

Norton’s narrating style as well as the employment of intricate words and terms bring antiquity into existence in the readers’ minds. The complexity of the plot (a journey within a journey) draws dire attention throughout the entire work of art. Along with escaping its readers from their reality with its magical realism, it also provides context to examine the role of women in society at various points in time.

At first, when Tara was obtained and dominated by Alaric, she was projected as feeling inferior, unsecured, and doubting herself about whether she would be accepted by her people as their ruler or not. But in the later part of the story, when all the kingdoms come under her rule and she is universally accepted, it shows the author’s concern for women’s empowerment, and I feel the motivation and encouragement from a woman for women in this work. Also, along with Tara’s, I find a strong sense of feminist perspective in the characterization of Mayveer and Maeve, which reflects Mariclaire’s serious concern with bringing up the image of women with superiority, which tends to shatter female discrimination to the core.

Mariclaire, as highly influenced by the cultures of pre-Christian Celts and Norse, beautifully interwoven their strands into an exciting story with a rich imagination. The description of the Formorrid, the Dun, their magic, especially their hidden region, and their secrecy electrify the thrill, frighten the readers, and give a gothic shade to the story. By creating an ambiguity in the identity of Tara (after rebirth) in her second lifetime at the end of book 1, Tara’s Journey: Tales of Eirlandia, the author handed an interesting puzzle to the readers to guess who might be the real Tara, which could generate eagerness among the readers to await the second book of the trilogy.

Reviewed by Dr. Raihana Barvin

Title: Tara’s Journey: Tales of Eirlandia – Book 1

Published by: Harper Collins

Page Count: 169

Price: Paperback $14.99/₹708, Ebook $9.99/₹499

Get ‘Tara’s Journey‘

Author Bio:

Mariclaire Norton has been interested in writing fiction, especially fantasy short stories, since high school.  She is a published poet in a National Treasury of Poems Anthology, and wrote and directed a short play based on The Crucible which was performed in her high school.  M Norton is a long-time fantasy fiction fan, and especially has been influenced by such authors as J.R.R. Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey and Morgan Llywelyn. She has studied Celtic and Norse pre-Christian cultures for many years, and has used that knowledge in her writings.  M Norton is now retired, but is currently a Certified Therapeutic Musician who volunteers at a local hospital three days a week. Tara’s Journey is the first of a planned trilogy called ‘Tales of Eirlandia’, Tara’s story will continue in The Master Lifenstone and The Ruling Crowns.   

Reviewer’s Bio:

Dr. Raihana Barvin currently teaches English Literature at Sethupathy Government Arts College, Ramanathapuram. Her poems and research articles are published in international UGC-approved English literary journals like The Criterion, Contemporary Literary Review India, Muse India, Gnosis, The Literary Herald, The Creative Launcher, Literary Endeavour, and Literary Innovations. She has published a chapbook, a Tamil poetry collection, with the title Kaatrin Thedal.