SUMMARY
Anna and Abel couldn’t be more different. They are both seventeen and in their last year of school, but while Anna lives in a nice old town house and comes from a well-to-do family, Abel, the school drug dealer, lives in a big, prisonlike tower block at the edge of town. Anna is afraid of him until she realizes that he is caring for his six-year-old sister on his own. Fascinated, Anna follows the two and listens as Abel tells little Micha the story of a tiny queen assailed by dark forces. It’s a beautiful fairy tale that Anna comes to see has a basis in reality. Abel is in real danger of losing Micha to their abusive father and to his own inability to make ends meet. Anna gradually falls in love with Abel, but when his “enemies” begin to turn up dead, she fears she has fallen for a murderer. Has she?
Award-winning author Antonia Michaelis moves in a bold new direction with her latest novel: a dark, haunting, contemporary story that is part mystery, part romance, and part melodrama.
REVIEW
I am literally in tears. Why oh why did it have to end this way :'( !!!
This book is about Anna, a good girl. A girl raised with every advantage. A girl who feels trapped by her own inexperience. And this book is about Abel, a mystery.
The book opens with someone cleaning up a bloody bathroom and then burying the body of a female in the woods. We aren't told who the female is or who is burying her. As the story unfolds, the author, Antonia Michaelis, does an excellent job of giving the reader hints as to what is going on while teasing us with many possible options for who the killer might be. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is the story within a story.
Abel Tannatek, a classmate and love interest of Anna's, is the storyteller. He uses a running fairy tale to try to explain the circumstances of their lives to his 6 year old sister, Micha. Anna and Abel's story is so heart wrenching.
It has a fairytale feel, but the content is anything but. Right off the start, you anticipate that there will be pain. And there is pain. A LOT of it. Don’t jump into this one unless you’re emotionally ready. It’s a sad tale, peppered with hope, that grips you tightly right through to the end.
I found this book very intriguing. It was very well written and the suspense held until the last page.
FAV QUOTES -
“Sometimes I don't even know if I'm extremely happy or extremely sad. It happens a lot when I think of you”
“In love, there is no criticism. In love, there is no rationality”
“If you have known someone your whole life, you can see them in the dark.”
“Next to that dragon Micha had wirtten: 'KIS EacH OthER'.
Abel looked at Anna. Anna looked at Abel.
'She is the little queen,' said Abel, 'in our fairy tale, at least.'
'One must obey the queen,' said Anna.”
“What does that mean?' Anna whispered. 'What does that all mean?
Abel ran his fingers through her hair again, and his hand wandered down and stayed on her throat. 'It means everything,' he whispered back. 'And nothing.”
“In a dream, in a fairytale, nothing has to be explained, everything happens of its own accord.”
“Go away princess. Leave your outlaw alone. You won't change him... go away, Anna, far away, and don't ever come back. The fairy tale doesn't have a happy ending.”
“That was how she saw the storyteller for the last time - in an absolutely silent world, in a staircase. He'd hit his target.
When she fell into darkness, she knew that she would never see him again.
She'd love him to the very end.”
“I am not staying with the murderer," she said, her words muffled by his jacket. "I am not staying with the victim Abel Tannatek or the culprit Abel Tannatek. I am staying with the storyteller.”
“Just a tiny little pain,
Three days of heavy rain,
Three days of sunlight,
Everything will be alright,
Just a tiny little pain.”
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