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The Sisters #2
The Broken Path
What if a story came to life -- if the characters stepped off the page and into our world?
Rebecca has recovered from the coma but she still longs for the places she saw and the people she met in the coma-dream. Writing helps her bear her loneliness but things get out of control when the characters from her stories come to life in the streets of Cape Town. And Miss Mouse, the Antelope Girls, Hyena and the rest don't exactly blend in with the crowd.
Cape Town in winter is a harsh place to be homeless. Esther, the witch who tried to kill Rebecca, is still at large. Rebecca has to keep her people safe until she finds a way to get them back into their story. She turns to her sisters for help but finds that they have secrets of their own. And Rebecca's gun-packing neighbour is getting far too interested in her strange visitors.
The Broken Path is contemporary fantasy with illustrations by the author. It is the sequel to "The Story Trap."
Rebecca has recovered from the coma but she still longs for the places she saw and the people she met in the coma-dream. Writing helps her bear her loneliness but things get out of control when the characters from her stories come to life in the streets of Cape Town. And Miss Mouse, the Antelope Girls, Hyena and the rest don't exactly blend in with the crowd.
Cape Town in winter is a harsh place to be homeless. Esther, the witch who tried to kill Rebecca, is still at large. Rebecca has to keep her people safe until she finds a way to get them back into their story. She turns to her sisters for help but finds that they have secrets of their own. And Rebecca's gun-packing neighbour is getting far too interested in her strange visitors.
The Broken Path is contemporary fantasy with illustrations by the author. It is the sequel to "The Story Trap."
245 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Masha du Toit
16 books42 followersMasha du Toit is an artist and writer living in Cape Town, South Africa. She illustrates stories that don’t exist yet, and writes about unexpected magic in everyday situations. She’s inspired by folk- and fairy tales, puppetry, and spur-of-the-moment bedtime stories.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 28, 2021
This is book two in ‘The Sisters’ duology, a series I could happily have continued reading if it contained a dozen titles.
Having laid the ground work in book one (The Story Trap), Du Toit dives deeper into the motivations of both the sisters (main character Rebecca, Anmarie and Pippa) and the witch sisters Esther and Helen. This time around, everyone has secrets and no one is prepared for the emotional journey they are all about to undertake. I sure wasn’t.
It was lovely to become reacquainted with some of Rebecca’s coma-dream friends from book one. Miss Mouse especially brought a level of comfort (in every scene she was in) that’s difficult to explain. She reminded me a little of Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. Hare was as cool as can be once he was let loose on the streets of Cape Town.
Again, masterfully, the author wove real-world conflict into the story. The story-book/coma-dream characters felt the harsh life that millions of refugees around the world experience. Esther’s core motivation (ecological conservation) is one I could relate to – her methods, not so much.
Once again, this book included the imaginative illustrations by the author herself, which added to the magic and tension of the narrative throughout. Also, it has to be said that this book is a wonderful lesson on how good a story can flow if the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule of writing is followed. Du Toit is well-attuned to the little things that show a reader what a character is like without explicitly telling us too much.
If you enjoy reading fantasy set in the real world, or have read Alice in Wonderland or any of Masha du Toit’s other books, I guarantee you’ll love this book. Be warned, it’s easily devoured in one sitting, so pace yourself if you prefer to savour the magic.
Having laid the ground work in book one (The Story Trap), Du Toit dives deeper into the motivations of both the sisters (main character Rebecca, Anmarie and Pippa) and the witch sisters Esther and Helen. This time around, everyone has secrets and no one is prepared for the emotional journey they are all about to undertake. I sure wasn’t.
It was lovely to become reacquainted with some of Rebecca’s coma-dream friends from book one. Miss Mouse especially brought a level of comfort (in every scene she was in) that’s difficult to explain. She reminded me a little of Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. Hare was as cool as can be once he was let loose on the streets of Cape Town.
Again, masterfully, the author wove real-world conflict into the story. The story-book/coma-dream characters felt the harsh life that millions of refugees around the world experience. Esther’s core motivation (ecological conservation) is one I could relate to – her methods, not so much.
Once again, this book included the imaginative illustrations by the author herself, which added to the magic and tension of the narrative throughout. Also, it has to be said that this book is a wonderful lesson on how good a story can flow if the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule of writing is followed. Du Toit is well-attuned to the little things that show a reader what a character is like without explicitly telling us too much.
If you enjoy reading fantasy set in the real world, or have read Alice in Wonderland or any of Masha du Toit’s other books, I guarantee you’ll love this book. Be warned, it’s easily devoured in one sitting, so pace yourself if you prefer to savour the magic.
June 16, 2014
While I enjoyed its precedent, The Story Trap - especially once the villain's complex and admirable motives were revealed - in The Broken Path this series truly comes into its own.
du Toit's villain, the marine ecologist / witch Esther, manages to set a new story trap - this time not for Rebecca, but for the friends Rebecca made while wandering in a coma through a box of books. The trap is spun from a story Rebecca herself has written, a retelling of the African folktale "Hare and the Tar-Baby" (more familiar to North American readers, perhaps, as a Brer Rabbit story).
Characters from Rebecca's books are pulled into downtown Cape Town and must tough it out on the streets until Rebecca, her sisters Annmarie and Pippa, and Esther's sister Helen can figure out how to send them home.
They're hunted as soon as they arrive: by a zealous police reservist bent on sending the "illegal immigrants" back wherever they came from, and by Esther herself, who needs their life-essences to power her marine conservation research. But Hare, Miss Mouse, Hyena, Porcupine, and the huge and enigmatic Eland aren't entirely helpless - and their powers, when used in the strange and unfamiliar world of Cape Town, are complicating everything...
I eagerly read The Broken Path in a single sitting. du Toit's skillful artistry is steadily transforming Cape Town into a sister-city of Newford, and it's neither a stretch nor premature to proclaim du Toit herself the South African Charles de Lint.
du Toit's villain, the marine ecologist / witch Esther, manages to set a new story trap - this time not for Rebecca, but for the friends Rebecca made while wandering in a coma through a box of books. The trap is spun from a story Rebecca herself has written, a retelling of the African folktale "Hare and the Tar-Baby" (more familiar to North American readers, perhaps, as a Brer Rabbit story).
Characters from Rebecca's books are pulled into downtown Cape Town and must tough it out on the streets until Rebecca, her sisters Annmarie and Pippa, and Esther's sister Helen can figure out how to send them home.
They're hunted as soon as they arrive: by a zealous police reservist bent on sending the "illegal immigrants" back wherever they came from, and by Esther herself, who needs their life-essences to power her marine conservation research. But Hare, Miss Mouse, Hyena, Porcupine, and the huge and enigmatic Eland aren't entirely helpless - and their powers, when used in the strange and unfamiliar world of Cape Town, are complicating everything...
I eagerly read The Broken Path in a single sitting. du Toit's skillful artistry is steadily transforming Cape Town into a sister-city of Newford, and it's neither a stretch nor premature to proclaim du Toit herself the South African Charles de Lint.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews