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Tatterdemalion
Tatterdemalion is a uniquely original post-apocalyptic novel rooted in fantasy and folklore. It begins when Poppy, who speaks the languages of wild things, travels east to the mountains with the wheeled and elephantine beast, Lyoobov. He’s seeking answers to the mysteries of his birth, and the origins of a fallen world. Up in the glacial peaks, among a strange, mountainous people, a Juniper Tree takes Poppy deep into her roots and shows him the true stories of the people who made his world, people he thought were only myths. It is through this feral but redemptive folklore that Poppy begins to understand the story of his own past and his place in the present. This brilliant collaboration between the visual artist Rima Staines and the author Sylvia Linsteadt features original color illustrations which inspired the story.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2018
34 people are currently reading
508 people want to read
About the author
Sylvia Linsteadt
12 books99 followersSylvia Victor Linsteadt is a writer, artist, and certified animal tracker. Her work—both fiction and non-fiction—is rooted in myth, ecology, feminism & bioregionalism, and is devoted to broadening our human stories to include the voices of the living land.
Her published fiction includes the middle grade children’s duology The Stargold Chronicles—The Wild Folk (Usborne, June 2018) and The Wild Folk Rising (Usborne, May 2019)— Our Lady of the Dark Country, a collection of short stories (January 2018) and Tatterdemalion (Unbound, Spring 2017); her works of nonfiction include The Wonderments of the East Bay (Heyday 2014), and Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area (Heyday, Spring 2017). Her short fiction has been published in New California Writing 2013, Dark Mountain, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Golden Key and Deathless Press. She has a regular column with Earthlines Magazine, and her creative nonfiction can also be found in Poecology, Dark Mountain, and News from Native California. For three years (from 2013 to 2016) Sylvia ran a stories-in-the-mail business called Wild Talewort, in which she sent out rewilded tellings of fairytales and myths to the physical-post boxes of hundreds of subscribers around the world.
Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area won the Northern California Book Award in General Nonfiction in 2018.
The short story “The Midwife of Temescal” won the James D. Phelan Literary Award from the San Francisco Foundation in Fall 2014. She has an Honors B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University.
She is represented by Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates, 7th Floor, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ
Her published fiction includes the middle grade children’s duology The Stargold Chronicles—The Wild Folk (Usborne, June 2018) and The Wild Folk Rising (Usborne, May 2019)— Our Lady of the Dark Country, a collection of short stories (January 2018) and Tatterdemalion (Unbound, Spring 2017); her works of nonfiction include The Wonderments of the East Bay (Heyday 2014), and Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area (Heyday, Spring 2017). Her short fiction has been published in New California Writing 2013, Dark Mountain, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Golden Key and Deathless Press. She has a regular column with Earthlines Magazine, and her creative nonfiction can also be found in Poecology, Dark Mountain, and News from Native California. For three years (from 2013 to 2016) Sylvia ran a stories-in-the-mail business called Wild Talewort, in which she sent out rewilded tellings of fairytales and myths to the physical-post boxes of hundreds of subscribers around the world.
Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area won the Northern California Book Award in General Nonfiction in 2018.
The short story “The Midwife of Temescal” won the James D. Phelan Literary Award from the San Francisco Foundation in Fall 2014. She has an Honors B.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University.
She is represented by Jessica Woollard at David Higham Associates, 7th Floor, Waverley House, 7-12 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
October 9, 2018
Tatterdemalion is a grand tapestry of beautiful language and imagery. Much like the pilgrims who sojourn its pages, its tales wander and are prone to distraction. Pick up this sublime oddity because you crave a meandering lullaby. Surrender to the faint sweetness of blackberries, trek beyond waves, foam-fringed and rough, past cliffs of crumbling ocher, down sidewalks cracked open to the mythical viscera of earth, and journey alongside creatures both bewitching and strange in the dystopian remains of our world in the distant future.
Whatever the words of the charm, it worked. I was a witch caught in a glass jug, and the light came in like the green of new vetch. A letter stuffed, nose first, into a bottle made for distilling fruits, sent out onto the waves, all white-lipped and roaring. It was the binding of hair and nail and blood, an old earthen animal magic, that kept me there so long. [. . .] I was buried under a hearthstone in southern Wales, near the sea, for two centuries. Toward the end, I could hear the picks and blasts, the ponies dying from dark and strain and soot. The coal nuggets moaned their chants of dead sun and rotten leaves of eons past, when trees were soft-barked and birds and fish were the only creatures with bones.
May 17, 2021
A strange book! Oh I do enjoy a strange book. Unless the book is adrift in strangeness, and there isn't much, well, 'book' to anchor the strangeness.
Here we have a collection of interlinked post-apocalyptic folktales, based on a series of paintings by Rima Staines.
The paintings remind me of Medieval scripts, and are very striking, so I can certainly see where the idea came from to write stories around them. It's just that the stories are quite dense, now and then they feel overwritten to me. I kept losing the thread, and it also seems like the protagonists don't actually do a whole lot, so at times the text became a bit of a drone. A poetic drone, but I started to tune out.
The stories are interlinked, and there is an enviromental message, which I appreciate, but the book didn't manage to grasp me, I'm afraid.
(Thanks to Unbound for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
Here we have a collection of interlinked post-apocalyptic folktales, based on a series of paintings by Rima Staines.
The paintings remind me of Medieval scripts, and are very striking, so I can certainly see where the idea came from to write stories around them. It's just that the stories are quite dense, now and then they feel overwritten to me. I kept losing the thread, and it also seems like the protagonists don't actually do a whole lot, so at times the text became a bit of a drone. A poetic drone, but I started to tune out.
The stories are interlinked, and there is an enviromental message, which I appreciate, but the book didn't manage to grasp me, I'm afraid.
(Thanks to Unbound for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
September 22, 2019
‘Tatterdemalion’ purports to be ‘an urgent, beautiful fable for our times’ set in a post-apocalyptic future. That sounds right up my street and I expected to like it, yet was disappointed to find that I did not. The book’s content is ostensibly a cross between Riddley Walker and Station Eleven, except sadly not as engaging as either. The narrative meandered around and made me feel like an emotionless Vulcan as I kept wondering, But what’s the point? What do you mean? Surely the point of a fable is to allegorise something. Even when the exact nature of the allegory is unclear, it should have some sort of structure, as in the novels of Magnus Mills. However, I struggled to make sense of the story here. I only realised why once I got to the end: the book was inspired by and written around a series of paintings that have no obvious connection.
After 180 pages a message about white America’s relationship with the environment did come through, which I liked, but it was rather too late. I expected a lot more reflection on social, economic, and environmental collapse. Although earthquakes were referenced several times, there was a remarkable lack of extreme weather. In the last two years, California has experienced incredibly destructive wildfires, for instance. Either I fundamentally missed something or 'Tatterdemalion' was trying to create a new mythology seemingly from scratch. That’s very difficult to do and surely unnecessary, as California has a pre-2015 history that could have been drawn upon much more.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t keen on the writing style either as I found it rather trite. This is a representative sample:
Others may like this style, but it simply isn’t to my taste. It lacks a sense of the visceral, which seems odd in a book with so many trees, spiders, and birds as characters. Also, I was astonished to find the breasts of female characters commented on so frequently by a female writer! That’s the kind of thing I expect from William Boyd. Comparisons with Angela Carter therefore don't seem quite fair.
It always disappoints me when an opportunity to write something creative, meaningful, and interesting about climate change has been missed. 'Tatterdemalion' could definitely have done this, as there are snippets of it in the final twenty pages. Although I liked the paintings, overall I was more irritated than moved by the words that accompanied them. Comparing this with my previous review (of The Unquiet Grave), you may notice that I am more generous towards books than exceed my low expectations than those that fail to live up to high ones. Others approaching this book with a different frame of mind might have a wholly different experience.
After 180 pages a message about white America’s relationship with the environment did come through, which I liked, but it was rather too late. I expected a lot more reflection on social, economic, and environmental collapse. Although earthquakes were referenced several times, there was a remarkable lack of extreme weather. In the last two years, California has experienced incredibly destructive wildfires, for instance. Either I fundamentally missed something or 'Tatterdemalion' was trying to create a new mythology seemingly from scratch. That’s very difficult to do and surely unnecessary, as California has a pre-2015 history that could have been drawn upon much more.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t keen on the writing style either as I found it rather trite. This is a representative sample:
I held the baby on one arm. I began to dance. Stuart, the man who was really a mask and the ash tree the mask was carved from, began to move the woody joints of his knees. That’s what got the weeds swaying and the owls to pause above us and almost come down to land: Stuart and his slow tree branch dance. It made my hair stand up; it made Blue fold up all four hands and stare.
“This is the only and the last place,” said St. Rosabelle, and rolled over to the lamppost, where she leaned her wood and wimple head and stared up at the piece of the moon. We were so unused to seeing her eyes, they made us uneasy, how dark and how sad they really were. None of us wanted to ask what she had seen, our daughter born of velvet and nave and the longing of holy water.
Others may like this style, but it simply isn’t to my taste. It lacks a sense of the visceral, which seems odd in a book with so many trees, spiders, and birds as characters. Also, I was astonished to find the breasts of female characters commented on so frequently by a female writer! That’s the kind of thing I expect from William Boyd. Comparisons with Angela Carter therefore don't seem quite fair.
It always disappoints me when an opportunity to write something creative, meaningful, and interesting about climate change has been missed. 'Tatterdemalion' could definitely have done this, as there are snippets of it in the final twenty pages. Although I liked the paintings, overall I was more irritated than moved by the words that accompanied them. Comparing this with my previous review (of The Unquiet Grave), you may notice that I am more generous towards books than exceed my low expectations than those that fail to live up to high ones. Others approaching this book with a different frame of mind might have a wholly different experience.
September 29, 2017
You can enjoy the art work of Rima Staines (many do, including myself) without words attached to the melancholy, minor key figures she paints. You could enjoy the poetic and back-to-front prose of Sylvia Linsteadt without needing Ms. Staines to illustrate. But, if you were given the option of hearing the stories Ms. Linsteadt found inside Ms. Staines's paintings, well...then you'd have a bounty, wouldn't you?
This story is like reading a map that's been folded left and right and then up and then left again. It's not in order, but it makes sense. The people are glimpsed. You wouldn't want to stare; that's rude. The underlying theme of human-caused climate change (because, yes) and the Wild Ones that might emerge after centuries is timely and heart-breaking. I don't know if the author expected there to be a sort of feral comfort in Anja's story, but I found none. Maybe if humans didn't keep seeing the other in each other. Maybe if the chinook had spawned another way or Anja had been given a larger taste of her own magic, then maybe...but as it reads, I was left bereft.
The word for the last animal of a species is an 'endling'. The sadness you feel reading that sentence is how I felt reading most of this book. Despite this, the stories held me rapt because Linsteadt taps into what we feel when we are outside seeing miracles like insects, seed sprouts, and ancient rocks. Something as common as a juniper bush is transformed to hold 'a thousand blue earths'.
I debated removing a star from my rating because of the numerous typos I noticed as I read. This book was published by Unbound, a kind of kickstarter for books. I love the concept of this, but am not satisfied with the copyediting process. The book is high quality, the pages smooth, the cover beautiful, but my eye was distracted by multiple errors. Since this isn't, to my knowledge, the fault of the author or the artist, I left my stars at five.
Rima sells this book in her Hermitage shop. I recommend searching it out, and buying it from them. While you're there, pick up her husband's A Wild God. Trust me.
This story is like reading a map that's been folded left and right and then up and then left again. It's not in order, but it makes sense. The people are glimpsed. You wouldn't want to stare; that's rude. The underlying theme of human-caused climate change (because, yes) and the Wild Ones that might emerge after centuries is timely and heart-breaking. I don't know if the author expected there to be a sort of feral comfort in Anja's story, but I found none. Maybe if humans didn't keep seeing the other in each other. Maybe if the chinook had spawned another way or Anja had been given a larger taste of her own magic, then maybe...but as it reads, I was left bereft.
The word for the last animal of a species is an 'endling'. The sadness you feel reading that sentence is how I felt reading most of this book. Despite this, the stories held me rapt because Linsteadt taps into what we feel when we are outside seeing miracles like insects, seed sprouts, and ancient rocks. Something as common as a juniper bush is transformed to hold 'a thousand blue earths'.
I debated removing a star from my rating because of the numerous typos I noticed as I read. This book was published by Unbound, a kind of kickstarter for books. I love the concept of this, but am not satisfied with the copyediting process. The book is high quality, the pages smooth, the cover beautiful, but my eye was distracted by multiple errors. Since this isn't, to my knowledge, the fault of the author or the artist, I left my stars at five.
Rima sells this book in her Hermitage shop. I recommend searching it out, and buying it from them. While you're there, pick up her husband's A Wild God. Trust me.
May 27, 2017
This book is mad as a box of frogs...and I love it! Trying to precis the plot is almost impossible, but it tells the tale of a post apocalyptic North America and the generations of interesting folks that live there. Each chapter focuses on one individual - Francis of Assisi's thumb, for example - and the chapters loosely connect to form a semi-coherent narrative. None of that matters really, because the writing is beautiful and the artwork, freaky as it is, echoes the unusual nature of the characters perfectly. I was interested to read that the collaboration between artist and author occurs with the pictures coming first and the writing second. Just another example of how unusual this novel is. Can I explain what happens? Absolutely not. Do I care? Not a jot! This is a wonderfully weird ride that everyone should take.
February 25, 2020
What a gorgeous, unexpected book. Linsteadt wrote stories to accompany Rima Staines artwork, but there is definitely one spirit at work here creating something unique and memorable. I was mesmerized by the weaving of the stories and paintings. Linsteadt writes of the time after. After we've destroyed our world and its creatures through greed and tribalism, after the Fools have returned with Magic. It's extraordinary and beautiful. I had tears in my eyes more than once.
January 5, 2021
Quite honestly, this is one of the most bizarre, peculiar, and wonderful books I've ever read.
Most of the time I had no idea what was going on, only that I was completely spellbound by the writing style, the use of language and abundant joy of descriptions. It reads like poetry at times, but more earthy and raw. It's hard to describe, but I loved it and it got lodged in my brain so much so that it actually seeped into my dreams! (I'm not even joking)
I feel its not for everyone, some may struggle with the extensive use of language and descriptions, and its VERY odd, but if you like strange stories and folk tales then I'd definitely recommend!
Most of the time I had no idea what was going on, only that I was completely spellbound by the writing style, the use of language and abundant joy of descriptions. It reads like poetry at times, but more earthy and raw. It's hard to describe, but I loved it and it got lodged in my brain so much so that it actually seeped into my dreams! (I'm not even joking)
I feel its not for everyone, some may struggle with the extensive use of language and descriptions, and its VERY odd, but if you like strange stories and folk tales then I'd definitely recommend!
February 2, 2021
This took me by surprise. If I was to make a comparison to something general, I would say it's an antiquated version of the Lorax, but it's really its own work. Lyoobov is a creature of dreams and the paintings which feature throughout the book are so strange like the Peculiar Tales, we have people and creatures which are not familiar to us.
It's a bit of a roundabout story. We are told that we're hearing a story and then we're in the story as it plays out, until we wrap around to the end and finish up. The sections fit and it's fairly well-paced per picture and character.
I think if you're to read this, you have to let go of expectations and beliefs about what should be and just enjoy what is. It makes the story all the more enjoyable and understandable if you don't think too hard about all the details.
It's a bit of a roundabout story. We are told that we're hearing a story and then we're in the story as it plays out, until we wrap around to the end and finish up. The sections fit and it's fairly well-paced per picture and character.
I think if you're to read this, you have to let go of expectations and beliefs about what should be and just enjoy what is. It makes the story all the more enjoyable and understandable if you don't think too hard about all the details.
November 16, 2020
Magic is only that which all other creatures can know, or have inside their leaves, and we've forgotten. Or don't care to remember.
I have also forgotten to enjoy the little wonders and let them grow into something grand and marvellous that they actually are not (or actually are) in my head. I have to unlearn so much! The beginning of book was just too much to grasp to my weakened imagination. Wheeled humans? Babies made underground. Coffeepot that brews worms? Rosemary skin? And step by step into each story, each painting, I woke up. And realised there's so much of clutter in my head. And so little space for THIS.
It's really interesting to see how the stories have developed as the authors explain that they are inspired by the drawings first. It is interesting to see how the authors have managed include such a wide range of topics, including, natural catastrophes, poisoned earth and the mass extinction of species, feminism, infertility, transsexualism, loosing traditions, community building (good and bad examples) and more. The book is of a limited edition so I am so sorry for all of you who doesn't have a chance to get it in your hands and hearts.
I have also forgotten to enjoy the little wonders and let them grow into something grand and marvellous that they actually are not (or actually are) in my head. I have to unlearn so much! The beginning of book was just too much to grasp to my weakened imagination. Wheeled humans? Babies made underground. Coffeepot that brews worms? Rosemary skin? And step by step into each story, each painting, I woke up. And realised there's so much of clutter in my head. And so little space for THIS.
It's really interesting to see how the stories have developed as the authors explain that they are inspired by the drawings first. It is interesting to see how the authors have managed include such a wide range of topics, including, natural catastrophes, poisoned earth and the mass extinction of species, feminism, infertility, transsexualism, loosing traditions, community building (good and bad examples) and more. The book is of a limited edition so I am so sorry for all of you who doesn't have a chance to get it in your hands and hearts.
January 13, 2018
Bizarre and peculiar and like nothing I've read before. This conjures a world of the future where the old world is gone, and something new emerges, though as with all things, it comes slowly and takes a few hundred years to do so. Full of magic realism, strange and beautiful paintings, and mixed with the stories behind the paintings, which become the myths and legends of the new people, this collection of tales will stay with me a while I think.
December 25, 2017
I truly love everything Sylvia Linsteadt writes. This novel speaks so much to our times - to what we are coming up against, and how we might live in the face of it. Beautiful, poetic and captivating.
September 10, 2017
Tatterdemalion is a real gem of a book and I struggle to find a simple, pithy description in 12 witty and original words. But reading this book has been a complete delight and both words and pictures have been a huge stimulus to my own writing.
To begin with, the creative process that led to Tatterdemalion are topsy turvy. Rima Staines has been making her striking and remarkable paintings for 20 years and these served as inspiration for a series of stories that grew over time to link themselves together into a book that spans 300 years of the future. So, the more conventional sequence of idea, plot, planning, writing, illustration seems to have been completely (and very successfully) reversed.
Strangely, this inversion persists through the whole book. Sylvia Linsteadt's text is full of pictures and images, vibrant with colour and imagery, and as detailed and dense as an Arras tapestry. Individual paragraphs paint whole views, sentences brim with light and shade, and tiny collections of words spark whole stories in my head.
And similarly, Rima Staines captures more words, more questions, more complete stories in her artistry than is reasonably possible. From the moment I first saw "Anja in the Horse Chestnut" I knew that Tatterdemalion was going to be a special book, and in the ultimate reversal I am proud and delighted to have contributed in a small way by having bought a copy via Unbound even before it was completely written.
Tatterdemalion took me several months to read. Certainly I could have got through it faster, it is far from unreadable, but that would have been a crime. You can always drive through the countryside on an express road, glimpsing the scenery through your windscreen and catching sight of the wild flowers as a blur of colour out of the corner of your eye. But how much better to take a long vacation walking county lanes, pausing to sit under a tree and marvelling at the view, smelling flowers, and dawdling among the wildlife. This book deserves a leisurely reading, close inspection, and to have all of its flavours properly savoured.
To begin with, the creative process that led to Tatterdemalion are topsy turvy. Rima Staines has been making her striking and remarkable paintings for 20 years and these served as inspiration for a series of stories that grew over time to link themselves together into a book that spans 300 years of the future. So, the more conventional sequence of idea, plot, planning, writing, illustration seems to have been completely (and very successfully) reversed.
Strangely, this inversion persists through the whole book. Sylvia Linsteadt's text is full of pictures and images, vibrant with colour and imagery, and as detailed and dense as an Arras tapestry. Individual paragraphs paint whole views, sentences brim with light and shade, and tiny collections of words spark whole stories in my head.
And similarly, Rima Staines captures more words, more questions, more complete stories in her artistry than is reasonably possible. From the moment I first saw "Anja in the Horse Chestnut" I knew that Tatterdemalion was going to be a special book, and in the ultimate reversal I am proud and delighted to have contributed in a small way by having bought a copy via Unbound even before it was completely written.
Tatterdemalion took me several months to read. Certainly I could have got through it faster, it is far from unreadable, but that would have been a crime. You can always drive through the countryside on an express road, glimpsing the scenery through your windscreen and catching sight of the wild flowers as a blur of colour out of the corner of your eye. But how much better to take a long vacation walking county lanes, pausing to sit under a tree and marvelling at the view, smelling flowers, and dawdling among the wildlife. This book deserves a leisurely reading, close inspection, and to have all of its flavours properly savoured.
September 13, 2017
Tatterdemalion is a post-apocalyptic fairytale. In a world where everything is poisoned, the wild things begin to emerge again and people must learn to live with nature again. The story is told as a series of narratives by various people woven into a kind of new mythology for this post-apocalyptic world.
There were some great and innovatiave fairytale elments woven through the story. It's a strange book in that at times it reads like a fairytale and at times it really doesn't. There's some beautiful poetic prose in here but at times it can be too overwhealming and obscure the meaning of the text instead of enhance it. Some of the points of view are beautifully written and compelling, some are not.
The overall narrative is about environmentalism so obviously that plays very heavily. Sometimes a little too heavily. There's a lot of lovely stuff connected to mothers and childbirth in here and the idea of renewal and reconnection. There were also for me a lot of niggles with characters knowing things about our modern world it felt like they shouldn't know, the worlds felt artificial and put there to make a point instead of natural. There was also a lot of catholic symbolism that I didn't quite get.
So, it's a strange book. It was beautiful in some places, overwraught in others. I think I expected something a little more fairytale, maybe more in the vein of Valente's fairyland books only for an older audience, but instead of drawing directly on fairy tale, this book takes the idea of fairytale as a magic world in which things and people that can't exist otherwise can exist and makes that the real world. The world after our world has crumbled. In one way, the feeling of myth any fairytale was beautifully poetic, in others it felt too reinvented and I'd have liked a stronger sense of continuity with the stories we have now.
There were some great and innovatiave fairytale elments woven through the story. It's a strange book in that at times it reads like a fairytale and at times it really doesn't. There's some beautiful poetic prose in here but at times it can be too overwhealming and obscure the meaning of the text instead of enhance it. Some of the points of view are beautifully written and compelling, some are not.
The overall narrative is about environmentalism so obviously that plays very heavily. Sometimes a little too heavily. There's a lot of lovely stuff connected to mothers and childbirth in here and the idea of renewal and reconnection. There were also for me a lot of niggles with characters knowing things about our modern world it felt like they shouldn't know, the worlds felt artificial and put there to make a point instead of natural. There was also a lot of catholic symbolism that I didn't quite get.
So, it's a strange book. It was beautiful in some places, overwraught in others. I think I expected something a little more fairytale, maybe more in the vein of Valente's fairyland books only for an older audience, but instead of drawing directly on fairy tale, this book takes the idea of fairytale as a magic world in which things and people that can't exist otherwise can exist and makes that the real world. The world after our world has crumbled. In one way, the feeling of myth any fairytale was beautifully poetic, in others it felt too reinvented and I'd have liked a stronger sense of continuity with the stories we have now.
August 10, 2020
“We changed and we also stayed much as we always had been.”
Bizarre and peculiar and like nothing Iv read before Tatterdemalion is a folklore tale set in a post apocalyptic world. Poppy who speaks the language of the wild things travels East with Lyoobov - a wheeled and elephant beast. In the East he meets Juniper who tells Poppy the true stories of the people who made this world.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact plot in the book but I enjoyed seeing how the separate stories fit into each other as I read. I’m sure there were many lessons to take from this book but to be honest I didn’t learn of any except one. In the last 50 or so pages of the book it became apparent that taking care and respecting the earth and the animals was a lesson to take from it all and that the humans are the hands behind their own demise.
It was a weird ride to be on and not to my taste. I can however understand why some people will enjoy/benefit from this book. But personally for myself I would have forgotten what Iv read by the end of the day. This book deserves a closer inspection and a greater amount of time to truly benefit from it which I won’t be doing.
Bizarre and peculiar and like nothing Iv read before Tatterdemalion is a folklore tale set in a post apocalyptic world. Poppy who speaks the language of the wild things travels East with Lyoobov - a wheeled and elephant beast. In the East he meets Juniper who tells Poppy the true stories of the people who made this world.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact plot in the book but I enjoyed seeing how the separate stories fit into each other as I read. I’m sure there were many lessons to take from this book but to be honest I didn’t learn of any except one. In the last 50 or so pages of the book it became apparent that taking care and respecting the earth and the animals was a lesson to take from it all and that the humans are the hands behind their own demise.
It was a weird ride to be on and not to my taste. I can however understand why some people will enjoy/benefit from this book. But personally for myself I would have forgotten what Iv read by the end of the day. This book deserves a closer inspection and a greater amount of time to truly benefit from it which I won’t be doing.
May 12, 2025
This was an interesting book with inspiring writing style that helped me see connections between ideas and natural systems I hadn't experienced before.
I wish the description for how the book was constructed was at the beginning because I had a hard time getting into the book because the parts initially felt disjointed. Luckily I randomly read the explanation before I got too far into the book of how the author used the paintings to inspire their stories. I think the book would have read better if the stories were woven together a bit more.
I also had a hard time getting through this book because of some of the depressing content. That mixed with the antagonist only appearing in the beginning and ending meant that I spent long periods of time not reading this book. I honestly forgot for quite a while that Poppy was in the juniper tree experiencing the stories of the constellations.
Overall, though, I am glad I read this book. I genuinely enjoyed the poetic style of writing and some of the elements that were woven together.
I wish the description for how the book was constructed was at the beginning because I had a hard time getting into the book because the parts initially felt disjointed. Luckily I randomly read the explanation before I got too far into the book of how the author used the paintings to inspire their stories. I think the book would have read better if the stories were woven together a bit more.
I also had a hard time getting through this book because of some of the depressing content. That mixed with the antagonist only appearing in the beginning and ending meant that I spent long periods of time not reading this book. I honestly forgot for quite a while that Poppy was in the juniper tree experiencing the stories of the constellations.
Overall, though, I am glad I read this book. I genuinely enjoyed the poetic style of writing and some of the elements that were woven together.
June 12, 2024
I don't buy a lot of new books, but when I go to a new independent bookstore I try to support them by buying something. So I saw this book and it looked really neat. There were paintings in it, but not really a style that I was fond of. Still the story sounded whimsical and interesting so I paid my $18 and took it home.
Unfortunately, I tried reading this to my wife 2 nights in a row. We got to about page 35 before I pulled the plug. It was fun to read all these flowery, deep sounding sentences, they read like poetry. Only one problem - neither of us are really fans of poetry. Add to that the fact that it was impossible to tell who the narrator was or what was going on because the story spans more than 300 years, so seemed to have different characters in each chapter. Last complaint, sometimes the similes didn't seem to make sense.
So if you like stories written like poetry, definitely give this a try (and if you're looking for a copy message me).
Unfortunately, I tried reading this to my wife 2 nights in a row. We got to about page 35 before I pulled the plug. It was fun to read all these flowery, deep sounding sentences, they read like poetry. Only one problem - neither of us are really fans of poetry. Add to that the fact that it was impossible to tell who the narrator was or what was going on because the story spans more than 300 years, so seemed to have different characters in each chapter. Last complaint, sometimes the similes didn't seem to make sense.
So if you like stories written like poetry, definitely give this a try (and if you're looking for a copy message me).
April 14, 2019
The idea of post-apocalyptic folklore, a concept-art novel inspired by about a dozen strange and eerie paintings that somehow feel familiar and universal... well, that sounds like precisely the kind of thing I would love.
Tracing the roots of its own stories, its themes and personalities echoing backwards and forwards in the landscapes of post apocalyptic Southern California.
Its a writing style that was a little difficult for me to get into at first, coming across as prose poetry more than narrative, but, like the paintings themselves, the feelings it generated and ideas it shares are the important bit. They separate but intricately entwined stories really share the same weird and sad feeling as the paintings and expand the world depicted with such melancholy hope.
Its a worthwhile experience to undertake and overall poignant and powerful. I hope you read it.
Tracing the roots of its own stories, its themes and personalities echoing backwards and forwards in the landscapes of post apocalyptic Southern California.
Its a writing style that was a little difficult for me to get into at first, coming across as prose poetry more than narrative, but, like the paintings themselves, the feelings it generated and ideas it shares are the important bit. They separate but intricately entwined stories really share the same weird and sad feeling as the paintings and expand the world depicted with such melancholy hope.
Its a worthwhile experience to undertake and overall poignant and powerful. I hope you read it.
March 28, 2021
dnf at 10%
I started this one yesterday before bad, was weirded out and tried to give it another go today.
It turns out the problem was not my sleep-addled brain but the book.
It's written in a tone that is supposed to be dreamy, and feels dreamy, but if your mind has the slightes inclination to dissociate, it will do so. It's the kind of literary overwrittenness that fails to acknowledge that it's creating barriers that some readers will not be able to overcome.
I read and and realised my mind driftet, again, and tried to remember what I read. I will not get any of this in my head no matter how much I want to. So, I give up.
The arc was provided by the publisher.
I started this one yesterday before bad, was weirded out and tried to give it another go today.
It turns out the problem was not my sleep-addled brain but the book.
It's written in a tone that is supposed to be dreamy, and feels dreamy, but if your mind has the slightes inclination to dissociate, it will do so. It's the kind of literary overwrittenness that fails to acknowledge that it's creating barriers that some readers will not be able to overcome.
I read and and realised my mind driftet, again, and tried to remember what I read. I will not get any of this in my head no matter how much I want to. So, I give up.
The arc was provided by the publisher.
February 3, 2022
Contender for favorite book, easily. Sylvia’s words combined with Rima’s artwork didn’t blow me away- they winked at me from the shadows beckoning me to follow them down a rabbit hole underneath the knotted roots of a maple, convincing me to claw at the soil until my whole being was covered and all I could see, hear, or breathe-in was dark and wet and decaying. Alive. I found myself and lost myself and found myself again in this tale. True artists and seers and magic makers exist. Thanks for the reminder.
December 23, 2018
I have to say that, in the end, I was a little disappointed. It is a beautiful book, and the descriptions of people and societies adapted to a post-climate-apocalypse world are thought-provoking, but I found it hard to invest in it. I don't think it was the huge timespan (nearly 300 years) and the resulting changes in characters as much as the style: just a little too much on the arch side of poetic for my taste. But was, I think, down to personal preference.
August 24, 2018
This book is poignant, beautifully written and soul stirring. It is so unassumingly magical that you could almost forget it’s about a world healing from climate change. Don’t hesitate to read this book. I won’t loan it out, because I intend to read it again.
December 27, 2020
This book was the best thing I have ever read. So rich in imagination and stuff of the soul. Finishing it was grief. So beautiful and Rima Staines illustrations are perfectly interwoven. The experience feels like swimming between roots of ancient trees.
December 6, 2025
One of my favourite otherworldly painters, Rima Staines, and one of my favourite writers, Sylvia V. Lindsteadt birthed this magical world post-collapse where misfits, artists, peasants, crones, one handed people... come together through myth and fiercefullness🫀
July 8, 2017
It is crazy wonderful!
September 6, 2017
wow. it's hard to write anything coherent about "tatterdemalion" because it's just that good. check out the website "unbound" for more wonderful books to help fund - it's how i found this book!!
November 10, 2017
Absolutely magical in a completely unique and ineffable way. It's the kind of book that should be read aloud, by candlelight, on long winter's nights.
April 20, 2018
the author and the illustrator lead the reader into deep dark fantastical tales of beauty, rebirth, transformation.
May 15, 2018
A dystopian fairy tale, inspired by artwork
July 16, 2018
Oh... just read it.
(But maybe read Le Guin's 'Always Coming Home' first.)
(But maybe read Le Guin's 'Always Coming Home' first.)
July 30, 2018
Strange and beautiful. A series of interconnected fables inspired by Rima Staines's unique paintings, and set in the time after the collapse of civilisation.
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