The Woman Who Loved Reindeer

by Meredith Ann Pierce

When her sister-in-law brings her a strange golden baby to care for, a young girl, living in the cold lands far to the north, is unaware that this unusual child will help her fulfill her destiny as leader of her people.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, Shapeshifters, Magic, High Fantasy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Meredith Ann Pierce is a fantasy writer and librarian. Her books deal in fantasy worlds with mythic settings and yet overturn standard expectations, frequently featuring young women who first wish only to love and be loved, yet who must face hazard and danger to save their way of life, their world, and so on, usually without being respected for their efforts until the end of the story.

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave The DarkAngel (of The DarkAngel Trilogy) by Meredith Ann Pierce three stars when I read it in early 2009. Absence made my heart grow fonder, or something, and I later upgraded it to a fox force five. I would tell my sister about it and that made it a different kind of reading experience. Something like loving something because it meant something to you when you're young. Images that stuck out in my mind, what represented wistfulness and longing.

It's something, I think, how reading a book that's telling in a confidential way can have a feeling of, "Man, I wish I had had this when I was young!", or "It's not the same now..." and sharing secrets doesn't make it feel bigger, just same-sized and somehow emptier for being same-sized. It's different if you read it as a kid or teenager kind of story. If you're young and everyone you know talks to you like you're TOO young, you know? Someone to share with... There are talking quietly to the person you're most yourself around kinds of telling that make you wish you always had that young book. I'm sure that I retold it in the way that I'd talk to myself and that made it feel more intimate... Or I'm sometimes young and that's the secret for getting special always-been-there-for-me childhood favorites. The something might be feeling as if someone is talking to you. Too old?

I loved the idea of the unwilling nursemaid who gives up her helpless charge to a witch. Not everyone wants to be a mother. The vampiric wraiths, twisting pity into guilt. The gargoyles and biting hands that feed. I know the next two books had weaker parts too (a lot of fantasy I've read is oddly reminiscent of the other). You don't have to have youthful memories to feel that bittersweet nostalgia. So... What the hell is the deal here? I was done being cynical and "Come on and be different" and stopped thinking "This part reminds me of Sharon Shinn. This reminds me of Robin McKinley" (also totally unfair because Pierce wrote her books before Shinn's books or Garth Nix's Sabriel). (Maybe I talk to myself too much!) It felt like I HAD read it when I was young and I felt wistful. "Remember when that happened..." Sigh.

Blah, blah, blah. I get the feeling that I'm not going to feel anything more for The Woman Who Loved Reindeer. It did not talk to me in a "Hey, Mariel". It talked to me like I should already know. "Hey, you person." It talked too much. It was trying too hard and doing the wrong thing to feel good again.

But just in case, I'll retell it right now.

(In my head I pronounced it like Cara-boo and this song was in my head for two whole hours. My mind never shuts up. The Pixies not good enough for you, Mariel? I liked Caribou the band a lot in 2010.)

Caribou is a witchy sort of girl who lives in isolation despite being a mere thirteen years of age. For a moment I thought it was going to be like Monica Furlong's Wise Child (a book that I admired more for the principles than actually enjoyed). The Karate Kid meets witch craft and learning from daily toil you don't think about until it's in your blood. Nope. Why do that when you can tell the reader what to think?
Caribou is shunned and mistrusted because she has dreams and knows shit. Homeopathic remedies type shit and pop psych before there was pop psych. She understands people even though she has little to no contact with other people, or seems to understand anything about herself on a personal level. But hey, dreams! It worked for Agent Cooper on Twin Peaks. Mountains are wonderous places. I have a shark's jaw mounted on my wall (one of three things I got from my grandfather when he died. A live cat [not stuffed!], a shark's jaw and a table we made together when I was 10). If only it had been a deer! I'd be shamanistic and shit. (It's pretty much only good for looking scary and my birds like to sit in it.)
Orphans have it so bad! Her brother didn't take her in because his new wife (gasp! a foriegner! Caribou obviously never heard the saying about people who live in primitive housing shouldn't throw sticks at other primitive houses in different villages because she's mistrustful of the gal for this. Not one of US, you know) didn't want her around. That doesn't stop the wife from coming by to drop her son beget by another man on the girl. Infidelity?! We knew we didn't like her, didn't we, Caribou? She vaguely understands things like that her brother would forgive the sex outside the marriage because the knowledge appears in her head. But the wife doesn't want the kid because its father has promised to come back for it. The father isn't one of us either and that's not a good thing. Caribou gets the kid and wants it even as she doesn't admit she wants it. In a blink of pages the brother and father get killed. The father is a reindeer! Even though Caribou KNOWS THINGS she doesn't figure it out. Thirteen years go by and Caribou suckles (this word is used more than a few times in the book!) the boy as if he were her own son. There's not a whole lot of dashing, dancing, prancing, or blitzing going on. The "You're all I have and that makes you mine" phase. Cupid must've descended on a comet and gone hunting because he accidentally shot her instead of a deer. In another blink of pages and suckling it must be love (like that. "It must be" and not really knowing or feeling much of anything). The vixen! He's like your son! You SUCKLED him! What a donderhead. He leaves her to run with the other reindeer as if she hadn't suckled him to her breast. Don't worry! He'll be back. The reindeer is damned horny too. It must be love if you don't know what you feel. (I'm all out of reindeer jokes. Shit. This review is in deep trouble.)

What I don't get is that Caribou feels lonely and detached from society. She and her golden reindeer boy are not on the same wave length because he supposedly doesn't have a human heart. Okay, since when do all humans feel the same, and understand the same? Why would Caribou? They would not have keys to hearts in hand if he WAS made of her flesh. Sure, she has the dreams and mystical shit (which preclude her boy. She could have used this as a chance to relate like other people do, with him). But she's lived alone. She supposedly feels apart. She reminds me of a Morrissey fan who finally found the voice in the dark that spoke to their soul. She felt restless in the world? And then found someone she wanted to hear? And then never bothered to look for any other voices and horded it to themselves, in the dark (and made bitchy comments about me at a Morrissey concert and stepped on my foot) and stopped listening because she was too busy trying to hear what she wanted to hear. "I don't understand you! You don't understand me!" They don't progress beyond this point until some pat cliche about if you love the thing and it lets you go...

So the reindeer comes back because he's horny and his race fuck human girls because that's how they have kids. Historically, they take the kids and don't give a stag's ass if she misses the babe. But he kinda misses his mama/love interest. Hey, he already knows she'd make a good mom. She suckles like nobody's business. But oh no! Her people are in trouble. The people who shunned her now need her to help them because she's got dreams of midgets and backwards talking. Caribou is such a rednoser (yes!) that she talks him into leading her people (although it was forbidden before it suddenly isn't now) to his land for help against natural disasters like earthquakes. There's more stuff I didn't buy like winning them over by being useful and needed. Maybe she just needs to suckle to get it off? So there's lots of that and various magical beings who refuse to help or agree to help the people who I didn't care anything about at all.

She's also dependent on her reindeer and wishes he'd go to his "man-shape". Yay co-dependency AND manipulation. He does return to his man-shape and they have sex. I'm putting this in my bestiality shelf anyway (and lemonincest, although they are not blood) because I want to. That's the best thing about reading a book like this. (I made two new shelves too.)

Maybe I'll grow to like the vague ideas about how love isn't something you can name? They weren't really mother and son. They didn't know what they were to each other. That COULD have been good... But she just says stuff like she learned she can't bind him and love is free will. Says! It's like the dreams. I want to know, or feel like they know it and are confiding in me. He lets her stay to help "her people" and will come back for sex and to see their kid (better watch out for any suckling) until the day she's ready to be with him. That's nice... But, um, where in all of that did they stop trying to label and assume that everyone has to feel the same things? I can't tell myself they did. He found other reindeer. She found people who needed her more than they were afraid. I still don't know what love is!



Hot!

P.s. Early in the book Caribou eats the flesh of the reindeer's reindeer papa. It tastes like butter and as if it were cooked, by magic. I was waiting for her to get hungry again. (There are mentions of eating caribou. They use the non-magical kind as their animal slaves. They named HER Caribou. How disgustingly cutesy! When they are finally together I bet they whittle that on all their stuff.)
If they were stranded in a life boat would he let her eat him? That could be an even truer test of love than the letting things go and come back test. Or she could feed him by suckling him.

P.s.s. Since she wears the tribal hipstery headband on the cover... and has prophetic dreams... and loves four legged mammals... I had this song in my head.

P.s.s.s. Ten peckered owls and toads should form a coalition with reindeers to get more paranormal romances made in their honor. Why are wolves and cats supposedly so much better in bed? Enquiring minds (not mine! It is busy singing Xanadu) want to know.

[Gloriamarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Woman Who Loved Reindeer

First reaction: what a lot of nerve Branja has foisting her illegitimate child off onto her sister-in- law, Caribou who is barely thirteen. Especially since it is Branja’s fault that caribou, still a child has to live alone since her father’s death. Selfishly, Branja did not allow her husband, Caribou’s brother do the right thing and give orphaned Caribou a home, but she demands Caribou take care of the proof of Branja’s infidelity, protect her secret, and make sure the child’s father doesn’t claim the baby. Caribou was forced to live a lonely life since her father’s death and she takes the child because now she would not be so alone because she felt a hot dart in her heart when he looked at her with his golden eyes. Interestingly, along with the baby, Branja lugged a load of groceries but no diapers or whatever they use for them on this planet.

Ingesting a herb, Caribou is able to nurse the infant and the baby throve in Caribou’s care but a few months later, a herd of reindeer travel by and one of them gets the baby in a nest in his horns and bounds off with the child. Branja told Caribou she had told her husband the entire story and they had come to the Caribou and the child home to live with them. Caribou’s brother, Visjna, chases after the reindeer and kills the one the took the baby but is trampled by the rest of the herd. Caribou found his body and noticed a trail of golden drops which she follows only to find the dead reindeer and the baby still cradled in its antlers.

Within a few months, Caribou becomes a woman and gains the reputation as a wise woman, villagers come other for advise and her words prove sound and her fame spreads. The things she tells them are what she dreams. The child grows and eventually she names him Reindeer but she never dreams of him and so he is a mystery to her. The child is a mystery to the villagers with his pale blond hair, golden eyes, and fair white skin.

Reindeer is a strange child, asking questions such as what is love, what is sorrow, what is blood? She teaches him/her way of life and their lore and soon he is able to assist her in the daily chores. One days she fishes for salmon and sees a reflection of a reindeer calf in the water but when she looks up all she sees is the boy. She fears the reflection is the work of a water-daimon. At home that evening, she looks at Reindeer’s reflection in a mirror and again sees a reindeer calf. For the next five years she lives in denial of the reflection, destroying the valuable mirror, keeping Reindeer away from anything than might reflect the animal. Twice a year the reindeer run in their north/south journey and then their south/north journey and at those times, the boy is unusually restless.

When he is thirteen and beginning puberty, he tells Caribou he is leaving to run with the reindeer. They have called to him for years and he always refused because he was too young. He tells Caribou that she has to know he is not human and he points to his shadow, which is that of a reindeer. He leaves.

One horrible year it is as if the earth rebels with avalanches, earthquakes, noxious gases. Wells are polluted, animals die from toxic stuff in the springs. Each of the villages sends an elder to confer with Caribou and she has no idea what to tell them as her dreams have said nothing. They think they have offended the various daimons who bless their wells, streams, fields, animals, everything they depend upon but she sees no evidence of this.

Reindeer returns and tells her the Firelords who live within the earth have mined all the gold and silver and have begun the process to “turn the earth” and renew it so it would once again produce gold and silver. All the daimons they counted on for water, etc have already fed south. He has come back because he couldn’t stay away from her as he is not a man, he doesn’t exactly love her. He has told the other reindeer it is time for him to father a child. He also tells Caribou of a sledge he has seen that would be able to traverse the places the reindeer travel and that people must build these sledges and when the reindeer pass through in the autumn, they must follow them through the Burning Lands to a new place to live.

Caribou and Reindeer convince the people of their village who assist to build the sled. Then Caribou and Reindeer travel to all the villages to tell them what is happening and to tell them to build the escape vehicles with varying degrees of success. Autumn comes, the reindeer run through, the herds of caribou follow and some of the people leave in sledges drawn by caribou, Caribou leading the way with Reindeer in his animal form following.

It’s a hazardous journey through a part of the world they have never seen and the travellers are convinced they are going to die but they can’t go back because they saw the destruction the Firelords wrought. With the help of the sea maidens they conquer the last, worst aspect of their journey and travel until they find the valley their herds of caribou had selected.

This is beautifully oh so beautifully written and now I want to read every single thing this author has written. The world building is deftly handled. They live in a world in which daimons and trolls are real every day facts of life. There is cooperation between them. Everything in the public library is on hold for me. Can’t wait to read more.

[Helle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading a book from my teen years. Pierce's writing reminds me of another favorite, Ursula K. LeGuin. It is masterful and lyrical. Caribou's story reads like an old myth, carefully reflected upon just enough possibilty to feel connected.

[Sommer Ann McCullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fresh and twisted take on fantasy. I love this mix of history, folklore and new original ideas. This story is very different from any other I've read. It is about a girl who finds a baby, who actually turns in to a reindeer. Yes, odd, I know. But, it evolves to be a very well written and thought out book. Expect some weird changes, but over all it is a very impacting read.

[Etola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written tale with lovely, lyrical prose. The characters are written gracefully and with humanity and depth.

[Gwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caribou is a young woman forced by her prophetic dreams to live on the fringes of her tribe. She falls in love with a man who is not a man at all, but a trangl--a daimon that can turn into a reindeer and a man. When he leaves to join the great reindeer herd she is heartbroken, but he returns in time to lead Caribou and her people to safety as their land is destroyed by fires and earthquakes.

The Plot

Do not expect twists, turns, or complexities of any kind from this story. The plot is very simple, the first part largely taken up by Caribou's childhood, and the second part by her journey to her new home. Compared to the journeys undertaken by Aeriel is The Darkangel trilogy, which are peppered by strange characters and unusual setbacks, Caribou's journey is basically just one long sled ride, and most of the obstacles are geography-related. Although the pace is not slow, it is neither thrilling nor suspenseful.

The Characters

Although a few other characters make brief appearances, Caribou and Reindeer are the only real players in this book. To get a feeling for Caribou, think of Alice from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland: mostly drifting through, but with occasional outbursts of purpose. Reindeer is harder to describe, but Pierce does a good job of describing his otherness. Their names are interesting: in this setting, "caribou" and "reindeer" are the tame and wild members of the same species, respectively. In the same way, Reindeer is truly undomesticated, not even being human for most of the book, while Caribou, being human, is domesticated by definition.

The Prose

Like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Pierce's other book, The Darkangel Trilogy the story drifts along through a strange world, the third-person narration focusing more on observing what's happening rather than showing the ins and outs of the main character's mind.

The Verdict

If not for the element of romance, this extremely simple book might be better suited for older children rather than young adults. However, the straightforward plot, short story, and minimal number of characters do not make it childish; this is a book that can be enjoyed by all ages. Although not nearly as good as The Darkangel Trilogy, this is nonetheless a pleasant read.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last night I randomly grabbed a book that had been my aunts. The woman who loved reindeer is what I ended up with. Based on the title I was assuming something far north and someone who ran around with reindeer. It was some of that but a bit more pseudohistorical. Like the books who try and give a reason for vague events in the past. This seemed to be ancient tribal people crossing a land bridge to a new continent. Interestingly it seemed like they crossed from unknown land to known land where people already lived and had horses.

There was a strong thrust of random mythology of trolls and mermaids and possibly giants who lived inside the earth as explanations of natural occurances. A volcano erupts and it is clearly the fire giants under the earth moving the mantle of the earth. The tide is a troll moving a land bridge up and down. And of course there is the shapeshifters who can turn from stag to person at will. The main character is named Caribou and eventually her tribe is named after her. It is assumed that she will later leave her people to run with the reindeer stag she raised. I did find it a bit odd that the baby she nursed will later be her shapeshifter mate. It wasn't her baby but it still seems a bit weird.

It was a very quick read. It was interesting and kept my attention. I have this vague sense that I have read the book before and maybe I have. It came out in the early 80's and it is quite clean. I will continue to try and work through my inherited books. I believe that there are some gems in there but it is so hard to get past the bad 80's cover art or even 70's cover art.

[Cassie Rodgers · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there are any other books remotely similar to this, I want to read them because this book is so unique and wonderful, it has stayed with me, vividly, even though I haven't read it in fifteen years or so. It is a flawed book, certainly. The character are not terribly engaging, and the fact that a romantic relationship stems from a pretty much mother-son relationship is quite bizarre. But it's a fantasy and he's not really her child, and I get it. Details. For someone who loved fantasy as a kid, I don't read that genre much anymore. Probably because none of the adult stuff is as good as what I read as a teenager. This is one of the good ones. I wish they would make it a movie just because whoever played Reindeer would have to be sickingly hot.

[Jean Triceratops · Rating 1 out of 5]

[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]

Intuition; it's a hell of a thing. I didn't truly understand how much I took it for granted until it pulled through for me while reading The Woman Who Loved Reindeer.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

Caribou (Yes, that's her name) is a seer sort of person who lives outside of her tribe on account of errbody being afraid of her. At the onset of the book, she's thirteen and lives by herself. Then her sister-in-law foists a two-month-old baby onto her. It's very obviously not Caribou's brother's child due to its golden hair and fair skin, and her brother is due home from driving the caribou herds any day now. He cannot know about his wife's infidelity.

So Caribou takes the baby. (Un)fortunately, in this world, there's an herb that'll cause anyone with a uterus to lactate. Caribou hits that plant up and breastfeeds the kid. Even though she's thirteen.

But disaster strikes. Somehow a golden reindeer steels the kid, and long story short, the reindeer is killed and she retrieves the baby, but she's far from home. Worse, it's winter and night is coming.

In a desperate fight for survival, she skins the reindeer and huddles in the pelt with the baby. To keep her strength up, she eats its raw flesh (which tastes delicious, by the way) and manages to make it through the night. In an act of supremely poor taste, she decides to name the baby Reindeer.

At this point, two things are going through my mind:

1) She, very obviously, just skinned and ate Reindeer's father and now sleeps in Reindeer's father's skin every night.

2) Wow, I expected this to be a romance novel, but Caribou is basically Reindeer's mother! Neat.

Time passes, and, naturally, Reindeer is an unusual child. He's serious and doesn't seem to understand human emotion. He's obsessed with the reindeer as they stampede past on their migrations. You get the picture. He’s Different. This difference only grows with time until neither can deny the obvious anymore: Reindeer is a reindeer daemon. He can shift between reindeer and human form at will.

He then leaves to join the reindeer on their migration.

Things get dicey here. Caribou is more than upset; she's crazily despondent. And while it would be reasonable for a mother to lose her shit over her 13-year-old son leaving, perhaps for good, Caribou behaves like one of those women who joke about how their son is the only man that'll never abandon them ... after their son leaves. There's something not healthy here, but it's hard to put a finger on what, exactly.

So Caribou mopes and obsesses and leans into being a mystical shaman sort of person to the local village. Something's not right, though. The world is behaving strangely: good pools of water are turning sour. Mountains are erupting. The very earth is cracking and spitting forth toxic fumes. How will the village survive? What can they do?

Caribou doesn't know. She settles in to spend a night dreaming on the topic when Reindeer appears at her door. He's now 15, and while he's still calm and detached, he admits he missed her and couldn't resign himself to being fully reindeer. He spent too much of his life human for that. Still, he cannot give up on being a reindeer daemon, either. Luckily, there's a loophole. He learned how to turn her into a reindeer daemon, too. She need only ride on his back during the next migration, and they'll reach this place of magic.

She refuses; she must help save her people. Aha, but Reindeer has some idea of why the world is suffering, but getting to the bottom of it will involve traveling with him...

Alarms were going off in my head. I can't tell you why, but I knew things were all sorts of wrong. Perhaps it was the way they talked, the insistence in Reindeer's voice and the neediness in Caribou's, or the way Caribou shivered at the hearth while talking with Reindeer. I can't give you a specific reason, but I knew.

So I flipped ahead, but a stone's throw from the end of the novel. And Reindeer rests his hand on Caribou's stomach and says that he'll return when their child is born.

...

...

I just …

...

...

Caribou breastfed him. I don't care that they're not related; she changed his diapers and was the sole person who raised him from infancy. Not to fucking mention, Reindeer is fifteen when they first have sex. Caribou is twenty-eight.

This is gross on so many levels.

Needless to say, aside from double-checking that, like, a decade or two didn't pass between Reindeer re-appearing and them getting busy, I didn't read any further. I'm not gonna read a "love" story about a woman and her adopted, underage son. Nope. Just not gonna do it.

What I really want to know, though, is what all the people giving it high reviews are thinking. Did they … not read the first 40 pages? Are they fans of incest-light?

What the hell? Fucking Andre Norton called it “In every way a superior piece of writing.” So much nope. Did not finish, will not finish. Fuck all of this.

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and held my interest but I felt there was something slightly creepy about a romance between Caribou and the child she had brought up, although there was no blood relationship.

[Kristin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

I very vaguely remember reading this when I was in my pre- or early-teens, I do vividly remember that it gave me a very odd, unpleasant feeling but I was either too young or too sheltered to place why it made me uncomfortable.

Well, for some stupid reason, I decided to read it again and see, from an adult prospective, why it made me feel so uneasy as a kid. And well, I now know why! This book, to put it bluntly, is gross.

The pseudoincest and grooming are extremely disturbing. I barely made it 50% of the way through the book and I just can't continue.

Caribou is only 13 when she's given a baby, a baby she breastfeeds (by using some magical herb that makes you produce breastmilk without having started puberty or been ever being pregnant) and raises the baby while claiming she's not his mother...yet acts just like his mother.

As I read, growing increasingly disturbed, I suddenly remembered (and confirmed by flipping to the back) that Caribou and Reindeer end up having a baby together. This is a almost 30 year old woman sleeping with a 15 year old deer-boy that she breast fed and raised.

What the f*ck?

No. Just...all kinds of no.

[Big Cowboy Hat Garfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating story in an immersive and vivid fantasy landscape. I was immediately invested in the story’s bizzarre premise. The biggest complaint I see in the reviews for this book is the pseudo-incest/grooming situation between the main character and the shapeshifter that she raises. I’ll admit, her becoming romantically involved with a character she raised since he was a baby is off-putting. This is a trope seen in many fantasy works, my mind automatically goes to the grooming and incest that litters the landscape of Game of Thrones. That’s not to say this book is similar to GoT in any way, but just an example of how the grooming/incest trope isn’t unheard of in the fantasy genre. Your mileage may vary in how much of this trope you can tolerate before the story becomes unreadable. For me, it wasn’t so distracting that I couldn’t enjoy this book. Whether or not it contributed anything essential to the plot is up for debate. If you’re up for a quick romp through a gorgeous fantasy world full of interesting mystical characters, with a fairly feel-good ending, then this book is worth reading.

[Mickel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this in elementary school. Here’s what I remember:

13 year old girl lives alone and is shunned by community - sister in law drops off baby from a one night stand. 13 year old takes herbs so she can breastfeed the baby but eventually her sisinlaw tells husband about infidelity and he decides he wants the baby. But one night stand golden man comes back for the baby at the same and offs bro and sisinlaw.

Story at some point becomes about thehow the protagonist has to save the world while falling in love with the baby she nursed - who is part of a race of beings who can turn into golden elk and live forever by drinking from a fountain.

At the end it’s revealed that she’s pregnant with the baby she raised’s child and he leaves to drink from the pool of eternal life but promises he’ll come back for both her and the baby; he also promises to not be like his dad cuz he knows she’s his soul mate or something.

The end.

It was massively weird and it haunted me for decades. It pry is also how I gained entry into monster fucking.

[Alice]

DNF.

Going into it, I thought we would see Caribou hook up with Reindeer's father and they would learn to raise a strange child together while the world collapsed. Nope, Caribou gets the hots for her adopted son. Okay, yes, they're not blood related but the first 100 pages we are given intimate detail of how this 13 year old girl, Caribou, raises the baby, Reindeer. You can't just erase that. Plus, when the kid disappears to be with the wild deer, he's 13; when he comes back to Caribou, he's "barely sixteen summers" and she's almost 30. And they sleep together. I don't care what planet you're on, honey, you can't bang the underage boy you raised!!! Plus the amount of times Caribou says "I suckled you/I suckled him" to convince herself she sees him as a son (or brother) is alarming. Why do we need to talk about suckling at all? Why is suckling mentioned so much in the first part of the book? Can we just stop talking about suckling!

Anyway, I skipped forward. Yes, she ends up pregnant with Reindeer's kid. Oh, and I guess they saved the world or something... maybe.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai lu ce livre en français (Caribou et le renne aux yeux d'or). Le point fort du livre c'est l'atmosphère nordique très bien rendue de ce monde imaginaire. J'aime beaucoup le personnage de Caribou, à la fois forte et vulnérable.

L'histoire d'amour entre elle et Renne est quelque peu étrange étant donné qu'elle l'a nourri au sein, mais comme c'est un démon il grandit particulièrement vite et cela ne me pose pas plus de problème. Au contraire, c'est une histoire sur comment accepter l'autre et le parcours de Caribou et de Renne sur ce point là est très intéressant.

Je l'ai relu en souvenir de ma jeunesse et donc sûrement un peu surnoté.

[Linnea Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the weirdest books I've read in a while. I'm not super into the romance, as there are some truly bizarre aspects to it which make me hesitate to ship, but the romance is integral to the internal conflict and does provide an immensely satisfying ending. This book is best gulped down with no time to stop and ask too many questions. Under those circumstances it's a fantastical mythologically-packed read about an outcast who becomes a leader in order to save her community.

[Demi Grivas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept this book sitting on my shelf for WAY too long. Finished it in a single day; I could not put the book down. As usual of this author, this is a gorgeous fantasy. Beautiful in its simplicity with a world completely its own. Can we please have more books like this?

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pierce writes beautifully; her words flow, and her vocabulary choice is exceptional. Her characters are interesting, the plot was fast-paced, and the settings atmospheric, and this journey over an alien and treacherous landscape was enthralling.

[Cat in the Leaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mix of folklore and fantasy that was just as enjoyable now as when I first read it many years ago.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Beautifully written, wonderful worldbuilding, but there was just something icky about the relationship that I couldn't get past.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

man how are you gonna compare this to the clan of the cave bear series and then not have a single sex scene

[Margaret Taylor]

Uncomfortable love story, really cool setting.

I loved Meredith Ann Pierce's Darkangel Trilogy when I was a kid. Hoping for more awesomeness, I've read a few of her other works over the years. Each time, I'm unhappy to find out that she seems to have pulled a Shyamalan: she's good at one specific thing, which made The Darkangel so special, but when she tries to do the same thing in other books it doesn't work. Her literary career seems to have petered out in 2004.

The same applies to The Woman Who Loved Reindeer.

A girl named Caribou is orphaned in her teens and the villagers refuse to take her in because she's a seer and they're a little afraid of her. She gets by living alone outside of town. One day Caribou's sister-in-law Branja shows up. Branja has been charmed and impregnated by a trangl, a kind of were-deer in his human form. Branja managed to hide the pregnancy from her husband over a long hunting trip, but now she needs to get rid of the baby. Caribou reluctantly takes the baby in and names him Reindeer.

Part of what follows is a really cool adventure story. Volcanoes are taking over Caribou and Reindeer's homeland, so Caribou uses her witch-powers and Reindeer uses his were-deer-powers to lead their people to safety. Lots of explodiness and epic crossing country scenes. There's also a romance plot that I don't like. It's between Caribou and Reindeer.

Here are just a few of the problems I have with that:

• Caribou is legally Reindeer's aunt,
• She raised him like a son, including breastfeeding him,
• She's twenty-eight years old and he is fifteen when they start having sex,
• Caribou ate Reindeer's father. (She thought he was an ordinary deer at the time, but still, she eventually figures it out.)

There's also no earthly explanation why they love each other that way. Shared interests? Tender moments? Not really, Caribou just panics whenever she thinks Reindeer is going to leave her.

But gosh, the world Pierce has created is so cool. Caribou belongs to a hunting and farming community who live on a volcanically active polar continent. It's got two fertile regions separated from each other by the pole itself, which is partially underwater. The book contains beautiful descriptions of the terrain and the adaptations of the people's culture and lifestyle. I wanted to see lots more of that, but unfortunately it's not the focus of the book.

I think The Woman Who Loved Reindeer would have been improved if told as a regular mother and son story. Reindeer has to grow up and run with the reindeer herd and Caribou has to learn to let him go. It would also have been better if Pierce had not tried so hard to make this into a fairy tale, because it isn't, it's an adventure story.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about how a young girl named Caribou lived far away and alone from everyone else because her father passed away, and her only brother got married to a woman who was not from their tribe. She doesn't approve with Caribou living with them, so Caribou was left to live alone on her own. A few months later, her sister-in-law Branja is back. But with her, is a baby boy. She wants Caribou to raise the baby, for he is her son, and the father is not her brother, but the son of a trangle, or traangol. The trangle is a reindeer that can turn into human when feels like shedding its skin, and can return to reindeer form anytime it wishes. Caribou raised him like her own, and named him reindeer for his father and he himself was a reindeer. Caribou falls in love with Reindeer, and promises that she will go with him on his next travel to the south with the other reindeer so that she can bathe in the Fount
Of Gold so that she too can become a trangle like him. A few weeks before the running of the wild reindeer, the council that Caribou helped through the lands where the sun never rises, and where the sun never sets decided that they will make Caribou the new leader of their tribe. Caribou has to decide to either be with her people, or be with Reindeer. Reindeer has to also decide between taking Caribou away from her people for his happiness, or leaving her for one more season till the next running of the reindeer so she can think things through. In the end, Reindeer and Caribou decide that they will wait till the next running of the reindeer, be away from each other so that Caribou can at least help her people to settle in before she joins Reindeer in his life style.

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended to me by a school librarian one winter when I was aboy in upstate New York, this book moved me but I was never able to finish it. Years later, another school librarian in California recommended Pierce's "Darkangel" series which I loved. It wasn't until this year, while I was looking for Pierce books on eBay, that I realized the two were written by the same author!

This book was even more beautiful than I remembered and I'm glad I could finally finish it. I am collecting a list of books I would recommend to any daughters I might have, and this one is definitely going on the list.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I liked the writing style of the book, and the storyline itself, the book wasn't my favorite. There wasn't anything wrong with it, per se, but the relationships in the book were a little bit... creepy. I mean Caribou and Reindeer. I can't get over the whole "I raised you from a baby and now you're my lover" thing. It rubs me the wrong way. The idea is still really interesting, and I hope that there are more books like this one that can dabble in the supernatural while still clearly representing the human nature so well. Perhaps I was just not the kind of person that this romance was aimed toward.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meredith Ann Pierce is a wonder. I've yet to read something by her that doesn't leave me smitten with her beautiful language and imagination. This tale, set in the ancient tundra, brought to mind images of Alaska and the great northern realms (which I've always wanted to visit). The concept may seem a bit strange and even off-putting at first, but by the end the myth takes hold with an unexpected power. I think Caribou is one of Pierce's stronger heroines, one who is always forging the path ahead instead of getting carried away by circumstance.

[Amanda Werlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although an entertaining read, it was a bit thick to get through. Not by how many pages, but somehow the writing made you feel as though you were trying to waddle through syrup. The romance was a bit awkward since she was kinda like his mom for a while, and then it becomes romance, but she wasn't really his mom, so I let that one slide. The romance got cute towards the end anyway. This is one of those books that although I don't feel very inclined to reread, I still revist it in my mind on occasion. It was pretty good.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book randomly in the water-damaged and decaying school library. It is one of those stories that always stayed in the back of my memory. Intriguing, adventurous and morals along with an enjoyable writing style. I had to search hard with the help of the internet and the bits of plot left to my memory, to figure out the title of the book again. Glad to know it was eventually republished and can be enjoyed more often now.

[diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous book still. An interesting twist on fables from the north. I have a sort of hard time with the heroine being in love with someone who cannot love her back, but I know that's my adult eyes looking on a tale being told for young adults, who have to deal with that sort of thing more often than not.

It's a well woven tale, with adventure and beings from out of fairy tales. It's familiar and new all at the same time. Well worth the read.

[Sana · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was such a wholesome book. it was good in the way a healthy meal is good. i don't know, it was like a break from modern culture, and chick flicks, and whatnot, and it just felt so purifying.
it's about a wise woman who raises and falls in love with a man who is part reindeer. their country is besieged by earthquakes and hurricanes, so she has to lead her people to the land beyond the ice (or whatever it was called.)