The Binding

The Binding

by Bridget Collins

5 out of 5

Synopsis
Imagine you could erase grief.
Imagine you could remove pain.
Imagine you could hide the darkest, most horrifying secret.
Forever.

Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a Bookbinder—a vocation that arouses fear, superstition, and prejudice among their small community but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse.

For as long as he can recall, Emmett has been drawn to books, even though they are strictly forbidden. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born. Under the old woman’s watchful eye, Emmett learns to hand-craft the elegant leather-bound volumes. Within each one they will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, a binder can help. If there’s something you need to erase, they can assist. Within the pages of the books they create, secrets are concealed and the past is locked away. In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, rows upon rows of books are meticulously stored.

But while Seredith is an artisan, there are others of their kind, avaricious and amoral tradesman who use their talents for dark ends—and just as Emmett begins to settle into his new circumstances, he makes an astonishing discovery: one of the books has his name on it. Soon, everything he thought he understood about his life will be dramatically rewritten.



Review
Emmett is summoned to be an apprentice for a mysterious Bookbinder, where he learns of the secrets and painful memories people bind away.

I received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This book is very misleading, it went in a completely different direction than I expected, and for that, I loved it!
First of all, can I just say - an alternative historical novel set in Castleford (a little town, just up the road)? Involving magical books?

It starts with Emmett - his family own a farm, but he's been very ill lately, and he can't pull his weight. A solution arises, when he is summoned to be an apprentice to Seredith, the Bookbinder.
Of course, the solution isn't ideal, as Seredith is an odd hermit that people avoid, calling her a witch and a soul stealer, and all other names. Bookbinding is a necessary, but repellent practise, as they strip a person of upsetting memories, and bind them into books.

The first half of The Binding was interesting in its own way, but still slow and laborious - much like Emmett's repetitive chores, as he learnt the basics, and was never allowed to perform any binding.

The second half kicks off in a completely different direction, as instead of moving forward with Emmett's career as a Bookbinder, it moves backwards, as we learn more about his life before he was ill. At first, it was a bit jarring, and I was looking forward to getting back to his apprenticeship; but I was soon hooked!
I don't want to share anything, because it would just spoil it.

I'd definitely recommend checking this story out, and I'm looking forward to more of Collins' work.

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