What exactly is so valuable about feeling... human?
Human beings measure their lives by years, but for the faeries in An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson, a century can go by within a snap of their fingers. Faeries are immortal and impervious to aging, but the inevitable trade-off to immortality is the lack of a full range of emotions and individual expression. Faeries simply exist; most of the time, they exist without feeling anything but simple contentment, displeasure, curiosity, and confusion.Confusion is their primary feeling about the human world. Human emotion (and any expression of those emotions through art) both fascinates them and confuses them. Fortunately for 17-year-old Isobel, a human girl living in a human settlement near the faerie courts, these immortal faeries are thrilled to grant special enchantments to humans that can create or demonstrate a skill that faeries can't replicate for themselves.
Isobel is young, but she's a renowned master of paint and portraiture. Isobel's very identity is rooted in her craft, and she prides herself on her ability to paint how she sees the world-- which, of course, is informed by her human existence. Isobel has used her ability to trade with many faeries over the course of her short life-- she'll paint a portrait in exchange for an enchantment of protection, or for a hen that will lay eggs every week. But when a handsome prince of the Faerie world decides to sit for a portrait, Isobel is stunned by what she thinks is a glimmer of sorrow in the prince's eyes.
She paints what she thinks she sees.
Big mistake.
Outraged, the Prince kidnaps her with the intention of forcing her to stand trial in the Faerie Courts for the grievous sin of conspiring to humiliate a Faerie Prince.
However, their journey to the courts turns into something akin to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. They hit every roadblock and trip on every obstacle within their path. The mysterious sorrow that weighs on the Prince only serves to confuse and outrage him-- and yet the Prince's sorrow is something that serves as an unexpected foundation for a growing fondness and connection for the pair.
Faeries don't really have the capacity to fall in love-- but the few that do are ridiculed among their kind. Two Faeries in love are rare, but a Faerie and a human love story is outright illegal, and punishable by death.
I'm a sucker for fictional stories that pay special attention to the sheer power potential of emotional spectrums. Passion can be both a gift and a curse, but passion is a defining human characteristic. What does it mean to live a life-- or to live forever-- without any kind of passion?
It's a tough question. This is a major theme in An Enchantment of Ravens, but it's mitigated somewhat by putting strict limits on what it means to live forever. Faeries might have the ability to live forever, but that doesn't mean they can't die. Should they be killed, they'll be truly dead-- as creatures without passion, Faeries cannot create anything that will outlast their own existence. This is a fundamental reason they're obsessed with human creation and passion. Isobel is a master artist, and her work will outlive her after she's gone-- her life as an artist is her identity, and without her passion, she'd be unable to continue being who she is, and would therefore lose her own immortality.
But how many people can truly say their work will outlive their own death? I'd wager that most people aren't going to create works that will last well beyond their own time. Maybe I'm just jealous of Isobel's mastery of her craft, but I think -- as presented to be in this particular fictional universe-- I'd rather be a faerie and live forever.
That's not the conclusion the author or Isobel would like you to draw at the end of the book, but upon reflection, it's the conclusion I'm taking away from the story. While I like what Rogerson was exploring in this world (and I think I do fundamentally agree with Isobel's ideas about how passion entwined with identity makes us human), I've read stories with higher personal stakes and stronger conclusions that didn't make me want to slap the protagonist in the middle of a climatic life-and-death confrontation (laced with tight-rope tension! There's a great lead-up and a fantastically plotted confrontation).
But if you're just looking for that romantic "girl-meets-hot-unavailable-love-interest, slap-slap-kiss" kind of story (and I'm a sucker for that as well!) then definitely think about heading to your local library to check out this yarn. It's a fun ride.