Book Review: A Fable of Wood and String by L.T. Getty

Would it hurt you to just do as you’re told?

Welcome to the January 22nd stop on the blog tour for A Fable of Wood and String by L.T. Getty with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, more reviews & guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Dance, Puppet, Dance!
An Introspective into the Puppeteer Power

A Fable of Wood and String centers around villains who turns living beings into literal marionettes. The plot of controlling literal people from the shadows, that they’ve been manipulated physically or mentally is nothing new in fiction. Whether the characters are physically moved beyond their will, such as Bloodbender Hama from the Avatar: the Last Airbender or their psyche is so shattered they can be manipulated to the point of feeling like they were never real and a construct, like Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII. The concept of being controlled and compelled by another is terrifying, realizing that it’s so subtle you thought you had free will the whole time is in my opinion even worse.

I thought about how we used to tell stories around campfires to the millions of dollars we spend on making movies and video games. There’s so much that happens subtly I can’t catch everything the first time I watch a movie, be it music or lighting or camera angles to infer an idea without saying anything directly to the audience. I’m writing in a quasi-medieval setting so I focused on traditional theatre and puppeteering, which allowed me to create a very fun, yet eerie magic system centering around illusion, manipulation, and control.

In my other stories, I tend to use a hard magic system with though I seldom explain things in detail to the reader. I wasn’t sure if explaining this would be that interesting to anyone who hasn’t read the book, and there will be some plot spoilers for the first part of the book. If you are hoping to enjoy the story completely spoiler free, I say save this article and read it after you’ve read the book, or at least have gotten to Castle Mirador.

The issue with having evil magic acting on the characters through no fault of their own is it creates passive heroism. The barbarians attacked my village, now I have sworn vengeance. Okay, that’s fair motivation, but it makes for a less interesting dynamic as opposed to, “The barbarians attacked my village and I wasn’t there to save my loved ones” or “The barbarians attacked my village, because I provoked them”. That isn’t to say that the trigger can’t be the former, but it creates a victim main character and if handled poorly can feel contrived or circumstantial.

When Madeline, our antagonist in the first act, first arrives in Stagmil she’s being reactive. She’s on the run and doesn’t have all the resources she normally has at her disposal, so she needs to come up with a plan. There were also some limitations I never clarified, I wanted to invoke a fairy-tale feel to the story so some of what’s going may feel familiar to some readers. For instance, neither Madeline nor the kitsunes can lie without it becoming very obvious, and it weakens their following actions somewhat, and there are many double meanings behind what Madeline says in certain parts of the story. I will also point out here Mama Fern takes Lily’s words very seriously and at face value, so when Lily states she wants to find Madeline and bring her people home, the kitsune agrees and sends her on her way to do just that.

Before Madeline staggers into the pastoral lands outside of the village of Stagmil, we meet the our main viewpoint heroine.  Lily O’Connell is a seventeen year old shepherdess and the daughter of speciality-game hunters who have since turned to ranching in the back country. Lily is a dutiful young woman and very bright, but feels constantly held back and unappreciated.  When she was younger she was overlooked for apprentice, meaning while many of her friends moved on she stayed behind in her home village, so she constantly wants to prove herself as worthy, other characters read it that she thinks she’s better than everyone else and a know-it-all. She’s hunted regular game before and trained under the local kooky swordsman, in addition to having access to old hunter’s journals so she knows some deep lore.

One late spring morning, Lily is woken up by the local farm fox Mama Fern (a kitsune) and accidently confronts a wyvern who had broken into their barn and stole several sheep, killing one of the dogs in the process. Though she had the wits and foreknowledge to evade the wyvern, Lily was still very much in a dangerous situation. It’s revealed that her parents know she’s capable but aren’t telling her, so when the county folk agree to send people to go drive off the beast, family matriarch Sylvia O’Connell volunteers her daughters to stay behind and help protect the village, a task as Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings would describe as, “Valour without renown” as compared to hunting the wyvern.

Lily at this point is frustrated at left behind from the important hunt, gets assigned jobs no one wants to do, and is talked down to by several villagers. She knows she’s not her parents, but she’s better equipped to help them then many of the men who got to go. I wanted Lily to be behaving rationally and be relatable, not perfect but instead of making her a victim open a door for a flaw: resentment and becoming judgemental.

Lily and her mentor are training in the fields one afternoon when the dogs bark and attract the shepherd’s attention, Lily’s the first one who encounters Madeline, and soon takes Madeline to the village leaving the others to guard the flock. Lily doesn’t know it, but she’s letting evil into her town, but she has no way of knowing the sinister plans Madeline is hatching; in the traditional folklore sense if anything Lily is acting decent and if she were a fairy or other magical being Madeline has no grounds for retaliating against either her or the village.

Madeline acts charming, but Lily and several others notice something isn’t right: she claims she and her husband left the City of Taralee and were heading to a port town to sail across the sea, they were waylaid by bandits and became separated in the woods. Her story is sort of weak as she seems to be unworried about her missing husband, and rather than asking for someone to look for him or help her return to the nearest city she’s content to stay in Stagmil for a few days. The locals are hospitable and treat Madeline like an honoured guest, and it’s impolite to question her so Lily takes the path of least resistance and returns to the fields, leaving Madeline in the hands of her people.

I will again reiterate that Lily didn’t invite evil in, if anything she had her heckles up when other people didn’t but her focus was directed at her own people ruining her life (they didn’t really pay that much attention), because it was well-spoken and more refined than most of her neighbours, Lily overlooked a threat. This didn’t give Madeline grounds, but in a storytelling sense, Lily’s growing discontent allowed for a chink in her armor.

After a community meal, Madeline flatters Lily after she plays the mandolin and they play a duet together with Madeline on an old piano, which confuses Lily because she doesn’t know the song and it felt like she wasn’t in control of her own playing. Madeline gives her music and one sheet physically harms her, bursting into flames after Lily hums it, giving her a bad headache and bizarre melodies become stuck in her head. Bad dreams linger and she tries to ignore the problem. Later, Madeline again controls Lily, this time more directly with a theatre mask but the hold on her isn’t complete yet. Lily and several other teens act out a play Lily claims to have never read before, the moral of the story hinting at an important aspect of the larger story and Lily’s role as a wicked witch tricking the innocent foreshadowing her upcoming role as an enchantress.

Regaining control of herself, Lily flees the town hall, but as she’s scared and confused lashes out in frustration about everything else that’s been bothering her until eventually trying to tell her mother and Seth something’s wrong, but by now there’s a rift between mother and daughter and Lily thinks she’s on her own to figure this out.

The point wasn’t to make Lily wrong and her mother right. From Sylvia’s perspective, she’s lost more experienced people to wyverns and the reality of what could have happened is more clear to her than Lily, wyverns don’t always kill their prey right away and their usual tactic would be to badly injure their prey before carrying it off and stashing it for later. Her husband is away with inexperienced glory hounds and she barely has the townsfolk listening to her. She’s worried about everyone other than Lily, who’s acting strange and being difficult, normally she’s the reliable one and then there’s Seth… well he’s just doing what he normally but does but parenting him is exhausting under normal circumstances.

None of these are excuses. Sylvia dismissed Lily’s initial atypical behaviour once she started acting the way she wanted again, and when she ran away in fear, Sylvia was more interested in saving face than listening to her daughter; granted Lily lies about why she ran but Sylvia’s the adult here. When Lily finally opened up to be honest Sylvia unintentionally gaslit her daughter, saying she was just tired.

At this point, it’s no longer a chink in the armor but a visible rift. The team supposed to protect the village is no longer unified, so it allowed our reactive puppeteer an opportunity to strike.

Lily goes to confront Madeline, unsure about what happened but wanting no part of it. Again, Madeline uses social convention to appear polite and has her intended victim learn additional music, and when opportunity presents itself Madeline masks Lily again. Now under her direct control, Madeline instructs Lily to get her mandolin, and reveal herself to no one.

Forced to obey, Lily’s and Madeline put the town to sleep under an enchanted lullaby, then lures out Seth and several others with an another enchanting melody and additional deception. The teens were affected first because they were out of doors after hours. I’m not saying they deserved what they got but they put themselves in a state of vulnerability; Madeline’s relatively weak powers were able to seep in and control them all the more easily than those who were in their beds.

Once she’s lured the teens to her designated spot, Madeline uses a different mask and transforms into a jorogumo: a half woman, half spider creature but her desire is not blood but the teens themselves. She attacks and transforms; all seems lost until the kitsune and Lily’s eccentric mentor arrive to even the odds.

Lily breaks free of direct control and Madeline flees, though the vast majority of the town is still asleep (I never clarified but, the one teen who panicked and ran away from the others kept his wits and two elders with considerable hearing loss were unaffected by the spell and arose before dawn the next morning like they always did). The quest to save their sister and the others is on, with Seth enchanted and stuck as a puppet without strings and Lily still unable to play music without the strange songs coming rushing back.

On a surface level, it seems like Lily’s better off as Seth is short, made of wood and about as physically imposing as a teddy bear. Seth uses the opportunity to learn how his puppet body works and masters what others would take weeks in a few days. Unlike many of the other characters, Lily only ever becomes a physical marionette when she agrees to it, and she and Seth do several chapters later when they come up with a plan to enter Castle Mirador, Seth is leaps and bounds ahead of her when they infiltrate and attempt to locate Tiffany.

Lily felt controlled before she ever met Madeline, and was made a puppeteer with limits so she couldn’t harm Madeline even by accident, but if Madeline had acted out immediately, masking the nearest person and running off with a compelled slave the story could have still worked but it wouldn’t have felt as earned.

Madeline violated unspoken rules of hospitality, so supernatural retaliation coming to the aid of the teens felt justified in story when it had the potential of coming across like a convenient plot device. Lily never consented but she tolerated more and more and even offered up several white lies to keep the peace; Lily retained her humanity but it’s not evident as to what Madeline did until much later in the story.

 There’s more to what these puppeteers are capable of but I think that’s more than enough spoilers. I’ve barely touched on the theatre masks and my niece brilliantly suggested the introduction of Shadow Puppets in the second book. Lily’s a determined and very capable heroine, but in her quest to rescue her sister she’ll need to decide if she’s finally made apprentice after all, or if being a shepherdess from Stagmil is enough.

About the Book

A Fable of Wood and String
by L.T. Getty

Published 7 August 2024
Black Unicorn Books

Genre: Young Adult High Fantasy
Page Count: 631
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Would it hurt you to just do as you’re told?

The O’Connell siblings live in the shadow of their parent’s past, held back by obligation to keep the people of Stagmil safe when their father has to lead the non-hunters of their village to drive off a wyvern.

Lily doesn’t trust the stranger who calls herself Madeline when she staggers into the pastoral lands. The puppeteer seems to take an interest in Lily’s talent with the family mandoline, and she teaches Lily new music. Lily’s had songs stuck in her head before, but nothing like this.

Twins Seth and Tiffany however can’t wait for their father to return so they can get on with the shearing. Seth should at least be helping hunt the wyvern, and Tiffany wants to take her best friend Molly and head to the nearest city and see the world.

The twins and several other villagers are lured by song into the woods and transformed into marionettes: Seth breaking free before he can be strung, and Lily tainted in a way she doesn’t understand. They have the skills to track the woman down, but to restore Seth to his body, and rescue Tiffany and the others?

Tracking the woman takes them far from the familiar woodlands they know, across the sea to an enchanted castle, where in an effort to rescue their sister they’ll learn something much more sinister than turning folk into puppets is going on. They’ll get help, of course, but not from who they expected.

After all, last Seth checked, foxes are only supposed to have the one tail.

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Excerpt

“Got any more kitsunes or other surprises?” Caleb asked, squatting down without spilling his buckets. “I’d like to hear the story you were trying to tell me in the castle a little later. Right now it seems like you need help. I’ll take my sword back.”

Lily unbelted it, but Boscoe out of nowhere nabbed it from Lily, ran towards the lake, and pitched it in. Then he sat down, never breaking the squire’s gaze, and scratched behind his ears.

“Why did you do that?” Caleb demanded. “That was my father’s!” He tried to take his boots off, the lacing slowed him down.

“You’re cold, let me do it,” Lily said, sliding off her overdress. She shot Boscoe a sour look, who simply beamed at her. Caleb on the other hand turned around and shielded his eyes.

“Could you not?” he asked.

“I know you can see me, stop pretending like you can’t or I’m indecent.” Her chemise and trousers were dark, chosen for adventuring thank you very much; she’d learned what to wear to repel after a wayward ewe long ago. She hung her overdress on a low branch and waded into the cold water.

“Do you have any idea how long it took me to get these on?” Caleb asked the kitsune, who went, Yip yip! “Fine. To your left,” he offered. Part of her spitefully wanted to disobey him, but figured his father’s sword was important. “How’s the water?”

“Refreshing,” she called back, but paused when she got to about her navel. She didn’t think it was that deep. “Tell me this lake doesn’t have an overabundance of leeches.”

“I’ll help you pick them off,” Caleb offered.

“You’re very kind,” she told him. The water was murky and dark, she couldn’t see his sword so she felt around with her feet and finding it, resigned herself to the dive. Thankfully, she got the sword on her first attempt, and she brought it backup tip first.

Caleb had waded out anyway, but really had only gotten to his knees. He also looked at her with wide eyes, kind of like an idiot for a half-second. “What?” she asked, wading towards him, offering him the sword. “Go on, take it—make sure I didn’t find someone else’s sword.”

Caleb hesitated, but upon grasping the handle unsheathed it, then cast a glare back at the kitsune, who put a paw to his nose and stuck out his tongue. “You’re not a kitsune or a mermaid, are you?” he asked eventually.

Lily couldn’t stifle a guffaw. “You see a tail or scales?” she asked, brushing her hair behind her ears.

“Sounds like something a lake monster would say,” he said with just a hint of teasing.

She flicked water at him, but the way the way the water and sunlight reflected off the blade, she noticed engraving. “It’s got an inscription?”

He held it so she could read it. “Old language. Means ‘Do not unsheathe me without reason, do not wield me without valour.’ Hey, you got a little leech, right—” Caleb gestured to his own neck.

“Waaah!” Lily panicked and fell backwards, and upon getting up, seeing him chuckling and realizing it was a ruse, reached for the sword. “Give me that! Boscoe didn’t get it in far enough.” He had longer strides so she had to settle for splashing him.

My Review

My Rating:
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I was granted complimentary access to A Fable of Wood and String as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! As always, my thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

A Fable of Wood and String is the story of three siblings (Lily, Seth, and Tiffany) and their quest to set things right after an evil magical puppeteer turns several villagers, Tiffany included, into marionettes. This is the sort of world where wolves aren’t the greatest threat to flock because wyverns exist, and it’s apparently not unheard of to encounter a kitsune, so reverse Geppetto seems to fit in just right!

I really enjoyed the dynamic between the siblings and everyone else they meet along the way. The banter and quips sound like a group of close friends who are thoroughly in-character on D&D night, and the level of detail given during action scenes is just enough to visualize it without losing the momentum of the story for the sake of prose.

I hear this is part of a duology, and I think that means I need to read the other half! If you like long, fun fantasies, you need to check this out.

About the Author

L.T. Getty is a Manitoba Paramedic. She received her degree in English in 2006 from the University of Winnipeg, and has gone on to write several novels. Her latest title, Titan’s Ascent, is a sword and sorcery forthcoming from Champagne Books for 2025.

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