hardcover, 448 pages
Published April 16, 2019 by William Morrow.
Books are dangerous things in Collins's alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It's a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them.
After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people …
Books are dangerous things in Collins's alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It's a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories. Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them.
After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything
There are good things about this! But also, at its core, there's a disdain and self-hatred about novels and writing that makes me furious. I read this with #BookishBookClub otherwise I probably would have stopped, but we did have a good discussion!
Content warning CW vague mention of NSFW, violence, abuse
I binged this book in a few days now. 👀 It's good! Very suspenseful, it kept me up too long for two nights. I like the main characters and the setting. The "binding" idea is very interesting, too, and wonderfully explored. Though I'm glad I didn't really read the summary because it includes stuff which is a mystery to the main character for quite a while and it was nice to find it out together with him. xD
It contains strong violence and quite a lot of various kinds of abuse, which is written out - or at least vaguely circumscribed. There is an intimate scene of two minor character, which the main character does hear but not see. But the intimate scenes of the main character himself are so abruptly skipped, that it took me a while to understand that they happened. 🙈 I really don't understand why! Only straight sex allowed in a novel with MLM main characters or what??
The book has three parts and I read them like this: 1, 3, 2. Works as well. 😆
I've read the German edition "Die verborgenen Stimmen der Bücher" which translates to 'the hidden voices of the books'. Imo "Die Bindung", meaning binding but also bond/tie or relationship, would have been a nice title as well, so I don't know why they changed it...
Emmett is recovering from an illness when his parents receive the summons; he is to train as a binder. Those who wish to forget can have their memories bound in books.
The Binding wasn't really what I expected but I ended up loving it. It did take me a long time to get into it, but once I reached part two, I was hooked.
The first part introduces Emmett and the world in which he lives. He is a farm boy but unable to pull his weight after a mystery illness. He had been taught that books were evil and binders were people to fear, so he is surprised when he is requested as an apprentice. He goes to live with Seredith, who distances herself from the binderies of Castleford. Books should be looked after, but never sold. She teaches Emmett the practical aspects of book-making, end pages and foiling, …
Emmett is recovering from an illness when his parents receive the summons; he is to train as a binder. Those who wish to forget can have their memories bound in books.
The Binding wasn't really what I expected but I ended up loving it. It did take me a long time to get into it, but once I reached part two, I was hooked.
The first part introduces Emmett and the world in which he lives. He is a farm boy but unable to pull his weight after a mystery illness. He had been taught that books were evil and binders were people to fear, so he is surprised when he is requested as an apprentice. He goes to live with Seredith, who distances herself from the binderies of Castleford. Books should be looked after, but never sold. She teaches Emmett the practical aspects of book-making, end pages and foiling, and he starts to wonder if he'll ever learn how to bind.
When Emmett is exposed to other binders, he learns why they are feared. He becomes embroiled in a world of corruption, where the powerful abuse the weak, as is always the way. At end of part one an OMG moment happens and part two tells a story that reveals so much. Part three returns to the present from a different point of view, and I sped through the pages urging all the pieces to fall into place.
The setting is Victorian in feel but of course it's an alternate reality where books are something to be feared or revered. There are fakes in this world, called novels, but they are slow to take off as the bound memories hold a certain illicit allure to the kind of people who wish to read them.
It's one of those books that had me flicking back to the beginning after reaching the end. Those pages I struggled through, it all made sense! I highly recommend, but do have patience at the start.
