Bender, Bender, Bender, Bender, BENDER!
Bender is a literal hitman for a gang/mafia group called the Bears, as in, he hits people very effectively when his bosses tell him to. He's a hulking giant with the kind of massive fists and grim glower that scare people without him even having to touch them. His favorite pastimes include knitting, stargazing, and drinking tea with friends. And if that last sentence seems to contrast very irrationally with the one before it, then you may be discovering why I love Bender. Gentle giants are some of my favorite characters, every time. And a guy who breaks other people for pay, but yearns to leave that life because he hates it -- you're basically describing a hot fudge brownie sundae to me, folks. Give me a spoon so I can eat him up.
And then there's Cori. She learned how to treat wounds and injuries from her father, how to help people without regard for how they got their injuries, and how to stand up for herself and her sister. But what she needs to learn is how to let someone else stand up for her too. Enter Bender. They each spend most of the book vying for the chance to care for the other person, which is so delightful, it makes me bouncy.
Plus, there's Meg. Cori's little sister who has never yet met a problem that tea, baked goods, and an understanding smile won't alleviate. But she's not so naive that she thinks those will solve every problem -- she realistically knows they will help, but they aren't a magic potion that will fix everything. I might like Meg even better than Cori, even though she's not the focus of the book.
I suspect (and very much hope) Sauer will write us a book about Meg one of these days because her Evraft books intersect in such delightful ways. Like how this one hooks up to Yesterday or Long Ago to explain how Bender got tickets to a ball for his sister Amya! I love how the Evraft books each stand on their own, so they can be read in any order, but they flesh each other out a little here and there too. I probably love that because I've been doing exactly the same thing with my Once Upon a Western books ;-)
A Little Beside You is a retelling of "Snow White and Rose Red," which is a fairy tale I haven't read for decades, so I didn't do a lot of dot-connecting between the book and that story. But I'm sure there are a lot of connections I just wasn't aware of! Sauer always spins fairy tales in such a cool way with her books.
Particularly Good Bits:
He told himself he didn't care what people thought; it was a badge of honor he wore, an armor to protect himself (p. 7). (AKA the moment I grabbed Bender and wrote my name on the bottom of his boot so people would know he was mine.)
Hot water cascaded over her and she let it wash the blood and the memories away together (p. 12).
Bender strongly suspected she'd have happiness no matter what, because it seemed that was just the sort of person she was. Like sunshine wrapped in a human (p. 86).
"If you wanted to move halfway across the galaxy, I'd pack my things today" (p. 302).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for physical violence, injuries, blood, etc. What Bender gets paid to do is ugly, and Sauer doesn't hide that.
This is my first book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProjecto2022!
Am I sensing a bit of Elliot Spencer in Bender? He sounds like a delightful lad, deserving of many hugs. I'd like to meet him.
ReplyDeleteKatie, that's a pretty apt comparison, now that you mention it! I imagined Bender as Charlie Hunnam in King Arthur -- solid wall of muscle and good humor.
DeleteThese books sound so fantastically fun. I need to get my hands on them. Gentle giants are some of my favorite characters!
ReplyDeleteChloe, I really like these books! They are clean and all have happy endings, but don't flinch from delving into some deep things like anxiety and depression, and showing that all people have problems, but the problems don't have to define or control them.
Delete