#The Stolen Child

[laertesthelocalstranger]

Lae isn’t exactly sure when this forest stopped being her forest. Technically, she doesn’t know if it’s not her forest at all. It could be the same one.

But none of the traps are in the right places, and he would know- he helped lay most of them. He avoids them anyway. Lae knows Marc, and she knows traps- she’s been walking among them long as she can clearly remember.

But it might not be her forest. And that is an interesting thought.

[rimeswithpurple]

Inktober Day 3 - Path

"Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

than you can understand"

-"The Stolen Child" W.B. Yeats

[little-watcher]

They notice the gun in his arms again, and his eye tics. He stands just a little further away as he opens the door back out into the street.

@laertesthelocalstranger

“i’m so-sorry.” it whispers, sensing their discomfort. assuming the fault is his. “library was a d-dumb idea.”

[humbly-a-doppelganger]

THE STOLEN CHILD - WIP intro

So, I thought I’d post an overview of the world that burst inside my mind four years ago, and has so far refused to leave :)

The Stolen Child is the first part of a multi-book, multi-POV series titled The Kinship Chronicles. The story falls under the self-engineered time capsule urban fantasy genre, which is short for a mosaic of urban fantasy, historical fiction, adventure, a touch of horror, a tentative dark academia, and probably a couple other genres I’m forgetting right now. It's also YA! But, above all else, TKC is a story of doomed debts dealt across generations.

The synopsis is as follows:

Coraline 'Cal' Everitt has a secret. Her body, which at the age of five, she discovered would split into two forms—one mortal, the other not. Oftentimes without her consent. Why? All her attempts to learn the reason proved fruitless. But here's the one thing she's certain of: no one in her family shares her ability, thus, she must bring it to her grave.

Oliver Whitaker has a secret. His double-lived identity. He hails from The Kinship, an underground society for the otherworldly Saz. And yet, he spends his days Aboveground, spying on Cal in search of a sign that would mark her as one of his own, like her parents before her. Even though they hold no memories of it.

Diana Zubairu has a secret. The ghosts of her past haunting her present. Her family moved to London in hopes of escaping the aftermath of her brother's death. She may think herself on the path to healing, may find new companions in Cal and Oliver, yet John's clutch is strong and stubborn—and he has deemed her his sole victim.

Then a sudden attack falls upon them, causing the walls guarding their secrets to crumble to dust. Cal, Diana and Oliver will have to rediscover reality in the latter's native land—the very same land Cal and Diana are also entitled to. But in The Kinship, they'll get entangled in a quest that will challenge the very basis on which their perceptions hinder. Min Hao, the youngest daughter of a dying politician, is missing.

And only they may save her.

The Stolen Child is an amalgam of a myriad of tropes, plot points, etc. that don’t quite fit into any categories. You’ll like it if the following catches your eye:

Character-driven stories

Fleshed-out lore

Slowburn

Victorian era aesthetics

Underground, secret societies

Unconventional powers

A strong emphasis on platonic relationships

Mysteries

Queer characters and storylines

Time loops

Creepy, monstrous children

Saphic yearning

Rotten utopias

"We were fated to meet"

Diary romance

Journey to acceptance

Complicated families

I have a sick obsession with making characters. Seriously. The Stolen Child has a main cast of eight:

Cal Everitt ✧₊⁺ A newcomer lost amid her birthright

Oliver Whitaker ⚕ A healer who many help all but himself

Diana Zubairu ཐིཋྀ A foreigner hiding from her ghosts

Selvar Zandstra 𖤓 A survivor frozen in time

Atalanta Everitt-Melton ೱ A historian on the verge of collapse

Hunter Hao 𓍼 A brother with a blindfold in tatters

Morgan Hao ☠︎︎ A sister burdened by her misery

Caleb Verninac ♫ A son of secrets and pain

If any of this interests you, here’s the chapter list with links to each respective chapter!

Aside from posting on Tumblr, you can also find me on AO3 (Crosskill11), on Wattpad (Crosskill-11) and on Instagram (humbly_a_doppelganger), though I very, very rarely post anything there, if at all.

Now, this is getting too long, so I’ll be posting my inspirations for The Stolen Child—and The Kinship Chronicles as a whole—under the cut.

Early 2000s urban YA fantasy literature: in many ways, The Kinship Chronicles is an ode to those stories of girls who discovered the world was not what it seemed, that magic was not the stuff of fiction and that, despite everything, she was owed a place among that newfound reality. Only it is queer

The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare: literally all of it, from The Mortal Instruments to The Last Hours. In fact, The Kinship Chronicles started out as a mesh of wild TSC fan fiction and a pre-existing WIP of mine I’d created at 14. Those books have nurtured me in my adolescence (and early adulthood) and in many ways, The Kinship is what my social sciences brain would’ve liked the shadowhunter world to be. The Infernal Devices and The Last Hours made me fall in love with the Victorian and Edwardian Eras

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: his books were the first time I heard the word ‘time loop’ (or bucle temporal in Spanish), and I remembered being so mesmerised by the kind of powers peculiars wielded—they were, in themselves, peculiar, and I hope that Saz’s insignias embody that same peculiarity

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James: I don’t think many people have read this book, I finished it at 2:00 a.m. in a random summer and it’s stayed branded in my brain ever since. I can’t recommend it enough. Strangely, it made me love the idea of falling in love with a person who you’ve only known through their writings

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie: listen, the second line of the first chapter of The Stolen Child directly mentions Barrie. Peter Pan was my first fictional crush, Neverland my first form of Heaven. Two summers ago I read the original book from the early 20th century and I bawled my eyes out. Because of this, my main character, Cal, adores Peter Pan and I hope to be able to convey at least half as much as what Peter Pan conveyed to me. I don’t care if it sounds childish

Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac: eight-year-old me had no business watching this anime, but I’m glad I did. My man Ikki had done wonders to help me worldbuild

Tales of Berseria & Tales of Zestiria: undisputed JRPG masterpieces. Great, great, great for worldbuilding

Uncharted & Tomb Raider: I will cry, I wanted to step into their worlds so much I carved out a piece of them and stitched it into Mirror (this is very vague inspiration, but inspiration nonetheless)

Plato’s philosophy: truly inspired a great plot point and Morgan and Hunter’s character arcs. I should really get to reading the Symposium

Descartes’s philosophy: can’t say how or why, but by God I love Descartes

Spanish and, more particularly, Andalusian culture and heritage: this will be evident at the very end of The Kinship Chronicles. It’ll potentially traumatise some people, but that doesn’t erase the fact that I think my culture’s beautiful and that I’m forever grateful that I get to experience it

Roman law: my inner law student took the reins. The XII Tables my beloved

[thestateofardadreaming]

Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

[chavisory]

I'm way overdue to reread it, but... I'm beginning to suspect that there is a much stronger subtext concerning sexuality/queerness/homophobia in The Stolen Child than I've really perceived before.

Like, it opens with the line "Don't call me a fairy."

[sea-sands]

Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping      than you can understand.

William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child” (Crossways, 1889)

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1923 – William Butler Yeats receives Nobel Prize in Literature.

Very early, in the first bloom of youth, William Butler Yeats emerged as a poet with an indisputable right to the name. The honour was conferred “for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” ‘The Stolen Child’ (W.B. Yeats) Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons…

[the-october-country]

The Stolen Child, by W.B. Yeats

Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we've hid our faery vats, Full of berrys And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses The dim gray sands with light, Far off by furthest Rosses We foot it all the night, Weaving olden dances Mingling hands and mingling glances Till the moon has taken flight; To and fro we leap And chase the frothy bubbles, While the world is full of troubles And anxious in its sleep. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes From the hills above Glen-Car, In pools among the rushes That scarce could bathe a star, We seek for slumbering trout And whispering in their ears Give them unquiet dreams; Leaning softly out From ferns that drop their tears Over the young streams. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going, The solemn-eyed: He'll hear no more the lowing Of the calves on the warm hillside Or the kettle on the hob Sing peace into his breast, Or see the brown mice bob Round and round the oatmeal chest. For he comes, the human child, To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.

[theslowmaxx]

With a fairy hand in hand… 🧚🏾

[laertesthelocalstranger]

Jude gets the shivers, like someone's walking on his grave. Of course. Of course he'd break the one good thing in his world. That's all he ever does, isn't it?

"What'd he do to you, baby?"

It's the quickest that term of endearment has ever leapt to his lips, and it spreads through him like wildfire.

@residentsofhollowville (post was crashing)

“Nothing he realized was gonna happen. It was Dad’s fault, mostly.”

She screamed when she felt it. Screamed louder than he ever had before. Lae doesn’t scream often, not even when she’s scared. It’s worse than talking. The sound twists more, dances just like laughter through the wind. And yet it’s never anything but what it is- pure fear, sharp as a blade and twice as cold.

“You felt awful.”

[imexperiencinggrowthgetoverit]

by the way

if you love Coraline

if you love horror

if you love Blue Exorcist

if you love wild crossovers

if you love compelling writing

please consider:

It is horrifying, chilling, and so so so good.

I’ve never been so in love with horror and being terrified as I am with this story.

I have to read it with lights on, in sunlight, drinking something fruity, to stay calm enough to make it through.

This fic is an ode to Coraline and Japanese horror rolled into a story with Blue Exorcist characters.

[jetztornever]

The Stolen Child

Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we've hid our faery vats, Full of berrys And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses The dim gray sands with light, Far off by furthest Rosses We foot it all the night, Weaving olden dances Mingling hands and mingling glances Till the moon has taken flight; To and fro we leap And chase the frothy bubbles, While the world is full of troubles And anxious in its sleep. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes From the hills above Glen-Car, In pools among the rushes That scarce could bathe a star, We seek for slumbering trout And whispering in their ears Give them unquiet dreams; Leaning softly out From ferns that drop their tears Over the young streams. Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going, The solemn-eyed: He'll hear no more the lowing Of the calves on the warm hillside Or the kettle on the hob Sing peace into his breast, Or see the brown mice bob Round and round the oatmeal chest. For he comes, the human child, To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.

by William Butler Yeats (1889)

[humbly-a-doppelganger]

The Kinship Chronicles pt1: The Stolen Child - Chapter index

Prologue: The Exikahle Annals

Chapter 1: Oh, the cleverness of me!

Chapter 2: The Haunting Dead

Chapter 3: Through the looking glass

Chapter 4: The Kinship

Chapter 5: Cease of innocence

Chapter 6: Host?

Chapter 7: Business of the Saz and other justifications for deceiving your parents

Chapter 8: The Whitakers

Chapter 9: The statue girl

Chapter 10: Moving in

Chapter 11: Everstill

Chapter 12: Introduction to Madeleine A. Woolaham

Chapter 13: Hunter Hao and other gruesome stuff

Chapter 14: Mr. Verninac and Mr. Terrell

Chapter 15: The nightdwellers

Chapter 16: Reunion

Chapter 17: Reluctant alliance

Chapter 18: Lucas Greerson and Day’s apparition

Chapter 19: Path to symbiosis

Chapter 20: Attempt at reassurance

Chapter 21: Roses bloom in wounds

Chapter 22: Are you Selvar Zandstra’s host?

Chapter 23: The Spawn

Chapter 24: Joint Forces

Chapter 25: Nightmares of broken promises

Chapter 26: Journey to Coxwold

Chapter 27: Awkward eavesdropping

Chapter 28: Berserker

Chapter 29: Loss of trust

Chapter 30: Abstraction: I never quite understood maths

Chapter 31: My dearest Simone, you have saved me

Chapter 32: The Lover’s corpse

Chapter 33: My dearest Simone, you have killed me

Chapter 34: The beast in the castle

Chapter 35: The Stolen Child

Chapter 36: The case of pale, black-haired, edgy bad boys, other clichés and STDs

Chapter 37: Goodbye, Atalanta Everitt-Melton

Chapter 38: Genevieve

Epilogue: 1864

[dzelonis]

Lisa Carey - The Stolen Child

Links uz grāmatas Goodreads lapu Izdevniecība: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Manas pārdomas Lai arī The Stolen Child prologs jau priekšā pasaka ar kādu notikumu tiks noslēgta grāmata, tad tās pamatstāstā tiek apspēlēta mātes tematika no dažādiem rakursiem gan, kad 39 gadu vecumā bezbērnu varonei Brigid vēl tāda nav, gan Roze, kurai, katru reizi paliekot stāvoklī, dzimst dvīņu meitenes, gan Rozes dvīne…