Wild Blood (novel)
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| Wild Blood | |
 First edition cover 1999 |
|
| Author | Kate Thompson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Darren Lock |
| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Series | Switchers Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
| Publication date | 1999 |
| Pages | 167 |
| Preceded by | Midnight's Choice |
Wild Blood (1999) is a fantasy novel by Kate Thompson. It concludes the stories of Tess, a young Irish shapeshifter (or “Switcher”, as they are called in the novel), and Kevin, a former Switcher. It also introduces several other characters, such as Tess’s three cousins and their father Maurice. The plot deals with the events leading up to Tess’s fifteenth birthday, the day on which all Switchers lose their powers forever, and must choose a permanent form in which to spend the rest of their lives.
Contents |
[edit] Setting
The (very short) first chapter of this book takes place in Dublin, however the majority of the book is set in County Clare, in Western Ireland. The story begins a few days before Tess’s fifteenth birthday.
[edit] Plot introduction
Tess struggles with the choice of what permanent form to take when she loses her powers; a choice in which a mysterious and chilling force soon takes an interest.
[edit] Plot summary
The book opens as Tess flies, in the form of a swift, to the house of her friend Lizzie. There, she tells the old woman that her parents have decided to go on a holiday without her, and that she must therefore stay with her cousins in Clare over her fifteenth birthday. In light of the fact that she will lose her power to Switch (i.e. shapeshift) when she turns fifteen, and must choose a permanent form in which to live out the remainder of her life, this turn of events could prove disastrous. However, Lizzie informs her that staying in Clare may bring Tess into contact with her “ancestors”, who can assist her in making her choice. She also poses a strange question to Tess: “Does we believe what we sees, eh? Or does we see what we believes?”
At her cousins’ farm, Tess discovers that the house is infested with rats, which is enraging her (easily angered) uncle Maurice. She helps around the farm as much as she can, afterwards enjoying watching one The Empire Strikes Back with her cousins Brian and Colm. At dinner, her uncle announces his plans to sell the land of a nearby wood for development. Tess’ cousin Orla protests, but when, for some reason, she mention ‘Uncle Declan’, Maurice becomes furious, and terrifies them all into silence.
That night, Tess speaks to her Orla, who asks her if she believes in fairies. Tess thinks that her cousin is joking, but Orla voices her opinion that “The Good People”, as she calls them, are real. The next day, Tess explores the nearby woods in the form of a hare, and revels in the beauty of the ancient land. However, as she explores, a disembodied, sinister voice calls to her from the depth of the woods. Terrified, she becomes human and rushes back to the farm. When she returns, she receives a telephone call from Kevin, who informs her that he is coming to Clare to help her through her birthday.
The next morning, Orla claims that she is going to see their uncle Declan, but Tess declines the offer to join her. While Tess is on a walk through the countryside, she sees Maurice set his dogs upon an injured goat. Despite her uncle’s warnings, she frees the goat, infuriating Maurice. When Kevin arrives, he pretends to be an exterminator who has come to deal with the farm’s rat problem, and Maurice agrees to pay him 100 pounds to get rid of the rats. Kevin sets about his work, playing a flute, and pretending to be luring the rats like the Pied Piper, when in fact he is using his knowledge of the rats’ telepathic language to send out a sort of evacuation order to every rat on the farm. Unfortunately, Maurice finds the corpse of a rat days later, and takes it as proof that Kevin did not complete his contract. He therefore decides not to pay Kevin, and demands that the youth get off his property.
While Maurice is showing a property developer around the woods which he intends to sell, Tess and her three cousins explore the woods themselves. Tess is suddenly dazzled by a flash of light, and when she recovers, the three younger children have disappeared. Maurice and the developer arrive a few moments later, and they all see Kevin standing not far off from them. With her aunt Deirdre in shock and her uncle in his customary rage, Tess ponders whether Kevin might actually have kidnapped her cousins. Maurice commands his wife not to call the police, and she accepts with extreme reluctance, after which Maurice sets out to find his children. Tess asks her aunt Deirdre about “Uncle Declan”, and is shocked to learn that he is Maurice’s long-dead twin brother.
Tess flies over the woods in the form of a swift, in an attempt to perform an aerial search for her missing cousins. During her flight, she sees Kevin riding his bike, and lands to speak to him. She is furious with him, believing that he has kidnapped Orla, Brian and Colm, but he is adamant that he has not been anywhere near the woods since Maurice ordered him to leave. Tess explains the situation to him, and he informs her of his belief that an ancient, magical presence may be abroad in the woods, one which even they, with their experience of the supernatural world, have never imagined. Tess Switches into the form of a rat, and, with Kevin close by, summons the rats of the area to see if they know anything of her cousins’ disappearance. One small, white rat (who identifies herself as “Cat Friend”) remembers seeing a pair of small red wellingtons. Tess asks for more information, and the rat telepathically transmits an image of four pairs of feet, which she recognises as Colm’s, Orla’s, Brian’s and, unfortunately, Kevin’s. When Tess attempts to reveal her findings to Kevin, she realises that he is gone. She searches for him, and again hears the disembodied voice calling to her.
When Tess returns to the farm, her aunt and uncle have an argument, during which Maurice claims that calling the police would be useless, just as it was “last time”. Deirdre calls him mad, and he leaves to search again. At Tess insistence, Deirdre reveals that, twenty years previously, Maurice’s brother Declan disappeared near where the children went missing. The loss of his twin traumatised Maurice, and he spent days searching for his brother in the woods.
Tess tracks down Cat Friend, but is surprised when the small rat provides her with an image of her cousins and Kevin walking straight through the face of a crag. She asks Cat Friend to take her to the crag, but when she tries to follow her cousins, she finds, as she knew she would, that she cannot simply pass through the rock. At Cat Friend’s insistence, Tess turns herself into a rat again, and holds onto Cat Friend’s tail. Amazingly, Cat Friend pulls her through the rock-face. Inside, Tess finds an enormous, beautiful room, which she recognises as a fairy sidhe. Tess finds that her cousins, far from being imprisoned, are playing games, watched by a strange and very handsome boy. When sees Colm transform himself into a kitten, she realises that her cousins are Switchers. She notices a table laid with delicious food, and attempts to sample some of it, but she is interrupted by Kevin, who claims that to eat in “places like this” is very dangerous. Orla then introduces the mysterious boy as Uncle Declan. Kevin explains to Tess that the person she saw kidnapping her cousins was in fact Declan, who had used glamour to disguise himself as Kevin.
Declan tells Tess that he and Maurice were both Switchers in their younger days. On the day of their fifteenth birthday (the same day for both of them, as they are twins), they agreed to become members of the Tuatha de Danaan (or fairies, as they are more commonly known) so that they could retain there powers. However, at the last moment, Maurice decided not to keep his promise, and therefore remained human. Ever since then, Declan has resented his brother for abandoning him, and has harassed him in various forms. Declan goes on to explain that all Switchers are descended from the Tuatha de Danaan, which is why they possess the ability to change their forms (the Tuatha de Danaan were famous for their shapeshifting powers). When Declan states that his kind are forced to return to Tír Na nÓg when their homes are destroyed, Tess realises that Maurice had intended to sell the land in the hope that Declan would be banished from his life forever. Declan is therefore holding Maurice’s children hostage. However, Orla speaks up, claiming that her father loves Declan, and that the loss of his brother is what causes him to be so angry, because “he’s only half alive” without Declan.
Moved by Orla’s words, Declan agrees to speak to his brother, and Tess accompanies him as an observer. The two brothers find each other in the woods, and they reveal the years-old sorrow which each bears at the loss of the other. The rift between the two is healed, and they embrace as brothers. Declan agrees to let the children go, as long as Maurice promises not to sell the land, a condition to which Maurice happily agrees.
Once the children are safely with their father, Declan offers to show Tess the possibilities which face her if she chooses to become like him. She agrees, but promises Kevin that she will return to speak to him before her time is up. With Declan, Tess discovers the true and amazing extent of her powers: She learns how to Switch other objects, how to control the weather, and how to ride the wind through the skies. Declan takes her to a fairy gathering on Ben Bulben, where she dances for hours with her immortal ancestors, the fairies of the Tuatha de Danaan. However, as she realises that the moment of her fifteenth birthday is only a few minutes away, Tess rides the wind back to where Kevin waits. She has chosen to remain a fairy, but, having spent the past few hours considering everything, he insists that this is the wrong choice, and that she should remain human. He reminds her of one of Declan’s prior statements about fairies adapting to human perceptions, and tells her that becoming a fairy may make her nothing more than “a figment of someone else’s imagination”. Furthermore, he claims that with their knowledge of the animal world, he and Tess can fight the cause of the world’s animals, and protect them from the ever-more-dangerous human race. Tess agrees, and chooses to live out a mortal life in the form of human. Furious at this rejection, Declan unleashes the full fury of a storm. Kevin wishes to flee from Declan’s wrath, but Tess insists that they will not be hurt, and sure enough, the storm dies down as suddenly as it had started.
Cat Friend emerges from hiding to bid Tess farewell, and Tess mourns the fact that she will never see the rat again. She and Kevin then prepare to depart from the wood, but as they do so, Kevin notices that the gold necklace and ring which Tess received from her fairy ancestors have turned to wire and plastic respectively. They laugh at this bizarre occurrence, and just for a moment, they think that they hear Declan’s laughter as well. The book concludes as they strain to catch the sound, but are met only with silence.
[edit] Major Characters
- Tess: Tess is a Switcher, and the main character of the series. At the time of this book, Tess is only a few days away from turning fifteen, and is therefore faced with the choice of what form to take for the rest of her life.
- Kevin: A former Switcher, Kevin is about seventeen at the time of Wild Blood. Following his return to human form at the end of Midnight's Choice, Kevin attempted to move back in with his family, but they rejected him, forcing him to live on the streets. He is a close friend of Tess, and one of the very few people who are aware of her power to Switch.
- Maurice: The husband of Tess’ aunt. Maurice is a former Switcher, although this fact is only revealed toward the end of the book. He owns a farm in Clare, and becomes angry very easily.
- Orla: Tess’ eleven–year-old cousin, and Maurice’s only daughter. Orla is asthmatic, and has an interest in Celtic mythology, particularly the stories of the Tuatha De Danaan.
- Brian: Tess’ ten-year-old cousin, and Maurice’s oldest son. He often cares for his younger brother Colm.
- Colm: Another of Tess’ cousins, Colm is three years old and therefore Maurice’s youngest son. He always wears red wellingtons, and enjoys the Star Wars movies.
- Declan: Maurice’s twin brother. Declan chose to become a fairy on his fifteenth birthday, allowing him to retain his powers.
- Elizabeth “Lizzie” Larten: An elderly former Switcher, Lizzie acts as Tess’ adviser with regard to supernatural occurrences throughout the series. She appears only briefly at the start of this book, and tells Tess to make the most of her stay in Clare.
[edit] Allusions and references
[edit] Allusions to other works
C3PO and R2D2, two robot characters from the Star Wars saga, are mentioned in this book.
[edit] Allusions to actual geography
Toward the end of the book, Tess visits a fairy gathering on Ben Bulben, a mountain in Sligo.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the only book of the Switchers Trilogy in which Tess' parents do not appear.
- In this book, Brian and Colm are shown to Switch into C3PO and R2D2 respectively, revealing a hitherto unexplored aspect of the Switching power.
[edit] Publication history
Wild Blood was first published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head in 1999.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External Links
