Cybele’s Secret By Juliet Marillier Release Date: US: Sept 2008 UK: Dec 2007 Australia: Now US Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Pre-order US Edition British Edition Australian Edition Find independent bookstores near you.

When scholarly Paula accompanies her father on a trade trip from their home in Transylvania to Istanbul, they know the bidding will be fierce for Cybele’s Gift (said to be a statue engraved with the last words of the Goddess Cybele and lost to the world for ages), but they didn’t expect the murder mystery they find upon arrival. Their contact is dead, and it becomes obvious someone will stop at nothing to keep others from winning the artifact. In Istanbul, Paula sees a woman dressed in black who looks remarkably like her sister Tati, who lives in the Other Kingdom, a magical land linked to ours. In her childhood, Paula and her sisters danced every month in the Other Kingdom, until after a series of trials, Tati decided to stay behind, and the portal between worlds was closed. Paula hasn’t seen Tati since, and the remaining four sisters haven’t been able to find another entry into the Other Kingdom.

As the mystery unfolds, Paula realizes a lot more is at stake than some simple artifact, and she sets out to collect and connect the pieces as her own trial is laid out by the Other Kingdom. Protected by her bodyguard, a young man with secrets of his own, Paula must traverse the streets of Istanbul, an Islamic city where a woman can never be without a head scarf and is never seen alone. She finds refuge in Irene of Volos’ libraries. The noble woman had created a center of learning where only women were allowed, a rarity in the city. In that library, Paula searches out the secrets of Cybele’s Gift, trying to find an edge to win the artifact, and finding friendship in like-minded Irene. Paula also finds herself the love interest of a charismatic merchant (or pirate, if rumors are to be believed) who’s also her competition for finding the artifact. Along the way, Paula discovers the intellectual challenge, adventure, and connection to the Other Kingdom she’s been missing, but she also finds betrayal and deathly peril.

Whenever I pick up a sequel book, I’m always hesitant, fearing the book simply won’t be as good as the first one. Thankfully, Cybele’s Secret lives up to the standards set by Wildwood Dancing. All the charm and wonder of Wildwood Dancing is here, and Marillier expertly builds on the magical framework she established in the first book, this time weaving in pagan cults and pirates. Unlike Wildwood Dancing, Cybele’s Secret doesn’t build off of any particular fairy tale, but instead uses the trials the Other Kingdom likes to set as the basis for an entirely unique tale.

The description alone is reason to pick up this book. Marillier lays out Istanbul in wonderful detail and vivid color. I like to get a glimpse into other cultures in my reading, at least when the author does it well. A good mix of the new and familiar can help the reader experience a place they’ve never been. This means using colloquial phrases and foreign words in the correct balance—just enough to give the flavor, without making the reader flip to a glossary ever five minutes. And of course, things need to be clear in context.

I’m betting most readers of Wildwood Dancing are eagerly awaiting this book. It’s just as good as you’re hoping, except when it comes to the release date. American fans will need to buy the book online from Australia or wait until Fall of 2008 in order to get their hands on a copy. I’m not sure why it’s been delayed so long, but reading an Australian copy isn’t hard, the only real differences (and you’ll probably have noticed the differences if you’ve read any English language books published outside the US) are that you only get single quotes for dialogue and some oddly spelled words.

If this book sounds interesting and you haven’t read Wildwood Dancing, I highly recommend you check out Wildwood first. This is one of those sequels that stars a character who was minor in the first book. Paula was certainly in Wildwood, but as the younger sister of the main character, and her impact on the story was minimal. So this book builds off of the world and family relationships established in Wildwood, but it can also stand on its own. All of what the reader needs to know about the girls earlier adventures in the Other Kingdom is recounted throughout the novel. In some ways, though, I think this might be an easier book to give to friends that you want to read Wildwood Dancing. The first relies a lot on magic, faeries, and the Other Kingdom, where as this book is much more about mystery and intrigue, with the Other Kingdom as simply an instigator. I know with all the faery books out there, I sometimes hesitate to pick them up, because I’ve seen too many cliché books written for the “OMG, I’m a goth and I like faeries and vampires” fans. The fact that Wildwood Dancing was more of a fairy tale intrigued me, but I can see Cybele’s Secret also appealing to those who simply like historical or intrigue stories, with just a bit of magic thrown in.

The cover is once again beautiful and filled with hidden secrets. Like with Wildwood, I often found myself flipping back to the cover as more things became clear. Like many pieces of art, the cover tells a story of its own. I would be enchanted by it if I happened to come across it as a painting in a gallery. The Australian version is shiny, which both makes it look cool, but also makes it harder to make out all the detail unless you hold it in just the right light.

Overall, this book was everything I hoped it would be. I finished in two nights (silly day life keeping me away from reading -_-) and was enthralled the entire time. From beginning to end, the tale is artfully woven with hints and intrigues. Looking at a few fan reactions on Marillier’s message board, some saw plot twists coming, while others were as surprised as I was. I like to think I got all the plot twists at just the right moment—early enough to go “I figured out what’s happening next!” with a gleeful giggle, not but not early enough that anything seemed predictable.

I truly hope the author’s working on another book in the series, as the youngest sister needs her own Other Kingdom trial to go through. She was only a child in the first book, and left behind in the second, and you can tell she wants nothing more than to reenter the Other Kingdom herself.

Ratings Reasons:
Action 5– This was a relatively fast paced book with plenty of exciting scenes. Mystery and intrigue were at the center of the story, but it had pirates and ocean chases as well.

Romance 5–I really enjoyed the main couple. There was enough barriers in their way (class, homeland, education…) that it was realistic that it took them a whole book to truly decide to be together, but at the same time, it was pretty clear to the reader who Paula was going to end up with. The rival for her affections was great too and, it wasn’t the kind of easy love triangle where there was the “good” love interest and the puppy-killing love interest.

Characters 5– All of the characters were well thought out and no one was quite who you expected them to be. Paula is a wonderfully strong female who’s a bookworm through and through, breaking the silly “you need to be physically strong to be strong” stereotype. The other characters she interacts with are equally complex, including those that she assumes to be the “dumb” village boy, the “dashing pirate,” and the intellectual mother figure, only to have her assumptions proven wrong later on

Overall 5– I will eagerly recommend this book to friends, often and always. This book was a historical intrigue with a touch of magic, a genre that I love but don’t often read.

Extras:
Juliet Marillier is an Australian writer who’s written a number of adult fantasy books, as well as her young adult novels Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret. She’s got a website with an active fan base where they discuss all of her books via forum, and she often joins in.

Since we can’t all go visit Istanbul, I found quite a few pictures of it online. As with many older cities, new is blended with old across the landscape, and it’s still possible to get an idea of the city Paula would have experienced. I couldn’t find any one centralized place, but here are some good collections of photos.
Hamam (Turkish bath) – Wikipedia article on what a Hamam is.
A general collection and towards the bottom of the page are pictures of the covered bazaar Paula visits. Modernized, but you can get a real idea of what it once looked like.
More general photos from Trek Earth.

All right, there’s a term I always get tripped up on in books. Bulgars. It never seems to be explained, but I know this isn’t the first time I went “huh?” So, here is what a Bulgar is – “Not to be confused with Bulgarians. The Bulgars (also Bolgars or proto-Bulgarians) were a seminomadic people, originally from Central Asia, who from the AD 2nd century inhabited the steppe north of the Caucasus and the banks of river Itil (now Volga). There are different theories about their origin, the most widely accepted theory being that they were a Turkic people” (from wikipedia).

Another book I’m going to highly recommend is Anahita’s Woven Riddle by Meghan Nuttall Sayres. It’s a beautiful book about Persian culture and centers around a young woman who’s father says she must be married. She decides that she will weave a riddle into her wedding rug and whoever can figure it out, that is who she will marry. It was a wonderful look into a culture I know very little about and like Cybele’s Secret, contains language and description that paints a picture of a far away place.

Finally, there would be no book without Cybele, so here’s some information about the goddess. After reading the book and then reading this piece, I can see a few other little things in the book that I had no idea related back to Cybele.

Oh, and since I am absolutely in love with the art on the cover of both books, here is the website for the artist, Kinuko Craft. I asked the author how the artist goes about making these covers, and she said that this artist always reads the book the entire way through. As I’m sure most writers know, that can be a rarity. Many covers do not get this kind of consideration, but are instead just designed to sell books. I like to think that a cover can both sell books and be its own work of art.

Parents: 13+ All right, this is one of those books I just can’t decide on. There isn’t really anything bad in the book besides a bit of murder and talk of eunuchs. Still, I think this falls in the teenager range. Something about it just makes me think it’s going to appeal more to the above 12 crowd. Still, I see no reason not to give this to a younger reader who you think will be interested.

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