This book. Oh, this book. I shouldn’t be surprised, because every Amy Harmon book I’ve read has left me wanting more. If you only read one book this year, read this one.

The story of Saylok, the runes, the clans, the Temple, all of it. I am hooked and this place and its magic will be with me for a long time.

This was a beautiful book. I loved every page of it. It conjures images of feudal Ireland, or Norse-men, or Vikings, without being any of them. Set on a country and world that is wholly fantasy, this clan like group of counties live under a king, who is chosen by the keepers, akin to the countries monks.
This book questions what happens when the keepers make a mistake, due to the scheming of an evil individual. It also uses a type of runic blood magic that weaves another layer of curses and intrigue throughout.
However, the stand out part of the book is the characters. I loved each of them. As this is a standalone novel, and quite a lot goes on, they were perhaps facets of the true gems they'd be undoubtedly if the book were longer, but I still very much enjoyed all of them.
Fans of Amy Harmon already will enjoy this book, and I'd recommend to fans of Bardugo, Lani Taylor and Maas

This book is neither what I expected nor what I wanted from Amy Harmon. I flat-out wanted a tender, pure romance like The Queen and the Cure. I expected a fantasy world-building like The Lumatere Chronicles with the scope and emotion of Quintana of Charyn. What we have instead is a patient, subtle, character-driven story like Daughter of the Forest but with several characters.

The First Girl Child, contrary to the blurb description, isn't centered around Bayr's or Alba's romance. Spanning the time period of twenty-four years, we follow the lives of Dagmar, Bayr, Ghost, and Alba as they experience sacrifice and tenderness and trust and hardship and love. In true Amy Harmon style, there's a serenity and tenderness to every word she writes. Also in true Amy Harmon style is her ability to include Christian themes better than actual Christian fiction.

THE GOOD
1) No one includes Christian themes better and more subtly than Amy Harmon. The Queen and the Cure and the character of Sasha felt influenced by the story of Ruth, particularly with the tone of gentleness and tenderness. The First Girl Child draw its influence from the story of Moses, particularly in the characters of Ghost and Dagmar.

She collapsed beneath the boughs, hiding her face in her arms. She didn’t want to live, but she was too tired to die. She was hot and cold, rage and resignation, but she’d made a choice. Alba could be a princess instead of a slave, a daughter of a queen instead of the offspring of a ghost. She would never look on her mother and see a monster or an aberration.

“I have nothing to give,” she moaned, her face pressed to the earth. “I have nothing but love, and my love will not shelter. My love will not save, or clothe, or feed. My love will only harm.”

She had hate—bitter and biting. She hated the king and she hated his queen. She hated the moon and the moor and the innocent door in the wall that should not have been so easy to find. She hated the burn in her heart and the faith she couldn’t shake, even though life had never given her reason to hope. She hated the people of Saylok for bowing to a king who lied to them.

But her hate was no match for her love.

“I have nothing to give you,” she moaned again, and this time she spoke to the child she’d borne, the child who’d grown in her body and reshaped her heart. “So I will give you a queen. I will give you a beautiful queen who sings to you,” she wept. “I will give you a father who rules a kingdom, and a boy to watch over you. I will give you a life without hiding, a world without fear, a home I cannot give you on my own. This is what I will give you—the only thing I can give you. A life without me in it is the only thing I have to offer.”

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"Moses was like you, Bayr. God gave him his power, yet Moses resisted because he could not speak.”

“What did his . . . g-god say?” Bayr asked, abandoning the book to entreat his uncle.

“His god said, ‘I have made thy mouth.’”

Bayr frowned, not understanding.

“He made his mouth weak for a purpose. Just as he made you the way you are for a purpose. He made your mouth weak to keep your heart strong. Do not question it,” Dagmar continued. “Do not fear it. You are perfect—you are marvelous and terrible—in your weakness.”

“T-terrible?” “Men will tremble before you. Yet when you speak, you tremble before god. That is how it should be...It is your weakness. But weakness can make a man wise. You will listen more. You will think before you speak. You will never believe yourself all-powerful and all-knowing. You will never say what you do not mean.”


2) More Biblical nods, this time to this beautiful parallel to Revelations.

So he held her—held them—and studied the runes his sister had drawn into the bloody ground. She’d drawn the sign of the woman and child, but the tail of a snake encircled them, its head and forked tongue rising up through a crown with six spires. Six spires for six clans of Saylok.

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“The sign of the girl child,” Dagmar murmured. “The wrath of a woman, the pride of men. It is all there in her rune, but we will add something new.”

Bayr raised tormented eyes, the blade faltering.

“Trace the lines,” Dagmar urged, “but where there is a serpent, we will draw the sun. Where there is hurt, we will draw hope. Man, woman, child, distinct but interdependent, and around them, life.”


3) Good, pure-of-heart characters that still have flaws.

It hurt to stand beneath the boughs and remember the child, the boy born to a mother who would mark him, a father who would forsake him, and a world that did not welcome him. For all his strength and humility, for all his goodness and grace, Bayr had never once asked for anything. In that too, Dagmar had failed. Dagmar had kept secrets to protect him, and in keeping secrets, he’d allowed a bitter rune, powered by bitter blood, to shape their lives.


4) The theme of sacrifice, particularly in the case of Ghost. And Dagmar. And Desdemona. I'd say Ghost is actually my favorite character with the scorn she's endured her whole life, her quiet grief she keeps to herself, her loneliness...and still, there's a sweetness and kindness about her that stands out the entire book.

“And in the end, we can only sacrifice ourselves. To sacrifice others is no sacrifice at all.”


5) The overall tone, character growth, and themes of this book are lovely. This book isn't about action or dramatic politicking or sexual longing or surprises. I feel like it's filled instead with characterizations you wouldn't typically expect, a pacing that forces you to mull and consider, and themes that tug at your spirits the more you look into them.

I'm thinking about the character of Dred in particular. Man, what a gruff and callous character that I didn't think anything of...but a couple dozen chapters later there he is again, still gruff and tough but surprisingly someone I came to respect and forgive. Who knew. Amy Harmon knew, that's who.

THE BAD
1) The story spans twenty-four years, and we're in no rush to get there. I'm a lazy, simple-minded reader, remember, so trust me when I say I was definitely antsy to get there wherever "there" was. "Where are the swords and fighting? When does boy meet girl? Where are the mind-bending plot twists? The angst?" By the epilogue, I'd long resigned myself to the knowledge that this wasn't one of those books.

2) When and where are we? I was fine with the fantasy setting, fictional clans, and the vague nods to Norse mythology, but then we offhandedly mentioned a few times the Romans and the spread of the Bible & Jesus Christ. So...where are we? When are we? It was as jarring as seeing Ed Sheeran in his Game of Thrones cameo all over again. "Oh. Hey. Thanks for ruining my moment."

3) Overall book chemistry wasn't what I wanted or expected and while that's not the author's fault, it still is a factor of pacing and content that prevents this book from being a five-star for me. Shrugs.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Amy Harmon knows how to write, but her books (at least her fantasy books, which are the only ones I've completed reading) probably aren't commercial and formulaic in the modern sense of "what sells." This book in particular is slow & patient and driven by the character experience in a more subtle style of Juliet Marillier. The writing isn't sensory or lyrical like Robin McKinley's and the scope of emotion it demands is nowhere near the extent of Melina Marchetta.

What Amy Harmon does best is take a simple idea or theme and craft an entire novel around it. It's not always sexy or heart-pounding or epic, but it'll always have a quiet purity that'll make you long for the day when those tender joys & sorrow in life will be restored to their intended brilliance and hope.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this. Refreshing read, great job. Full review on the blog coming shortly. . Really great job!