Zillah Bethell

Beautiful cover art by Kenard Pak and a blurb featuring horses drew me to this middle-grade fantasy adventure. I was hooked from the start with the strong first-person voice of Serendipity, describing her ruined world, her love for her newly-deceased mother, and her determination to carry-on. Serendipity lives in a post-apocalyptic Great Britain, in a walled city she calls "Lahn Dan." Her mother's last word to her was "Outside." Adopted by her teacher, Professor Nimbus, a storyteller who keeps the past alive, she learns that the government has been telling lies to the people for decades. There is indeed a world outside the wall and Serendipity will find it, and the horses her mother thought were still living. Outside the wall, she meets Tab, an orphan smuggler and his beloved dog, Mouse. Running from government officials, they head west to "Whales" following a map she found among her mother's belongings. Along the way, they meet people who help or hinder them, but together, they manage to continue and grow in friendship.

Zillah Bethell's fine storytelling immediately immersed me in Serendipity's world using inventive world-building and a unique slang, descriptive language, and her protagonist's thoughts and feelings. Walking and walking after her mother dies, Serendipity comes across a statue: "Oh, the horse. If ever I see anything as handsome and as beautiful in my life again, I should shudder in amazishment. His neck all muscly and smooth .. his tail, slippery and silky." Reminding her of a toy her mother had given her, the bronze statue is symbolic. Meeting the kind folks of Ashdown, Serendipity sees real trees for the first time: "As my hand brushed the bark I noticed that they felt different from the trees I was used to in Lahn Dan. These felt more ... alive. Not just brittle, peeling, barely breathing stumps. These were strong and solid. Trees that were still fighting to live. Tying the earth together with their roots."

When they set off together, Serendipity and Tab are reserved and prickly with one another. But they soon learn that they have more in common than not: “Everything in Tab's life had changed just as suddenly as everything had changed in my own. Like a rabbit caught in a deadlight. He was stunned ...” Trust comes with distance and time. Tab is smart in the ways of "Outside" and reassures Serendipity. She had always been told that the rain was poisonous, but he knows better: "Blimey, if I thought I was goin to come over all bubbly-skinned and sore, I wouldn't be hanging around ere now, would I?"

I recommend "A Whisper of Horses" for readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic, character-driven stories in a well-developed world. The plot moves along quickly and thoughtfully. Supporting characters are rounded and believable. I felt this story inside me long after I finished it.

Bethell also introduced me to two poets I'd not read: Edwin Muir, a Scot (1887-1959) and Welshman, Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2000). Muir's poem "The Horses" (excerpted in her epigraph) appears to be inspiration for the story, while a line from Thomas' "A Marriage" graces the headstone of a character's beloved wife. Both poems are beautiful to read in their entirety.… (altro)