The Thirteenth Child: The Number 1 New York Times Bestseller by Erin A. Craig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Hazel’s life was decided for her before she was born. She is the thirteenth child, a rare occurrence, in a poor family, and was given to one of the gods, The Dreaded End, so her family wouldn’t need to support her. He raises her to be a healer, which she comes to enjoy, until she learns that part of her role is to end the lives of those that cannot and should not be saved. When she is summoned to the capital to treat a royal suffering from a new and thus far incurable disease, she will find that life in the palace is dangerous, and the people around her are more complicated than she initially thought a royal could be.
Yet another fantastic fairytale retelling from Erin A. Craig! I loved this story. While it wasn’t my favourite of hers, she is such a fantastic author that it still ended up a five stars. Hazel was such a sympathetic character who always does her best to make the most of any situation she ends up in. The Dreaded End, aka Merrick, was also extremely endearing. The worldbuilding was good, and the setting felt unique to me. I do wish that there were more spooky elements, which Craig always writes so well. And honestly, the romance didn’t do much for me (granted, I don’t read a lot of romance, and I’m not overly familiar with what to expect from them as such).
Let’s start with Hazel! We follow the story from her first person point of view, so luckily I really liked her. We start the book with her hearing Merrick, her godfather and adoptive guardian, telling her the story of how he came to care for her. Then we experience some of her childhood along with her. Being the youngest of thirteen children in a very poor family, she is often overlooked and ignored, and is very far from the favourite child. Despite this, she retains a sense of empathy, which serves her well when she becomes the healer that Merrick teaches her to be. I really enjoyed the healer aspect of the story, but do wish there was more focus on it. We only really see her doing her healing here and there, and I would have loved a stronger emphasis on it. As she meets characters kind, cruel, and something in between, she does her best to treat them in the same way which I appreciate. She is perhaps too selfless, and there are certainly clues as to what is going on that she misses along the way, but no one is perfect.
As stated in the short synopsis up top, she can’t heal everyone. Sometimes she must help them by ending their suffering. This is a difficult thing for her to do, and her struggle with it, then ultimate acceptance, is something that endears her to me further. It adds a darker tone to the tale that I always love, and allows conversation about the necessary balance of life and death.
Merrick is a fun character. He is the Dreaded End, most people’s most feared gods; the god of death. Yet to Hazel, he is ‘godfather’. She loves him, and he loves her. This confuses him a great deal. He doesn’t understand mortals. How could he? Hazel does things and reacts to things in ways that often surprise him. He has to take time to try to empathise with her, but that is something he does try to do as much as possible, because he genuinely adores her, despite himself. He sometimes pushes too hard, he sometimes angers when Hazel acts in a way he can’t predict, but ultimately, he wants the best for her. It would have been cool to see some more of his duties as the god of death, but the contrast between his paternal side and his immortal one is very stark and sweet. I always love stories that have Death as more than that, like the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, so this aspect was a large part of the appeal for me.
The worldbuilding was both interesting and appropriate. There was enough there that I understood the world that Hazel lives in, but not so much it felt unnecessary or info dumpy. I feel that we learned enough about the different gods that Hazel’s people follow, but there was also enough unknown that they felt appropriately mysterious. Being based on a Grimm story, it had a fantasy European setting, and Hazel grew up right near a big, dark forest. The darker aspects of the story also fit perfectly with this.
The story certainly had dark overtones, but I do wish that they were a bit more of a focus in the tale. I recognise that that is a personal preference though, not something that detracts from the story. I primarily read horror, so I like things dark, and I do believe that the author is fantastic at writing it. What she did here was still the absolutely gorgeous, atmospheric writing she’s known for. Once again, this is a personal preference thing, but I was also not completely sold on the romance between Hazel and her love interest (I won’t say who, in case it’s spoilery). To be fair, I don’t read a lot of romance, so it may very well be wonderful for people who do read it.
All in all, I had a wonderful time with this book. It was more of Erin A. Craig doing the thing she does best. The characters were fantastic to follow, the settings were interesting and varied, and the fact that it is a fairytale retelling adds to the magic. The story progresses through the years revolving around Hazel’s birthday, so if you want some extra immersion, read it sometime around your birthday like I did. If you like fairytale retellings, dark fantasy settings, and empathetic, complex characters, and especially if you’ve read Erin A. Craig before and enjoyed her, then do try The Thirteenth Child. I think you’ll like it.
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Rebecka O'Malley 