The Binding

Product Information

She was inspired to write her first adult novel, The Binding because of her work as a volunteer with The Samaritans. Faced with stories of pain and heartache she began to wonder what would happen if she could take the memory of the painful experiences away from them, leaving them to begin again.

There are times in life we all go through painful things, things we wish hadn't happened, and which make us sad and anxious, or worse, to remember. What if you could have those memories removed? What if you could choose what you remember, to keep the good and get rid of the bad? CW: There are some significant triggers in this book with some particularly distressing content. description of rape, rape of minor, sexual violence, homophobia, animal abuse/killing, traumatic scene where man is taunting a girl by detailing about how he had been sexually assaulting her and how she had cried etc (her memory had been repeatedly erased after periods of sexual abuse so he could start the cycle of abuse again), suicide, consensual sex. Then one day Emmett makes an astonishing discovery: one of them has his name on it. Structure and Theme In parallel she took a course in bookbinding. In an interview published on the Foyles blog, she said she was immediately seduced by the process:

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But there are certain Binders who sell books, who treat the trade or its patients with zero respect. When Emmett sees a book with his name on, he wonders what secrets it holds. But the only way to unbind a person is to burn their book if you begin to tell someone their secret it can cause awful pain. I loved this book. The way she writes about delicate details of even smallest sensations and surroundings is amazing. Also, it’s the first time a book’s meaning kindof shifts suddenly mid-book, which was actually very interesting (in this case from just a story of Emmet to suddenly a love-story). This book consists of three parts. The first part was slow, and it really, really dragged. The second was better, as I think it is the only part of the entire book that I liked and was tolerable, and the third part was another tedious drag, and I was itching to get to the end.

We’ve been called witches since the beginning of time. Word-cunning, they used to call it—of a piece with invoking demons…We were burned for it too. The Crusade wasn’t new, we’ve always been scapegoats. Well, knowledge is always a kind of magic, I suppose. Emmett Farmer is a young man with issues. He used to think that he would inherit his family’s farm. It was the life he was used to and the road he expected to follow to, and beyond, the horizon. But he has not been himself lately. His abilities have deteriorated. He loses himself, in time, suffering dizziness, nausea, and weakness. Some say he was cursed by a witch. When he is offered an apprenticeship with a bookbinder, it offers a way out, however frightening the career and his mentor might be. And then there were the characters. The characters in this book were so beautifully described, and though I may have found Emmett annoying at times, what character isn't? Lucias added a whole new part to this book, and the romance? Well damn, I was about half-way through the book and then suddenly my gaydar was tingling and I was like 'am I sensing something here?'. And damn, what a thing that was. I rarely read such beautiful romantic build-ups, and believe me, I read a lot of books. I couldn't help but fall for Collins' well-written unreliable narrators, her eloquent magical prose, and the tender, fierce love story at the core of this novel." If I rated this book by the parts of it, it would be a slow terribly paced two star for part one, a sweet blush of a three for the middle, and an awful one star for the final section. There is a HEA of sorts but.. yeah, I don't know. This was just a lot more depressing or maybe just.. stark? bleak?.. than I thought it would be.

Bridget Collins

I really wish they would make a movie adaptation! If it was made in a similar style as ‘Stay with me’ it could be amazing! It becomes clear as time progresses that this is not our world – we hear vague discussions about the Crusades, but these are within living memory, and whilst we are never given detailed information on them, we are led to believe that they are to do with books, and binders. Lucian is still weak but he now remembers. And he goes through all the memories that were in his book. And it summorizes the whole timeline, so that every thing happened in the book now makes sense in the readers mind as well. It’s really nicely written 🙂 The main thing that captivated me was the characters. Emmett was enticing in his mystery; I loved uncovering bits of his lost past in the same moments he did. The romance was heartbreaking and lovely, taking up a greater portion of this story than I could have anticipated. Thankfully it was well written and unraveled wonderfully! In a vault under his mentor’s workshop, row upon row of books and memories are meticulously stored and recorded.