In Nightshade and Oak, Molly O'Neill (Greenteeth) presents a fresh take on an oft-forgotten Iron Age goddess of the British Isles. Mallt Y Nos is the goddess of death; her role is to wander the land with her hounds, gathering lost souls to guide them to their rest in Annwn, the afterworld over the sea to the west. She has been very busy lately, cleaning up after the results of Boudica's rebellion against the Romans. But as she is collecting souls from the battlefields one day, she is drawn to a surge of magic in a glade that also holds souls in pain. When she reaches the source, the magic traps her. Mallt finds herself stripped of her godly powers in a human body. She learns that a spell cast by Boudica's eldest daughter, the warrior princess Belis, has caused this transformation as she was trying to heal her sister, Cati, who is now a lost soul. Mallt travels with Belis to Annwn to reclaim Cati's soul and her own powers, and she's forced to learn what it means to be human.
Despite her role collecting souls, Mallt has existed separately from human beings, never concerning herself with what their lives must be like before they pass from this world. But now stuck in a body so different from her goddess form and without her powers, Mallt receives a full, embodied crash course in what it means to be human, with all the trials and also with all the joys. For her part, Belis is now in the position of teaching a goddess about minutiae like blisters and exhaustion. But when they finally reach Annwn, they find that the Roman invasion has not harmed just Belis's people, the Iceni, but has damaged the mythic world as well--and if they can't solve that problem, their dual quests will have been in vain.
O'Neill draws from both the Mabinogion and from pre-Roman, pre-Christian British history, and features individuals such as Boudica, queen of the Iceni tribe. In addition to Mallt, readers are also introduced to other Welsh folkloric and mythic figures they may not have known, such as Gwyn ap Nudd and Rhiannon at a time of great historical and cultural upheaval. Nightshade and Oak is a fantastic expansion of myth and legend that reinvents a little-known, obscure figure for a new generation. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Nightshade and Oak rounds out a lesser-known mythological goddess of death, teasing at the lines between humanity and divinity and asking questions about what it means to be alive.