Review:: Black Unicorn, by Tanith Lee

Title: Black Unicorn

Author: Tanith Lee

Series: Unicorn, #1

Format: Trade Paperback

Rating: ★★★☆☆

When I reviewed The Black Unicorn, by Terry Brooks, I said there was a good Black Unicorn already. This is it. This is also a book that I like to point to when someone's looking for a strong female character who doesn't have to be overly masculine in order to show she's strong (cough Alanna). Also, peeve. Yes.

I may sometimes follow around my puppy and peeve-narrate him.

Black Unicorn is a pretty simple coming-of-age story: a girl who doesn't feel like her mother understands her ends up being thrown into adventure. But it's not the plot (which really doesn't matter) that hits me with this novel. It's the beautiful prose, the way that Tanaquil really does manage to hold her own without having to rely on a man, and the peeve.

Yes, the peeve gets its own mention again. I really just love that thing. There's a talking creature that's not meant to talk. See, it only talks because Tanaquil's mother spills out excess magic and basically it got splashed. But it didn't really get smarter when it learned how to talk. So it just talks. Which is just lovely to me.

...okay, yes, this entire book might be about the peeve to me. But I promise! There's more in it. Not much. But more.