The Binding

The Binding by Bridget Collins
Reviewed by Jack
📘📘📘📘📘

Anyone else been in a massive reading rut during Lockdown?
Well, I was and really hadn’t picked up a book for a good couple of months! Then, after watching the brilliant @SkyArts #BookClubLive I pulled myself together and picked a book from the tbr… and boy was I glad I did!

The Binding had been on my radar for ages and I hadn’t picked it up yet, when I did it was like being sucked in to a different world. In the world of the book, book binding is a mystical art in which people can have memories removed and bound into books thus meaning that you can remove pain, grief, shame, culpability or even witnesses.

The book follows a teenage boy who discovers that he is one of these mystical binders (a talent one is born with, not that one can learn). Starting with his selection for his binding apprenticeship where he sees a mysterious boy being bound, one he recognises but can’t quite place. In part a mystery, in part a love story and in part an epic fantasy adventure - this book gripped me and did not let go.

Collins’ prose are so beautifully inviting and descriptive that they truly sweep you into the book - almost like one of the bindings that form the main premise of the story! Switching narrative perspective and time the story unfolds beautifully and gradually, keeping you hooked the whole way through.

If you’re in a rut - you could do a lot worse than starting with The Binding to get you back into the spirit of reading. After all, it is almost a love letter to the power of the novel and can serve as a timely reminder of why we all love to read!