Tamara Dougherty

One of my all time favorite books, I return to this book once a year or so. Both The storyline and the main characters, especially Thorn, are fascinating (and if you’ve read the book, you’ll know why that pun is funny), and have so much depth that you come to care deeply for them and you feel their losses. This book covers a lot of controversial topics, the main one being that Thorn is born as an intersex person, sent to be raised as a boy at a monastery. There he is repeatedly assaulted by a priest, who eventually discovers Thorn’s female bits and has him exiled to the convent. Thorn’s revenge is sweet indeed, and we get our first glimpse of the literal and metaphorical Raptor. This book follows Thorn’s entire life, starting from the unusual circumstances surrounding how he came to be at the monastery, throughout time and history we follow along and see him grow from child to young man to middle age and beyond. The adventures Thorn has, and the incredible people he meets, combined with phenomenal storytelling (especially considering one of the the overall themes being Thorn’s intersex status and how he moves through life using it to his advantage, will hopefully entertain you as much as it does me. One thing on my bucket list came direct from this book. Thirn’s monastery is stated to be in the Baltic region. I’d love to follow his footsteps, starting wherever this fictional monastery is (or near enough) and try to trace the journey Thorn and his companions embarked on. That would be one epic trip.