Art I’m Enjoying: “Once Was Willem” by M.R. Carey
It’s been a stressful couple of weeks for me, so I wanted to take a moment to do an “Art I’m Enjoying” entry. Prior to this, I’ve sort of more broadly recommended artists (comedian Josh Johnson and musical artists Phillip Labes and Jorge Rivera-Herrans respectively), but in this case I want to recommend a specific book, that being Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey.
Though, I will say, based on just Once Was Willem, I feel comfortable broadly recommending the work of M.R. Carey.
For those who are relatively unfamiliar with M.R. Carey (as I was) he is likely most known for his novel, The Girl with All the Gifts which released in 2013 and got a 2016 film adaptation. He’s a British author who also publishes comics and other novels under the name Mike Carey.
Published in March, Once Was Willem is described by Carey as “Folk-horror … set in the 12th century.” It follows a being who was born Willem in England who had a very brief life. Willem’s parents seek the help of a wizard with malicious intent. Mind you, the wizards malice is not particularly to spite the parents, but rather, he sees a way to grant their wish in a way that is technically what they asked for while also adding the well of his own eternal youth.
Long story short, the wizard gives life to the remains of Willem, summoning him back to life in a ghoulish form that is immediately spurned by his parents and their village. Feeling forsaken by those he loved and those who knew him in his previous life, he adopts the title “Once-Was-Willem” and flees into the wilderness near his village.
In the wilderness he begins to encounter other supernatural beings who are feared in various degrees by the people of the “civilized” world. Most of whom prove to be friendlier than their reputation might indicate.
Meanwhile, as England is in disarray during this time, there has been a recent coup resulting in a bandit taking lordship over the area without much resistance from the citizens. The wizard that brough Once-Was-Willem back to life ends up falling in with this would-be bandit-lord and begins committing wicked deeds.
The thing I love about Once Was Willem is this build up.
We usually have at least one chapter dedicated to the people Willem encounters in the wild places around his childhood home and there are several chapters dedicated to the villains, Cain Caradoc and the bandit-king, and all the skew workings they are getting to.
Caradoc specifically is probably the first villain in a long time that I’ve seen in a book (or any piece of media) and legitimately wondered how the protagonists of the book might beat him. The magic he gets up to is what, I feel, constitutes the “horror” honorary Carey affixes to the text. Truly, I had the sense that him dispatching of any single character in the novel might take a matter of moments; on top of that the character’s personality is just mercurial enough that there are moments where he realizes a mistake or opportunity and does horrible things on a whim toward his own ends.
Don’t let the nefarious nature of the villain scare you away too much, though. For every ounce of wickedness in him is likeability in the more heroic characters of the text. I won’t go over them here as I think most of the fun of the novel is discovering them as you read along, but even when things in the story were dark, these characters gave me hope.
Finally, I’ll mention that I love the “low” stakes of this book. Yes, Caradoc does begin calling on borderline biblical magic — but his immediate goal is to bring a small corner of England under control. For the most part, there’s not a world, country, or even a city at stake. It’s very focused on maybe a couple hundred people in this backwater place. I can see that not being a selling point for some, but I think it helps the book feel intimate and oddly cozy to me.
Once Was Willem will probably end up being my favorite book I read this year (though I’ll likely finish the year with only 15 or so books under by belt). It also has made me interested in going through Carey’s backlog to see if his other books end up being as beloved to me as this one.
If anything I’ve described here sparks your interest, hopefully you look into a way to check out the book!
*****
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The Wilderlands is available for physical purchase now from Barnes & Noble and Amazon or wherever you read ebooks. The audiobook is also out now on most major platforms.