Book Review: Abraxus Elijah Honey by Ella Ruby Self

After almost five years I am reviving my book blog, though I don't know how long I shall keep it up. For the past two years I've posted about every book I've read on X, but the self-imposed restriction of keeping my reviews to a single post has proved frustrating, so it's time to expand. Some books, of course, are very much love-and-leave (or-loathe-and-leave) but others require more thought, so here I am once more. 

And so to my first book of 2025, Abraxus Elijah Honey by Ella Ruby Self, published by Northodox Press. (Disclaimer: I am also published by Northodox.) It's fantasy, which isn't a genre I'm particularly consumed by, though I will dip my toe in if something particularly appeals and this, with its historical setting in nineteenth century west Wales and its themes of mythology and the sea, definitely caught my fancy. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't say I loved it, as it felt very long and very dense, but I was absorbed by the characters and the setting. There's a huge and complex tapestry of folklore underlying it, some of which I recognise and some of which I looked up (both the names of Abraxus and his boat are derived from cultures far from Celtic lands). There will be others, I am sure, that have passed me by. This reimagining of mythology is something I love in fiction and I was reminded, among others, both of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings and of Will from Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series -- a compliment, should you doubt. 

The characters were real and warm: I loved the relationships between the very different twins, Eli and Tias, and the way in which the stranger Abraxus and the innkeeper Smythe came to care for them with their father dead and their mother largely absent. I loved the setting and the mystery. 

Perhaps I have one or two niggles. I thought some of the more abstract chapters were hard to follow and, on a more practical note, I think I identified a plot hole when a character writes and receives letters despite being in a village that is completely cut off for months. (How did that happen? Carrier pigeons? It's never explained.)

Overall, however, I enjoyed it. The many joys of this book far outweighed its very minor flaws and I reached the end with an enormous sense of satisfaction at the ending, and a hope that perhaps there might be more to come from these characters and this author. 

Abraxus Elijah Honey is available as paperback and ebook, direct from Northodox Press or from Amazon.