A truly delightful book, if only it wasn’t so confusing. It follows Tyll, a boy forced to leave home, who becomes a jester of surprising talents. 

The non-chronological storytelling, combined with the mystique and legend surrounding Tyll, made this so compelling and fun. It really reminded me of “Spinning Silver” by Naomi Novik (one of my favorites!), especially the other-ness and strange happenings that occurred around our main character. It was unclear from one scene to the next whether something supernatural was afoot, and Tyll was unknowable yet sympathetic, I could still picture the strange man as the beaten little boy. I really really loved his story. 

My main issue with this book was the politics. Maybe if I was German it would have been easier to follow, but the Winter King stuff and the wars meant nothing to me. Every time they mentioned a name or place I got more confused (and the authors writing style, while excellent for the sections on Tyll, was not conducive to me learning about the aristocracy in Prague). Unfortunately, those sections were actually pretty large and made up a good chunk of the book, which made it less enjoyable to me. Still, I loved Tyll, and am very glad I read this.