Narrative Borders in
The Language of Thorns
Published in 2017, written by Leigh Bardugo and illustrated by Sara Kipin, The Language of Thorns is an anthology of folktales set within Bardugo's Grishaverse universe. There are six stories in The Language of Thorns, of which I will be focusing on the last. Each story has its own unique border which grows and changes as the story develops, and every story ends with a full-page illustration of a pivotal scene in the story.
01
The Whitespace
The Language of Thorns has ample textual whitespace - the kerning is consistent and there is always space between illustration and text. There is very little pictorial whitespace as the illustrations are done in dichromatic color schemes and utilize many shades of color for light and shadow. There is some graphical whitespace, but structural whitespace like the emptiness of the margins serves an additional role in this book.
As a story progresses, illustrations fill up the margins, so a blank margin is an indication to the reader that there is still much left to happen in this story. A particularly strong example of this is in the last tale in the book, “When the Water Sang Fire.”
By the time the first half of the story completes and the two main characters are changing from mermaids into humans, the margins are full. When the second half of the story begins, however, the margins become nearly empty again. They lose all of the aquatic imagery and revert back to just the two figures representing the main characters - this time as humans rather than mermaids.
This shift represents both the literal and figurative shift in the narrative - the change of the characters into humans, and the shift from the end of one story to the beginning of another. That shift is communicated to the reader through the sudden lack of illustration in the margins. Thus, the blank space in the margins is both a pragmatic element and a narrative one.
02
The Illustrations
​The illustrations are almost always iconic, and reflect the content of the story. As the story develops, so too do the illustrations. As previously mentioned, in “When Water Sang Fire,” the margins contain the two main characters and fill with aquatic imagery as we learn of their life underwater, but once they become humans, the margins begin to fill with items that are relevant to the story of their lives above water: When candles are brought up in the story, candles appear in the margins. When a harpoon is mentioned, so too does it appear.
Some aspects of the illustration can convey information not explicitly mentioned within the text. When the candles in the margins begin going out and the smoke begins consuming the characters, it communicates that something is changing, and implies that there might be cause for worry even though the text itself has not indicated that to the reader.
At the end of each of the stories in The Language of Thorns, there will be a full spread illustration depicting the end of the story, surrounded by the border that has been developed throughout the course of the narrative.
In a way, the illustrations in The Language of Thorns are very similar to the illustrations in many children’s books. They are clearly regarded with the same level of respect as the text, and complement the narrative. This is especially appropriate given that this book is meant to evoke the sense of a classic collection of fairy tales.