The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, Catherynne M. Valente
Nooo, I don’t want it to be the end! That said, it isn’t as bad as I’d feared: it doesn’t end like Narnia, with all the magic going away in favour of allegory. Fairyland remains as real and wild and strange, and the ending as bitter-and-sweetly magical as the other books. I was a little disappointed not to see more of Hawthorn and Tam’s adventures; The Boy Who Lost Fairyland is really a one-off in going so far from September, and I’m not sure I like that I never got my answers to questions about Hawthorn and Tam and how they feel about leaving behind their human families.
The weird wonders of Fairyland continue, as beautiful and strangely perfect as ever. I want to meet most of the characters (or hide from the nastier ones). And sometimes I can’t help but feel that the narrator looks into my heart just as much as she does September’s. Especially when the hippos named after bottles from the liquor cabinet come in (if you know me, you probably know about Helen, and if you know Helen, you know my heart).
Also, Blunderbuss! I love that at least we get Blunderbuss in this one, and A-Through-L being awesome and the whole bit with the main library and the book bears and…
No, I’m probably not capable of writing a coherent review of these books. This one is just as charming as the rest, though perhaps a bit sadder, because you know it’s the last, and because various things that happen during the race to be ruler of Fairyland make you worry about the characters and whether things can ever be the same.
Oh, and some things that some characters have been waiting for since the first book finally come to pass. So all in all, it’s a very satisfying end to the series, except for the fact that nobody wants it to end. The whole series might be marketed as young adult, but I think perhaps it has more for the adult who can still dream.
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