The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne M. Valente
The whimsical nature of this is classically Valente; you can tell it was written by her, if you’re at all used to her style, but the style is less pronounced — it requires less concentration to be rewarding, to be enchanting. Which, given that it’s essentially a young adult book, makes sense. It’s still gorgeous, but more like cream and less like treacle.
It’s exactly as charming as the cover copy suggests. There’s a Wyvern who may or may not be the son of a library, there’s wild herds of bicycles, there’s witchery and magic and strange transformations. It’s Fairyland, as dangerous and bewitching as it should be, and not saccharine-sweet at all. It has a bit of the same tone as The Hobbit, with a definite narrator who has a personality and is telling the story direct to you, with the same lightness of touch (and much less moralising than, say, C.S. Lewis). I really like it when people are clever with their narrators, and this definitely worked for me.
There are, of course, deliberate parallels to folklore, but also to classic fantasy fiction — Narnia in particular, and it’s interesting that the main character of Fairyland has a father who is away at war, and so has that war background. Shades of the Pevensies, a little. And the antagonist’s issues, well, they seemed to me a direct commentary on the disappointments of leaving Narnia, never to return.
Rating: 4/5
I’m glad you liked this one. Me, I was not a fan. The text was too verbose for me and I just didn’t get what was going on. I felt I was back in one my college English lit classes!
Terri M., the Director
Second Run Reviews
Hmm, I didn’t find it like that at all! But then, English Lit was my BA and MA, so… I like that feeling anyway.
I’m glad you liked this book! I loved it, such a great fun story for a afternoon read. 🙂
It is really fun! And warm, too.
Wyverary! ^_^ (I would like to meet a Wyverary.)
So glad to see you enjoyed this! Are you thinking about reading the others as well? There’s more shades of the antagonist’s issues in them as well for, um, potentially minorly spoilery reasons, but they definitely walk a really strong and nice balance between Fairyland and our world, whether it’s the effects of war or whether it’s simply growing up.
Agreed!
I am indeed — in fact, I’ve read the second and third already. Just a delay in posting the reviews since I have quite a backlog now! I want the fourth book too. *eyes Kindle*
I’ve been debating this book for a while, but your review actually makes it seem interesting, so I guess I will actually have to go to the library and grab it.
It’s fun, I promise!