I recently read The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, an intriguing story that plays with the question of whether it is, or isn’t, a fantasy novel. I liked the book a lot, hated the ending—and feel better after discovering that there will be a sequel. Which, conveniently, is out in mid-March!

Twelve-year-old Alistair is baffled but intrigued when neighbor girl Fiona asks him to write her biography. Fiona has always been a bit odd, but she unfolds an impossible story about her journeys to Aquavania, a world made of water where she has the power to create anything with her thoughts. Many others go to Aquavania too, but children are disappearing, victims of the mysterious Riverman. Despite his growing feelings for Fiona, Alistair doesn’t believe the story, and searches for another explanation, sure that this must be an elaborate cry for help in response to a real-life threat Fiona is facing.

Most of the book is fascinatingly ambiguous. With Alistair as our narrator, we only know what he knows, and when he doesn’t know if Fiona is telling the truth, the reader can’t know either. I really enjoyed that element of mystery, and for most of the story I could have seen it going either way—either a fantasy story, or a darker story about a very troubled girl. Continue reading “Book Review: The Riverman” →

I have been waiting (and waiting…) for the fourth book in Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland series for over a year now–and it’s been my most anticipated book all that time.  So I am very happy to say that The Boy Who Lost Fairyland was delightful.  Not at all what I would have imagined for Fairyland 4!  But delightful.

I reread The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland in February, anticipating this one’s release, and that was a delight too.  The books in this series are packed so thick with wit and wisdom and whimsy that I knew I wasn’t taking it all in on a first read.  This is a rare book that was even better on a reread–and I also could be more patient waiting for some beloved supporting characters to turn up halfway through the book.

Patience may be a virtue needed for The Boy Who Lost Fairyland too.  Instead of returning to our heroine September and her dreadful plight from the last book, we instead find the story of Hawthorn, a troll abducted by the Red Wind and sent off as a changeling to the mysterious, mystical land of Chicago.  Although Hawthorne forgets his trollish past and believes himself to be Thomas, human boy, he’s still Not Normal, neither at home nor in the perilous realm of Public School 348.

Never fear, our charming narrator interrupts with an interlude after Chapter Two, to assure us that she knows we’re wondering about September, to beg patience and to invite us to “journey off the main road for a bit…[to] find a path through the snow to those little pockets of story which happen while the Hero is off doing other things.”  And how could I resist an invitation like that? Continue reading “Book Review: The Boy Who Lost Fairyland” →