Helpful Score: 1
This one was a pleasant surprise for me. It's not often an author can take an overused trope from YA (fairies) and spin it into something new.
I can't even compare it to Holly Black or Melissa Marr's worlds - except in terms of quality - though it's very, very different in tone and subject.
Simner's style is very quick, sparse and... bleak. Frankly this evoked "Hunger Games" more than "Wicked Lovely." 15 yr old protagonist Liza lives in a village near St. Louis in the dystopian aftermath of the Fairie War. (Believe it or not, the St. Louis Arch is used as a gateway between the Fae world and ours.) It's never stated, but we obviously nuked fairyland and they nature-bombed us - making trees, animals and even water into semi-sentient, vicious enemies humans have to battle on a daily basis while attempting to wrestle a living out of throwback-Depression era conditions.
When children are born with signs of magic in them (like Liza's baby sister- born with clear hair) they're 'put out' of the village. Liza's mother goes insane from this, and leaves her alone with her war-shocked, emotionally numb father. Liza, after a beating, runs away, intent to find her mother, since she's started having visions of her - which means she has magic - which means, she's gonna be 'put out' soon too.
But Liza learns her father's rules aren't always right, or always true.
It's a quick read, and I rather like that it doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary over-emotive descriptions. Given how little the protagonist (and all the characters) know of what's happened to their world,it's rather an asset. This is about survival, not a romance novel.
Glad to see there's a sequel "Faerie Winter". Definitely gonna have to read it.
(PS- yes, I used all the different spellings of 'fairy' on purpose, I'm bratty that way. It annoys the purists & the grammar nazis.)
I can't even compare it to Holly Black or Melissa Marr's worlds - except in terms of quality - though it's very, very different in tone and subject.
Simner's style is very quick, sparse and... bleak. Frankly this evoked "Hunger Games" more than "Wicked Lovely." 15 yr old protagonist Liza lives in a village near St. Louis in the dystopian aftermath of the Fairie War. (Believe it or not, the St. Louis Arch is used as a gateway between the Fae world and ours.) It's never stated, but we obviously nuked fairyland and they nature-bombed us - making trees, animals and even water into semi-sentient, vicious enemies humans have to battle on a daily basis while attempting to wrestle a living out of throwback-Depression era conditions.
When children are born with signs of magic in them (like Liza's baby sister- born with clear hair) they're 'put out' of the village. Liza's mother goes insane from this, and leaves her alone with her war-shocked, emotionally numb father. Liza, after a beating, runs away, intent to find her mother, since she's started having visions of her - which means she has magic - which means, she's gonna be 'put out' soon too.
But Liza learns her father's rules aren't always right, or always true.
It's a quick read, and I rather like that it doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary over-emotive descriptions. Given how little the protagonist (and all the characters) know of what's happened to their world,it's rather an asset. This is about survival, not a romance novel.
Glad to see there's a sequel "Faerie Winter". Definitely gonna have to read it.
(PS- yes, I used all the different spellings of 'fairy' on purpose, I'm bratty that way. It annoys the purists & the grammar nazis.)
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