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davidscrimshaw's review
5.0
This is book 4 in a series. I loved books 1 and 2, but found book 3 a little dark and not as playful. The Boy Who Lost Fairyland is back to the playfulness and delight with words that I love in this series.
If you felt like you didn't fit in with the other kids or know someone who didn't, this could be a great book for you.
If you felt like you didn't fit in with the other kids or know someone who didn't, this could be a great book for you.
stacers1973's review
4.0
As usual, a beautiful blend of whim and whimsy under-laid with some hard truth, laid out with fun and beautiful language. And just enough snark. Grin. LOVE the series.
be_like_the_squirrel_girl's review
4.0
A troll is turned into a Changeling and sent to Chicago in the latest installment. Valente is my favorite fantasy author; her writing is so vivid it gives me sensory overload when she describes the colors and textures of Fairyland.
Here's one of my favorite passages: "School-time runs separately from usual time, like a certain country on the other side of the Equator, or the other side of a dream. School-time spins up and sputters and whirlwinds, all hopped up and in a hurry. Only once Summer comes round again, with its bindle full of adventures and bendings of rules and unwatched, unfettered, unending days in the sun does time return to its favorite pace, slow and golden and warm. But with the seasons, Summer disappears, off on its own wanderings and exploits and love affairs with the Equinoxes."
Here's one of my favorite passages: "School-time runs separately from usual time, like a certain country on the other side of the Equator, or the other side of a dream. School-time spins up and sputters and whirlwinds, all hopped up and in a hurry. Only once Summer comes round again, with its bindle full of adventures and bendings of rules and unwatched, unfettered, unending days in the sun does time return to its favorite pace, slow and golden and warm. But with the seasons, Summer disappears, off on its own wanderings and exploits and love affairs with the Equinoxes."
bleepnik's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
What a pleasant surprise! My initial outrage over the interruption of our story turned quickly into delight. Admittedly, I’d grown a bit tired, by the last book, of the same old, same old. This book approaches things from a different angle. That in itself ends up being a wonderful thing, but even more wonderful is the return of the imaginative storytelling—and creative and whimsical prose—that captivated me in the first place.
pickett22's review
4.0
Shhhhh, gently Becky, for the first time ever, you are the first of your friends to have read a thing. Shhhhhhhhhh, you are the only one to be caught up now, so tread carefully.
Too short, too short, too short.
This is the quick sip of tea when it is still too hot to drink properly and I have to wait before I can have more. It's the small corner of Jasmine's cookie that I can't have more of because it will make me ill.
Now, Becky, stop here and look at what you've done. Both of these are examples of things that will hurt you if you are not careful about it, if you are not patient and wait until the time is right. Miss Valente is like that too. "Here are some friends to play with for a few minutes, but be careful, because they only speak the truth and you might not be ready for it, or it might not be ready for you."
The narrator offered very early to let me hold her hand, and I did through most of it, although I must admit I was usually swinging it with impatience... very sorry Miss Narrator, I shall try to be quieter next time. And while I am not quite grown up yet, but still rather one of the big kids, I see now what I didn't before. I see now what she was trying to tell me in the first interlude. And while I understood what she was saying, I was still annoyed and impatient because it took EVER so long to find September and Saturday and Ell, and it is SUCH a little book after all. Mostly I was bitter about the first interlude because I didn't WANT to understand what she was saying, I WANTED September, and I wanted to be allowed to be petulant about it. And that's probably part of why I couldn't have her when I wanted her. Mostly it was because the story was not ready and partly because I wasn't. I don't know what I would do without this narrator, she is very excellent.
So even though I worried my way through this book, I remembered by the end that I trust Miss Valente. Even if it hurts it will still be true, and really that's why I come to her.
Even so, this is a long wait with only a sip of tea and a very small piece of cookie.
Too short, too short, too short.
This is the quick sip of tea when it is still too hot to drink properly and I have to wait before I can have more. It's the small corner of Jasmine's cookie that I can't have more of because it will make me ill.
Now, Becky, stop here and look at what you've done. Both of these are examples of things that will hurt you if you are not careful about it, if you are not patient and wait until the time is right. Miss Valente is like that too. "Here are some friends to play with for a few minutes, but be careful, because they only speak the truth and you might not be ready for it, or it might not be ready for you."
The narrator offered very early to let me hold her hand, and I did through most of it, although I must admit I was usually swinging it with impatience... very sorry Miss Narrator, I shall try to be quieter next time. And while I am not quite grown up yet, but still rather one of the big kids, I see now what I didn't before. I see now what she was trying to tell me in the first interlude. And while I understood what she was saying, I was still annoyed and impatient because it took EVER so long to find September and Saturday and Ell, and it is SUCH a little book after all. Mostly I was bitter about the first interlude because I didn't WANT to understand what she was saying, I WANTED September, and I wanted to be allowed to be petulant about it. And that's probably part of why I couldn't have her when I wanted her. Mostly it was because the story was not ready and partly because I wasn't. I don't know what I would do without this narrator, she is very excellent.
So even though I worried my way through this book, I remembered by the end that I trust Miss Valente. Even if it hurts it will still be true, and really that's why I come to her.
Even so, this is a long wait with only a sip of tea and a very small piece of cookie.
futurememory's review
2.0
Ugh, this actively hurts, because I really didn't enjoy the latest installment of my beloved series at all.
I adore Cat Valente, but here, it just feels like she's spinning her wheels. The entire book was just one big aside. The actual action doesn't happen until the last 15-20 pages or so. It all felt very... inconsequential, and slapdash, actually. Obviously, the prose is beyond beautiful and lovely, lush and plush and robust in all the best ways. And while it's typically purple here, it's too purple. The descriptions and the tangents and monologues don't really add up to much of anything. The story doesn't have enough of a driving force, enough of a plot or hook. Which is fine, but the meandering doesn't actually add up to anything meaningful.
Sigh. I will be reading the last Fairyland book, because I'm very curious to see what happens, but this entry just made me extremely sad.
I adore Cat Valente, but here, it just feels like she's spinning her wheels. The entire book was just one big aside. The actual action doesn't happen until the last 15-20 pages or so. It all felt very... inconsequential, and slapdash, actually. Obviously, the prose is beyond beautiful and lovely, lush and plush and robust in all the best ways. And while it's typically purple here, it's too purple. The descriptions and the tangents and monologues don't really add up to much of anything. The story doesn't have enough of a driving force, enough of a plot or hook. Which is fine, but the meandering doesn't actually add up to anything meaningful.
Sigh. I will be reading the last Fairyland book, because I'm very curious to see what happens, but this entry just made me extremely sad.
settingshadow's review
4.0
My terrible internet ate my review of this book (thanks, Comcast. I hope Catherynne Valente reinvents you as a horrible, inept beast-thing.)
Valente takes this moment to take a hiatus from the plot and September. It's an odd choice in the penultimate book of a five book series. It works in that by backing off to a new character, she recaptures some of the wonder and joy that makes the Fairyland series so special. And by sticking her Changelings into the Real World, Valente gets a chance to play with a different kind of fantasy, which is a great deal of fun. But I must admit I was less invested for the absence of September. Also, great swathes of this book feel quite rushed; it reads more like a novella than anything else.
The summation of my opinion is of course heavily swayed by Valente's bottomless imagination, which is still on full display here, with a post office staffed by Benjamin Franklins, delivering changelings; every type of tree imaginable, a knitted combat wombat and much more. Valente is a true master...but, as much as it pains me to say it, the early parts of the series were better.
Valente takes this moment to take a hiatus from the plot and September. It's an odd choice in the penultimate book of a five book series. It works in that by backing off to a new character, she recaptures some of the wonder and joy that makes the Fairyland series so special. And by sticking her Changelings into the Real World, Valente gets a chance to play with a different kind of fantasy, which is a great deal of fun. But I must admit I was less invested for the absence of September. Also, great swathes of this book feel quite rushed; it reads more like a novella than anything else.
The summation of my opinion is of course heavily swayed by Valente's bottomless imagination, which is still on full display here, with a post office staffed by Benjamin Franklins, delivering changelings; every type of tree imaginable, a knitted combat wombat and much more. Valente is a true master...but, as much as it pains me to say it, the early parts of the series were better.
raypuffle's review
5.0
To be clear I haven't actually read this yet. I don't usually rate books before I've read them but I had to make an exception because of it's outrageously low rating before it's even been released. I've read the previous ones and sure this will deliver with equal excellence.
Update
I've finally read this book and the 5 stars review stands. It's been years since I read the first one so it's hard to compare but this one is definitely my favourite since the first one. The writing is so sumptuous and lush you just want to eat it right up. There is a magical quality about Valente's writing that is both classical and so very unique. Her words are a magic spell. Almost every page there is some quote or some passage I wanted to take note of keep forever. I loved getting to see Hawthorn's story. It's so common to see a human child in Fairyland but to get to see a Fairy child in the human world was an interesting and engrossing change. Reading this made me feel like a kid again. I love these books so much.
Update
I've finally read this book and the 5 stars review stands. It's been years since I read the first one so it's hard to compare but this one is definitely my favourite since the first one. The writing is so sumptuous and lush you just want to eat it right up. There is a magical quality about Valente's writing that is both classical and so very unique. Her words are a magic spell. Almost every page there is some quote or some passage I wanted to take note of keep forever. I loved getting to see Hawthorn's story. It's so common to see a human child in Fairyland but to get to see a Fairy child in the human world was an interesting and engrossing change. Reading this made me feel like a kid again. I love these books so much.
literarystrawberry's review
3.0
I feel bad giving it such a low rating; I /liked/ it, I really did, but I think I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I don't know. It had a lot of good stuff in here! I just... I don't know. I wasn't feeling it. I'm beginning to wish that the first book had just been a stand-alone; maybe the problem is that none of the other books can live up to that one in my mind.