A review by shanellewrites
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

4.0

I think, if it's possible, that BENEATH FAIRYLAND is even better than CIRCUMNAVIGATED. I absolutely loved it. The whole concept of the shadows in Fairyland-Below sort of as a reflection of Fairyland was fascinating. It played off the concept of good and evil in each of us - yin and yang type of thing. Very interesting. September was just as fabulous a character, only more mature. The writing is distinctive and eloquent. Basically I can't really think of a single miss in this book. Fun, thought-provoking, adventurous, magical, and just incredibly well done. It teaches a lot of well-spoken life principles and I feel just constantly gives the reader food for thought. My favorite part was at the very end when one character (who shall remain nameless for the sake of avoiding spoilers) basically talks about in war/conflict, you're never the same after. You can never forget what you've done. Obviously this applies to soldiers and such, but I think it applies to many other things, as well. When we go through something very difficult or traumatic, we never really forget and in some ways we may never really "get over it". But we can live with it, and we can heal.
I'm not sure if many people would agree with me, but I think this is a really good bridge book between YA (even adult) books and middle grade. It has many classical elements of middle grade, but in a lot of ways I think the way the story is told can be tremendously appreciated by adults.