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A review by sueodd
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
4.0
Fun middle grade fairy tale about a girl named September, who in the first book, bargains away her shadow to save a child. She has been back in the real world for over a year, long enough to turn 13, and has grown a heart.
"For though, as we have said, children are heartless, this is not precisely true of teenagers. Teenage hearts are raw and new, fast and fierce and they do not know their own strength. Neither do they know reason or restraint, and if you want to know the truth, a goodly number of grown-up hearts never learn it. And so we may say now, as we could not before, that September's heart squeezed, for it had begun to grow in her like a flower in the dark. We may also take a moment to feel a little sorry for her, for having a heart leads to the particular grief of the grown."
She wishes for the Green Wind to return and lead her back to Fairyland, but instead, trips into it by accident. But things are not what they were when she liberated it from the Marquess. Shadows are disappearing, and taking magic with them. So she sets out to Make it Right. She meets the shadows of her dear friends A through L and Saturday, who are and aren't the same. The shadows, which are now in Fairyland Below, are quite happy to be liberated. She also befriends a Night Dodo named Aubergine, who practices Quiet Magick. And she must face her own shadow, and battle a Minotaur, and rescue a sleeping Prince.
She knew very well what became of Princesses, as Princesses often get books written about them. Either terrible things happened to them, such as kidnapping and curses and pricking fingers, and getting poisoned and locked up in towers, or else they just waited around till the Prince finished with the story and got around her marrying her. Either way, September wanted nothing to do with Princessing.
The book is full of fantastical creatures and settings along with wry observations. It's beautiful to read. This is the kind of book I would have loved and read many times as a child, but that I can still appreciate as an adult.
"For though, as we have said, children are heartless, this is not precisely true of teenagers. Teenage hearts are raw and new, fast and fierce and they do not know their own strength. Neither do they know reason or restraint, and if you want to know the truth, a goodly number of grown-up hearts never learn it. And so we may say now, as we could not before, that September's heart squeezed, for it had begun to grow in her like a flower in the dark. We may also take a moment to feel a little sorry for her, for having a heart leads to the particular grief of the grown."
She wishes for the Green Wind to return and lead her back to Fairyland, but instead, trips into it by accident. But things are not what they were when she liberated it from the Marquess. Shadows are disappearing, and taking magic with them. So she sets out to Make it Right. She meets the shadows of her dear friends A through L and Saturday, who are and aren't the same. The shadows, which are now in Fairyland Below, are quite happy to be liberated. She also befriends a Night Dodo named Aubergine, who practices Quiet Magick. And she must face her own shadow, and battle a Minotaur, and rescue a sleeping Prince.
She knew very well what became of Princesses, as Princesses often get books written about them. Either terrible things happened to them, such as kidnapping and curses and pricking fingers, and getting poisoned and locked up in towers, or else they just waited around till the Prince finished with the story and got around her marrying her. Either way, September wanted nothing to do with Princessing.
The book is full of fantastical creatures and settings along with wry observations. It's beautiful to read. This is the kind of book I would have loved and read many times as a child, but that I can still appreciate as an adult.