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A review by carlyoc
Finding Faeries: Discovering Sprites, Pixies, Redcaps, and Other Fantastical Creatures in an Urban Environment by Alexandra Rowland
lighthearted
slow-paced
3.0
A cute book but it suffers from not living up to what its cover purports to do, and thus was not what I expected. I thought it would be more about finding whimsy in city life. Instead a more appropriate subtitle would substitute "urban environment" with "north america" or "era of climate change" or even just "modern life." All those themes were more common thrulines than urbanity, which only came up a few times. In fact, the most hammered-upon theme was parallels between human-caused ecological crises and the dimishment of the fairie world.
I did like that the author incorporated a strong attention to social justice. She wrote sensitively about the folklore brought to the southern U.S. by enslaved people and snapshot of North American Indigenous folklore.
The book blends genuine folklore with the author's own fantasy world-building in which scholars have been studying and documenting liminal creatures in a scientific manner. This does make it difficult to discern what is made up by the author herself and what is part of actual history or community myths, especially when she references historical figures.
I did like that the author incorporated a strong attention to social justice. She wrote sensitively about the folklore brought to the southern U.S. by enslaved people and snapshot of North American Indigenous folklore.
The book blends genuine folklore with the author's own fantasy world-building in which scholars have been studying and documenting liminal creatures in a scientific manner. This does make it difficult to discern what is made up by the author herself and what is part of actual history or community myths, especially when she references historical figures.