A review by naomiatwater49
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente

3.0

A final installment to this cute little series COULD have been far more beautiful and tied things up nicely. Here’s where this book fell short:

1. Is the writing style professional, understandable, and entertaining? No, this book is really difficult to get through because the author writes FAR too many complicated descriptions that do not add to the plot and take away the meaning of what she’s saying. This novel is hard to understand what’s even going on because you have to wade through a mess of words that are too fanciful for any decent story. There is a way to do this well (which in some earlier books she has), but this one just had to much for no good reason.

2. Are the characters relatable, round, deep, and interesting? Yes. I still love all these main characters, the creativity and ingenious is endless, even just their names fit them well!

3. Are there important and interesting themes, motifs, subtext, and lessons learned, whether obvious or subtle? Yes! I believe all these books are a bit of a metaphor for growing up. September is forced to be ruler of Fairyland in the beginning of this book, and she says she didn’t ask for all of this power and doesn’t want it. Wisely, she is told that she has been working for this power all of her life every time she comes to Fairyland. Well isn’t that the truth in real life? Children spend all of their time trying to become older than they are. They often fight their authority and dream of days where they can be their own boss. They beg for new privileges and independence, but once you become an adult and have all of the independence and “privileges” you dreamed of, it’s not what you think and it’s scary and we want someone else to take responsibility and make decisions for us. On top of this, September has to race everyone else to become queen (which she didn’t want to do) just like adulthood can feel like never ending competition and running a race we didn’t ask for but got tossed into.

4. Is the plot creative, interesting, well-developed, and unpredictable? No. Unfortunately, it’s so hard to distinguish exactly what is happening. I like the premises, but the plot line is murky and frustrating to read through.

5. Is this a book I would want to own or read again? Yes, just because I love other books in this series!