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The Tangled Leaves of Anniseed

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Tag Archives: Faery

Among Others by Jo Walton

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Anniseed in Book Review

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Adolescence, Faery, Fantasy, Magic, Science Fiction

Amongothers

This is so much the book I’d wish I’d written… an intriguing tale of magic melding with science fiction in the adolescence of a young girl; an elegy to libraries and to the power of words. Teenager Mori has run away from the Welsh valleys, from her malignant mother, and the death of her beloved twin sister, to find sanctuary with her father in England. Sent to boarding school, Mori immerses herself in her love of science fiction, and finds new meaningful connections with those that can share this passion for exploring space and time. But it is the other world of faerie that keeps pulling her back to her roots, and to a final confrontation with her mother.

Whether Mori’s encounters with the elemental fae are real or figments of her imagination doesn’t really matter, neither does her constant referencing of science fiction works (you don’t need to have read them all to understand!); this is a beautifully told story that really drew me in. Mori’s fierce intelligence and independence pull you along to believe every word of her narrative, and I eagerly devoured this story, desperate to know how it ended. And it’s a great testament to the transformative power of reading, and the importance of libraries – so a sure-fire winner for me. Rating:****

Corsair, 2013, ISBN 9781472106537

Chime by Franny Billingsley

15 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by Anniseed in Young Adult Fiction Review

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Faery, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

Reproduced with kind permission of Bloomsbury

Reproduced with kind permission of Bloomsbury

Briony is a witch. A despicable witch who can summon powerful winds to hurt her beautiful sister, invoke devastating floods to cripple her devoted stepmother, and who is sure to be hanged if the villagers ever find out about her wickedness. In the murk of Swampsea her self-loathing festers, as does the swamp cough that is claiming the lives of so many children. But the arrival of clever Eldric starts a chain reaction that strips away the layers of deceit that surround Briony and her past, exposing the myths people spin around themselves in a place where myths are real and often deadly.

This is an intriguing romance that plays with fairytale conventions to create and original and convincing story, one of pure fantasy yet with a psychological resonance that lifts it above others in this genre. Billingsley’s writing is exquisite and she creates a very interesting and sympathetic heroine, and a sure sense of a creepy yet alluring place, beset by all manner of fairytale creatures. In a fiction market itself swamped by paranormal romance, this book stood out for me as something different, and is a delicious read for 12+.

Bloomsbury, 2011, ISBN 9781408803844

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