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Fairyland #4
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland
When a young troll named Hawthorn is stolen from Fairyland by the Red Wind, he becomes a changeling – a human boy -- in the strange city of Chicago, a place no less bizarre and magical than Fairyland when seen through trollish eyes. Left with a human family, Hawthorn struggles with his troll nature and his changeling fate. But when he turns twelve, he stumbles upon a way back home, to a Fairyland much changed from the one he remembers. Hawthorn finds himself at the center of a changeling revolution--until he comes face to face with a beautiful young Scientiste with very big, very red assistant.
Time magazine has praised Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland books as "one of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century." In this fourth installment of her saga, Valente 's wisdom and wit will charm readers of all ages.
Time magazine has praised Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland books as "one of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century." In this fourth installment of her saga, Valente 's wisdom and wit will charm readers of all ages.
235 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2015
About the author
Catherynne M. Valente
245 books7,600 followersCatherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and camphor wilds of Japan.
She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.
She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 470 reviews
February 9, 2017
So how do you judge an exemplary YA adventure that stands out heads and shoulders above everything you've ever read in the field?
You don't. Or, at the very least, you judge it by the others in the series.
So that's what I'll do.
Unfortunately for me, I still can't decide between the first book and this one as being my favorite! UGGHH....
Sure, there happens to be another revolution, but this time it's all for the changelings. We even get a small role for September, and my previously ignorant prediction of seeing more of Saturday was a woefully misbegotten sentiment.
So just how wonderful is it to see a little troll boy grow up in Chicago?
Let me tell you: IT WAS SPECTACULAR.
Everything is turned on it's head from the previous books, and yet it's all so damn close. We've got a There and Back Again coming from exactly the wrong direction as the previous books, and what do you know? I actually prefer it! Did I see myself all in Thomas? Oh yes. Do I feel like doing a ton of Trollish things? Oh yes. Did I delight in rediscovering that I'm not NORMAL? Oh yes, yes, yes, Indeed, Yes. :)
Did a few tears fall from my eyes?
Yeah, surprisingly.
So beautiful. So utterly charming.
You don't. Or, at the very least, you judge it by the others in the series.
So that's what I'll do.
Unfortunately for me, I still can't decide between the first book and this one as being my favorite! UGGHH....
Sure, there happens to be another revolution, but this time it's all for the changelings. We even get a small role for September, and my previously ignorant prediction of seeing more of Saturday was a woefully misbegotten sentiment.
So just how wonderful is it to see a little troll boy grow up in Chicago?
Let me tell you: IT WAS SPECTACULAR.
Everything is turned on it's head from the previous books, and yet it's all so damn close. We've got a There and Back Again coming from exactly the wrong direction as the previous books, and what do you know? I actually prefer it! Did I see myself all in Thomas? Oh yes. Do I feel like doing a ton of Trollish things? Oh yes. Did I delight in rediscovering that I'm not NORMAL? Oh yes, yes, yes, Indeed, Yes. :)
Did a few tears fall from my eyes?
Yeah, surprisingly.
So beautiful. So utterly charming.
July 29, 2015
[7/10]
Look around you, little blind mouse! Everything rhymes! There's the Guava Grove on the edge of Lava Cove, the Savannah of Bananas, beaches full of peaches, moonflowers growing in the evening hours. And look there! the pink-backed snake basks in the shade of the ink-black mandrake, the cuckoos in the bamboo, the wide-mouthed frogs in the seaside bogs, the crocodiles sleeping in the hollyhock isles, the ocelots among the apricots, the mistletoe twists round branches of pistachio, the plum trees gossip with the gum trees, dryads tango through the mangoes - and when night falls, the fruit bats and the muskrats and the wildcats and the wombats hold their wild sabbats on their thorny ziggurat! If you look closely at the world you will see that it is made of nothing but interlocking verses.
Welcome back to the carnival of words, to the land of fairies where everything is possbile if you can only imagine it. We have travelled together on and under the surface of Fairyland, and even went up to the Moon and back. What is left for the fourth installment? The rhyming Jungle described above is just a short escale on a longer journey, a waystation for the traveller who is about to leave Fairyland for an assignment to our own planet Earth:
Hawthorn was only a baby still, but tall as a table already. He had made friends with all manner of words and some cracking good ones at that.
Alas, my favorite girl-heroine September is not involved in this new tale (at least in the beginning). The call of adventure is heard by Hawthorn, a baby troll lured away from home by the fickle Red Wind and her Panther. He is reluctant to abandon his happy troll nest full of magic and wonder ( He did not know that to be spirited away by means of jungle cat means that one may reasonably expect a heaping helping of adventure, a pot of daring feats to dip it in, and a hunk of wild coincidence to mop it all up. ), but the Red Wind is persuasive and the boy is half kidnapped, half enchanted into the journey. Crossing between realms is not an easy feat. In previous books the deed was done only with the help of the magic Winds and their pet companions. For Hawthorn there is a special delivery, courtesy of one of the most loved public institutions, both in our reality and on Fairyland:
Greater Fairyland Postal Service
Station No. 1
Neither Rough Storms nor Glamours nor
Firedrakes nor Gloomy Naiads with Their Dresses Off
Stays These Couriers from the Swift-ish
Completion of Their Appointed Rounds
The wicked disposition of the Red Wind soon becomes apparent, as Hawthorn is instructed into the rules and regulations of living in the realm of the humans. In order to maintain the balance, for every faery that comes to Earth, a human child must transfer to Fairyland. These are known as changelings, and one of the conditions for travel is that their memories are erased. Hawthorn becomes Thomas Rood, a human boy who still believes in his inner heart that the world around him is filled with magic and that all objects and creatures will converse with him, if only he calls them by their true name.
He called their cantankerous oven Hephaestus, the laundry tub and washboard Beatrice and Benedick, the chandelier he dubbed Citrine, the standing radio Scheherazade. His bed was clearly an Amalthea; his toothbrush answered to no name but the Ivory Knight. [...] Names were serious business and no mistaking. You couldn't expect anything to talk to you if you didn't call it by name.
Instead of fun and adventure, the experiences of Thomas are mostly drudgery and complaints about his queer behaviour:
So went the song of Thomas Rood. Something is Not Normal about that boy. Thomas, that is Not what Normal Children do. Stop that racket, Thomas, it's not Normal!
By setting this fourth tale in a more familiar world, Valente loses some of of the extravagance that characterized the previous tales, but is able to tackle some of the thorny issues related to a child's education, both at home and at school. She makes a strong argument in favour of releasing the creativity and imagination of children, for accepting and embracing otherness, for stimulating curiosity and word playing. Bullying is condemned in unequivocal terms, both coming from uninspired teachers and from aggresive peers. Please be Wild and Wonderful! urges the narrator in one of her interludes of breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader directly.
You and I have made a little world here together, a world only we know, with a lovely red door and glinting eyes peeking out from under the geraniums. A secret world all our own inside the one everyone knows about, and a very fine one at that. There is no gravity here, but oh, how everything flies!
and in another place:
A story is a map of the world. A gloriously colored and wonderful map, the sort one often sees framed and hanging on the wall in a study full of plush chairs and stained-glass lamps: painstakingly lettered, researched down to the last pebble and participle, drawn with dash and flair, with cloud-goddesses in the corners and giant squid squirming up out of the sea.
The story of Thomas / Hawthorn the changeling who looks at our world through a multicolored prysm, discovering magic properties in every little thing that surrounds him is one that is better discovered directly from the novel, and not one I should explain in detail in my review here. Expect the unexpected (" Everyone knows that the Equator is a great fat serpent who lays around the whole world and bites her own tail and keeps us all safe from marauding meridians." ), and expect to be taken into yet another fantastic voyage, making new friends and meeting again with old ones, some happy, some beset by troubles. Thomas is blessed with the assistance of faithful companions, like the matchstick girl Tamburlaine, the grampohone named Scratch and a scar-yarn combat wombat named Blunderbuss. Together they will break the enchantments of the Red Wind and make their way back to Fairyland, there to tie the knots of the story back into the threads that include the girl September and her own companions, the wyvern, the marid, the dodo and many others. The scene is set for the next book, with dangers and adventures waiting just around the corner.
I don't know how many books are planned in the Fairyland series, but I believe one more will be just about right. I have started to notice a weakening of the energy and of the engagement with the plot developments, a saturation of the taste buds with the quirkiness and cuteness of the worldbuilding. The series is also moving clearly into more adult territory with September having to deal with larger issues in her life, no longer able to pretend to be just a child with a vivid imagination:
Oh, September. My best girl. I shall tell you an awful, wonderful, unhappy, joyful secret: It is like that for everyone. One day you wake up and you are grown. And on the inside, you are no older than the last time you thought 'wouldn't it be lovely to be all Grown-Up right this second?'
My personal preference would be for the author to put a stop while she is still ahead of the curve, wrap the story up in a final volume and move on to something else. Until this new Fairyland story comes along, I will leave you with a last battle cry from Blunderbuss the combat wombat:
Still life is boring. Never stand still! Jumping bean life!
Look around you, little blind mouse! Everything rhymes! There's the Guava Grove on the edge of Lava Cove, the Savannah of Bananas, beaches full of peaches, moonflowers growing in the evening hours. And look there! the pink-backed snake basks in the shade of the ink-black mandrake, the cuckoos in the bamboo, the wide-mouthed frogs in the seaside bogs, the crocodiles sleeping in the hollyhock isles, the ocelots among the apricots, the mistletoe twists round branches of pistachio, the plum trees gossip with the gum trees, dryads tango through the mangoes - and when night falls, the fruit bats and the muskrats and the wildcats and the wombats hold their wild sabbats on their thorny ziggurat! If you look closely at the world you will see that it is made of nothing but interlocking verses.
Welcome back to the carnival of words, to the land of fairies where everything is possbile if you can only imagine it. We have travelled together on and under the surface of Fairyland, and even went up to the Moon and back. What is left for the fourth installment? The rhyming Jungle described above is just a short escale on a longer journey, a waystation for the traveller who is about to leave Fairyland for an assignment to our own planet Earth:
Hawthorn was only a baby still, but tall as a table already. He had made friends with all manner of words and some cracking good ones at that.
Alas, my favorite girl-heroine September is not involved in this new tale (at least in the beginning). The call of adventure is heard by Hawthorn, a baby troll lured away from home by the fickle Red Wind and her Panther. He is reluctant to abandon his happy troll nest full of magic and wonder ( He did not know that to be spirited away by means of jungle cat means that one may reasonably expect a heaping helping of adventure, a pot of daring feats to dip it in, and a hunk of wild coincidence to mop it all up. ), but the Red Wind is persuasive and the boy is half kidnapped, half enchanted into the journey. Crossing between realms is not an easy feat. In previous books the deed was done only with the help of the magic Winds and their pet companions. For Hawthorn there is a special delivery, courtesy of one of the most loved public institutions, both in our reality and on Fairyland:
Greater Fairyland Postal Service
Station No. 1
Neither Rough Storms nor Glamours nor
Firedrakes nor Gloomy Naiads with Their Dresses Off
Stays These Couriers from the Swift-ish
Completion of Their Appointed Rounds
The wicked disposition of the Red Wind soon becomes apparent, as Hawthorn is instructed into the rules and regulations of living in the realm of the humans. In order to maintain the balance, for every faery that comes to Earth, a human child must transfer to Fairyland. These are known as changelings, and one of the conditions for travel is that their memories are erased. Hawthorn becomes Thomas Rood, a human boy who still believes in his inner heart that the world around him is filled with magic and that all objects and creatures will converse with him, if only he calls them by their true name.
He called their cantankerous oven Hephaestus, the laundry tub and washboard Beatrice and Benedick, the chandelier he dubbed Citrine, the standing radio Scheherazade. His bed was clearly an Amalthea; his toothbrush answered to no name but the Ivory Knight. [...] Names were serious business and no mistaking. You couldn't expect anything to talk to you if you didn't call it by name.
Instead of fun and adventure, the experiences of Thomas are mostly drudgery and complaints about his queer behaviour:
So went the song of Thomas Rood. Something is Not Normal about that boy. Thomas, that is Not what Normal Children do. Stop that racket, Thomas, it's not Normal!
By setting this fourth tale in a more familiar world, Valente loses some of of the extravagance that characterized the previous tales, but is able to tackle some of the thorny issues related to a child's education, both at home and at school. She makes a strong argument in favour of releasing the creativity and imagination of children, for accepting and embracing otherness, for stimulating curiosity and word playing. Bullying is condemned in unequivocal terms, both coming from uninspired teachers and from aggresive peers. Please be Wild and Wonderful! urges the narrator in one of her interludes of breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader directly.
You and I have made a little world here together, a world only we know, with a lovely red door and glinting eyes peeking out from under the geraniums. A secret world all our own inside the one everyone knows about, and a very fine one at that. There is no gravity here, but oh, how everything flies!
and in another place:
A story is a map of the world. A gloriously colored and wonderful map, the sort one often sees framed and hanging on the wall in a study full of plush chairs and stained-glass lamps: painstakingly lettered, researched down to the last pebble and participle, drawn with dash and flair, with cloud-goddesses in the corners and giant squid squirming up out of the sea.
The story of Thomas / Hawthorn the changeling who looks at our world through a multicolored prysm, discovering magic properties in every little thing that surrounds him is one that is better discovered directly from the novel, and not one I should explain in detail in my review here. Expect the unexpected (" Everyone knows that the Equator is a great fat serpent who lays around the whole world and bites her own tail and keeps us all safe from marauding meridians." ), and expect to be taken into yet another fantastic voyage, making new friends and meeting again with old ones, some happy, some beset by troubles. Thomas is blessed with the assistance of faithful companions, like the matchstick girl Tamburlaine, the grampohone named Scratch and a scar-yarn combat wombat named Blunderbuss. Together they will break the enchantments of the Red Wind and make their way back to Fairyland, there to tie the knots of the story back into the threads that include the girl September and her own companions, the wyvern, the marid, the dodo and many others. The scene is set for the next book, with dangers and adventures waiting just around the corner.
I don't know how many books are planned in the Fairyland series, but I believe one more will be just about right. I have started to notice a weakening of the energy and of the engagement with the plot developments, a saturation of the taste buds with the quirkiness and cuteness of the worldbuilding. The series is also moving clearly into more adult territory with September having to deal with larger issues in her life, no longer able to pretend to be just a child with a vivid imagination:
Oh, September. My best girl. I shall tell you an awful, wonderful, unhappy, joyful secret: It is like that for everyone. One day you wake up and you are grown. And on the inside, you are no older than the last time you thought 'wouldn't it be lovely to be all Grown-Up right this second?'
My personal preference would be for the author to put a stop while she is still ahead of the curve, wrap the story up in a final volume and move on to something else. Until this new Fairyland story comes along, I will leave you with a last battle cry from Blunderbuss the combat wombat:
Still life is boring. Never stand still! Jumping bean life!
May 26, 2016
I always thought I would like this volume least of all - boy, was I wrong!
This time we are not following September on one of her adventures in Fairyland. This time we see a wind (the Red Wind) take a troll baby and swap it for a human baby.
Thus, Hawthorn grows up as Thomas in Chicago at the same time September lives (he's only about 3 years younger).
Naturally, he is a fish out of water and doesn't even remember why.
Basically, this book is about being different, not fitting in anywhere and how one copes with that - but also how other people treat you. We have Thomas' mother who loved their little games when he was little but is sort of helpless now that he is older and still "particular".
We also have Thomas' father, a psychologist, who is not at all OK with his son's "unnormal" behaviour.
And then we have
On the other hand, we have the children at school and I cannot begin to describe how pleased I was when the author first described the conflict that so many children have to face at the beginning of school - and Thomas' solution!
And then we have Tamburlaine, Thomas' friend.
So much magic was in this story, even in the chapters when we were still in Chicago. How much I missed Fairyland (just as expected) but still marvelled at how the author conjured fantastical encounters and magical happenings all around!
Again, the author also proves that she is a mage with words. Not only can she make the world (ours and Fairyland alike) come to life and almost suck the reader into the book, between the lines - she also delivers great lessons and notions, some in just one sentence, some longer.
One example is this:
Or this:
When we were finally back in Fairyland, I couldn't get enough. Of course,
And then, finally
One of the most memorable lines in the entire book (or at least one that was speaking to me in a profound way:
So this book, again, had it all: magical language, lively characters, adventure, fantastic Fairyland, glimpses into parts of our world ... and the usual, unusual, magnificent illustrations at the beginning of each chapter (of which I included some throughout this review).
Now it's off to the very last adventure ...
This time we are not following September on one of her adventures in Fairyland. This time we see a wind (the Red Wind) take a troll baby and swap it for a human baby.
Thus, Hawthorn grows up as Thomas in Chicago at the same time September lives (he's only about 3 years younger).
Naturally, he is a fish out of water and doesn't even remember why.
Basically, this book is about being different, not fitting in anywhere and how one copes with that - but also how other people treat you. We have Thomas' mother who loved their little games when he was little but is sort of helpless now that he is older and still "particular".
We also have Thomas' father, a psychologist, who is not at all OK with his son's "unnormal" behaviour.
And then we have
On the other hand, we have the children at school and I cannot begin to describe how pleased I was when the author first described the conflict that so many children have to face at the beginning of school - and Thomas' solution!
And then we have Tamburlaine, Thomas' friend.
So much magic was in this story, even in the chapters when we were still in Chicago. How much I missed Fairyland (just as expected) but still marvelled at how the author conjured fantastical encounters and magical happenings all around!
Again, the author also proves that she is a mage with words. Not only can she make the world (ours and Fairyland alike) come to life and almost suck the reader into the book, between the lines - she also delivers great lessons and notions, some in just one sentence, some longer.
One example is this:
"My mother is a gardener and my father is a librarian. That's nice, don't you think? She minds trees while they're young and he minds them when they're old. There's a logic to the two of them. It's almost like magic.[...]"
Or this:
"[...]I was built to wreck things. I like to wreck things. [...] I got to painting because paint wrecks a white wall, so I like it, but it wrecks it into something better, so my parents like it.[...]"
When we were finally back in Fairyland, I couldn't get enough. Of course,
And then, finally
One of the most memorable lines in the entire book (or at least one that was speaking to me in a profound way:
"As you can see, I'm quite all right. I've never needed a rescuing I couldn't whip up myself faster than the cavalry could get out of bed."
So this book, again, had it all: magical language, lively characters, adventure, fantastic Fairyland, glimpses into parts of our world ... and the usual, unusual, magnificent illustrations at the beginning of each chapter (of which I included some throughout this review).
Now it's off to the very last adventure ...
June 18, 2021
Just as delightful upon re-reading it as it was the first time around - despite the initial lack of Fairyland!
In this 4th installment of the series, we are in Chicago. After the Red Wind swapped a troll baby against a human one, Hawthorn grows up as Thomas amongst humans. It goes about as well as can be expected: not very much.
What is first considered creative and cute, soon becomes abnormal and weird (by teachers, other children and even his own „parents“).
Thankfully, Hawthorn/Thomas not only has a bit of magic with him in the human world (hello, Combat Wombat), eventually he also does discover Fairyland and where he‘s actually from so we get to go back to magical forests inhabited by annoying fairies and other great places until we even meet up with our old friends.
While I did miss Fairyland terribly until we were finally allowed back, I was once again pleasantly surprised just how magical Hawthorn‘s/Thomas‘ Chicago was. Moreover, it was remarkable how much this book felt familiar and made the reader feel at home despite none of the original characters making an appearance (for the longest time).
My review of the hardcover edition offers a closer look (at the plot as well as the illustrations).
As I‘ve said countless times and as the countless quotes I‘ve highlighted prove, Valente is a wordsmith of the highest order. Simple issues like not fitting in / being an outsider or how to be / what makes a bully are examined beautifully and in a way that feels entirely natural.
This audio edition had her partner, Heath Miller, narrating. And he was very charming. First, I like that September‘s stories are all narrated by women while Hawthorn‘s/Thomas‘ story was narrated by a man. It‘s just that tiny extra detail that makes it all the better. But there is also the fact that Heath Miller is really talented and has a very amicable way of reading the story to us. Utterly enchanting.
In this 4th installment of the series, we are in Chicago. After the Red Wind swapped a troll baby against a human one, Hawthorn grows up as Thomas amongst humans. It goes about as well as can be expected: not very much.
What is first considered creative and cute, soon becomes abnormal and weird (by teachers, other children and even his own „parents“).
Thankfully, Hawthorn/Thomas not only has a bit of magic with him in the human world (hello, Combat Wombat), eventually he also does discover Fairyland and where he‘s actually from so we get to go back to magical forests inhabited by annoying fairies and other great places until we even meet up with our old friends.
While I did miss Fairyland terribly until we were finally allowed back, I was once again pleasantly surprised just how magical Hawthorn‘s/Thomas‘ Chicago was. Moreover, it was remarkable how much this book felt familiar and made the reader feel at home despite none of the original characters making an appearance (for the longest time).
My review of the hardcover edition offers a closer look (at the plot as well as the illustrations).
As I‘ve said countless times and as the countless quotes I‘ve highlighted prove, Valente is a wordsmith of the highest order. Simple issues like not fitting in / being an outsider or how to be / what makes a bully are examined beautifully and in a way that feels entirely natural.
This audio edition had her partner, Heath Miller, narrating. And he was very charming. First, I like that September‘s stories are all narrated by women while Hawthorn‘s/Thomas‘ story was narrated by a man. It‘s just that tiny extra detail that makes it all the better. But there is also the fact that Heath Miller is really talented and has a very amicable way of reading the story to us. Utterly enchanting.
September 21, 2015
This fourth installment doesn't follow the adventures of September in Fairyland as the previous three have. Here we meet Hawthorn and Tamburlaine, a troll and a tree girl who hide their secrets in the human world until they find each other, and together find Fairyland. September does of course put in an appearance, but she is by no means a main feature of this story. And to be honest I loved it all the more for it.
As with all Valente's work it's beautiful and lyrical, whimsical and a bit melancholy. This series will forever have a very special place in my heart.
As with all Valente's work it's beautiful and lyrical, whimsical and a bit melancholy. This series will forever have a very special place in my heart.
March 5, 2016
I just want to eat Valente’s words. All of them. They’re like cream cakes and jam-covered scones and fairy cakes with buttercream and cookies with gooey centres still warm from the oven and… Yeah, as usual, Valente’s writing is great in The Boy Who Lost Fairyland, and I’m not sure, but I think I may well prefer it in these self-aware, charming, cheeky fairytales than in her adult novels. It’s beautiful there, too, but here it’s stripped down to suit the audience and genre, and that works really well for it.
As for the story, well. It’s not about September, really. Most of the time. It’s about another Changeling — a Changeling in the opposite direction, who finds our normal world just as strange and magical as his own, and yet… and yet he always knows something is missing, and he does want to find it. He really does. I’m just a little sad that we don’t see him being bothered about being separated from Gwendolyn, his human mother, at the end. That would have been an awesome opportunity for some of Valente’s wise words on children and hearts and home.
I didn’t, perhaps, love it quite as much as I love the books which feature September more heavily, Changeling-child as The Boy Who Lost Fairyland itself is in the series. But I did enjoy viewing everything aslant, and not once but twice — both our world and fairyland turning out to be strange to Hawthorn. (And how will he cope? Will he miss his human family? Will Tamburlaine? I hope we find out.)
And now there’s only one more book? I want it, I want it now — but I don’t want Fairyland to end, not ever.
Originally posted here.
As for the story, well. It’s not about September, really. Most of the time. It’s about another Changeling — a Changeling in the opposite direction, who finds our normal world just as strange and magical as his own, and yet… and yet he always knows something is missing, and he does want to find it. He really does. I’m just a little sad that we don’t see him being bothered about being separated from Gwendolyn, his human mother, at the end. That would have been an awesome opportunity for some of Valente’s wise words on children and hearts and home.
I didn’t, perhaps, love it quite as much as I love the books which feature September more heavily, Changeling-child as The Boy Who Lost Fairyland itself is in the series. But I did enjoy viewing everything aslant, and not once but twice — both our world and fairyland turning out to be strange to Hawthorn. (And how will he cope? Will he miss his human family? Will Tamburlaine? I hope we find out.)
And now there’s only one more book? I want it, I want it now — but I don’t want Fairyland to end, not ever.
Originally posted here.
December 17, 2023
[June 13, 2016]
I talk about rereading this book in this reading wrap-up!
I'm updating this rating to a 4 star.
It kind of hurts me to bump this down because I love this series and I love these characters. I said in my original review below that I just loved this book because I was always going to love this book. I'm invested. During reread, I was better able to see the problems with pacing here that don't exist elsewhere in the series. It goes to quickly and we cover so much so that it ends up feeling incomplete and at times confusing. I mean, this is a fanciful story where capital cities get up in the middle of the night to meet you and you jump into a guy's chest to go to your indentured servitude work, but the best part of Valente's novels is that they present logic and cohesiveness in spite of the fancy.
This book here lacks some of that internal logic and cohesiveness. It seemed a little more of a stretch. I do truly love the characters here introduced as much as our original gang, which makes it even more of a bummer that their story felt rushed.
Valente's writing is as beautiful as ever, and I love her exploration of "normal" human things through the eyes of a Changeling. It was funny and touching and everything I expected of this incredibly talented human.
I ended my original review with a gripe about having to wait until the final book came out. I'll end this one by saying I can't believe I'll soon be done with this story.
[December 11, 2020] Marking for reread and to echo my previous sentiments. This book is my least favorite in the series. It was amazing to read back my own words because I came to the same conclusion 4 years later, and had forgotten that I'd been here before. Unfortunately, pacing is a problem here and ultimately, I feel like this plot is a bit sillier than her other books. It's all whimsical, but something about the circumstances here feel far-fetched in a way the other books never do.
[July 15, 2015] Guys, I was prepared not to love this book as much as the others because I knew it didn't follow September and Saturday and A-Through-L. That was real cute of me, though, because I'm past the point of no return when it comes to my love of this darn books.
Truth be told, it really, really helped that I liked Hawthorne and Scratch and big time loved Blunderbuss. She was super excellent and a great consolation prize for a certain missing Wyvern.
I found that I loved getting Valente's writing set in our human world. In fact, the opening chapters were my favorite (apart from the very end), and there was so much magic in Thomas/Hawthorne's trying to fit in and learning the rules.
Another favorite thing is that I saw from a distance the way this story would converge with the stories previous. I saw it coming, and I was so excited for all of the characters to come together. It's an excellent entry into the larger picture and sets up the fifth and final book really well.
Only gotta wait until 2016 to get there. -_-
[April 29, 2023] Marking for reread.
I talk about rereading this book in this reading wrap-up!
I'm updating this rating to a 4 star.
It kind of hurts me to bump this down because I love this series and I love these characters. I said in my original review below that I just loved this book because I was always going to love this book. I'm invested. During reread, I was better able to see the problems with pacing here that don't exist elsewhere in the series. It goes to quickly and we cover so much so that it ends up feeling incomplete and at times confusing. I mean, this is a fanciful story where capital cities get up in the middle of the night to meet you and you jump into a guy's chest to go to your indentured servitude work, but the best part of Valente's novels is that they present logic and cohesiveness in spite of the fancy.
This book here lacks some of that internal logic and cohesiveness. It seemed a little more of a stretch. I do truly love the characters here introduced as much as our original gang, which makes it even more of a bummer that their story felt rushed.
Valente's writing is as beautiful as ever, and I love her exploration of "normal" human things through the eyes of a Changeling. It was funny and touching and everything I expected of this incredibly talented human.
I ended my original review with a gripe about having to wait until the final book came out. I'll end this one by saying I can't believe I'll soon be done with this story.
[December 11, 2020] Marking for reread and to echo my previous sentiments. This book is my least favorite in the series. It was amazing to read back my own words because I came to the same conclusion 4 years later, and had forgotten that I'd been here before. Unfortunately, pacing is a problem here and ultimately, I feel like this plot is a bit sillier than her other books. It's all whimsical, but something about the circumstances here feel far-fetched in a way the other books never do.
[July 15, 2015] Guys, I was prepared not to love this book as much as the others because I knew it didn't follow September and Saturday and A-Through-L. That was real cute of me, though, because I'm past the point of no return when it comes to my love of this darn books.
Truth be told, it really, really helped that I liked Hawthorne and Scratch and big time loved Blunderbuss. She was super excellent and a great consolation prize for a certain missing Wyvern.
I found that I loved getting Valente's writing set in our human world. In fact, the opening chapters were my favorite (apart from the very end), and there was so much magic in Thomas/Hawthorne's trying to fit in and learning the rules.
Another favorite thing is that I saw from a distance the way this story would converge with the stories previous. I saw it coming, and I was so excited for all of the characters to come together. It's an excellent entry into the larger picture and sets up the fifth and final book really well.
Only gotta wait until 2016 to get there. -_-
[April 29, 2023] Marking for reread.
July 20, 2019
Trigger warnings: Violence, bullying.
20/7/2019
I stand by everything I said last time. The end.
22/3/2016
4.25 stars.
It took me a while to get into this one. It's quite different to the other books in the series, especially given the part where September is barely in it. It's set in Chicago as much as Fairyland, so it's almost the reverse of the other books.
I knew going into it that September, A-through-L and Saturday were barely in it, so I was pretty hesitant. But the characters that we meet here are similarly wonderful and full of life. Hands down my favourite was Blunderbuss, and I can't wait to see what part she plays in the final book in the series, because seriously - she's awesome.
I loved the lists of rules, the quirky weirdness, how September continued to be trickled into the story throughout, and the writing is as beautiful as ever. Basically? It wasn't entirely what I expected from a book in this series, but it was pretty stinking great.
20/7/2019
I stand by everything I said last time. The end.
22/3/2016
4.25 stars.
It took me a while to get into this one. It's quite different to the other books in the series, especially given the part where September is barely in it. It's set in Chicago as much as Fairyland, so it's almost the reverse of the other books.
I knew going into it that September, A-through-L and Saturday were barely in it, so I was pretty hesitant. But the characters that we meet here are similarly wonderful and full of life. Hands down my favourite was Blunderbuss, and I can't wait to see what part she plays in the final book in the series, because seriously - she's awesome.
I loved the lists of rules, the quirky weirdness, how September continued to be trickled into the story throughout, and the writing is as beautiful as ever. Basically? It wasn't entirely what I expected from a book in this series, but it was pretty stinking great.
March 4, 2015
"Sometimes, magic is like that. It lands on your head like a piano, a stupid, ancient, unfunny joke, and you spend the rest of your life picking sharps and flats out of your hair." So true. But sometimes, magic is what Cat Valente does to my imagination and my heart every time I pick up a Fairyland book.
The fantastical adventures continue in this chapter of the story, except this time instead of seeing Fairyland from an outsider's perspective, we see our own world reflected through the eyes of Hawthorn the troll, a Changeling. Growing up in Chicago, he has to learn to navigate the Kingdom of School and the rules of what is Normal. And yet the things that trouble this troll will sound pretty familiar to human readers; he feels uncomfortable in his own skin, wonders constantly what he will become, and struggles to fit in with the Other Children.
If you haven't been following the saga so far, this book is not the place to start--although Hawthorn's story seems at first completely unrelated to September's adventures, there are familiar faces and deep connections between the narratives which will be lost on a new reader. And even though I was a little anxious to hear what was happening with September and Saturday and A-through-L and all our other friends, this was a wonderful story and the payoff was worth the wait. (I also loved that Valente whispered words of encouragement to us every now and then, to keep us going. Wish DWJ had stopped to do that in Castle in the Air, I might have liked it better.)
It helped that the new cast of characters sparkled. Hawthorn is sympathetic without being empty; his best friend Tamburlaine is fragile and brave and talented and destructive. And his pet wombat Blunderbuss is my new favorite Fairyland character, hands-down. A foul-mouthed, deeply loyal, whiskey-bottle-spitting combat wombat? YES PLEASE.
Speaking of, the ending to this book felt a bit like a Diana Wynne Jones story--it rushed up and then was gone almost before I knew it. I found myself thinking "ONLY THREE PAGES TO GO, HOW CAN THIS ALL END???" and yet it did, and satisfactorily, and with the promise of other and more wonderful adventures to come.
The book has only been out a day, and I'm already impatient for the next. Five stars for Fairyland, again!
The fantastical adventures continue in this chapter of the story, except this time instead of seeing Fairyland from an outsider's perspective, we see our own world reflected through the eyes of Hawthorn the troll, a Changeling. Growing up in Chicago, he has to learn to navigate the Kingdom of School and the rules of what is Normal. And yet the things that trouble this troll will sound pretty familiar to human readers; he feels uncomfortable in his own skin, wonders constantly what he will become, and struggles to fit in with the Other Children.
If you haven't been following the saga so far, this book is not the place to start--although Hawthorn's story seems at first completely unrelated to September's adventures, there are familiar faces and deep connections between the narratives which will be lost on a new reader. And even though I was a little anxious to hear what was happening with September and Saturday and A-through-L and all our other friends, this was a wonderful story and the payoff was worth the wait. (I also loved that Valente whispered words of encouragement to us every now and then, to keep us going. Wish DWJ had stopped to do that in Castle in the Air, I might have liked it better.)
It helped that the new cast of characters sparkled. Hawthorn is sympathetic without being empty; his best friend Tamburlaine is fragile and brave and talented and destructive. And his pet wombat Blunderbuss is my new favorite Fairyland character, hands-down. A foul-mouthed, deeply loyal, whiskey-bottle-spitting combat wombat? YES PLEASE.
Speaking of, the ending to this book felt a bit like a Diana Wynne Jones story--it rushed up and then was gone almost before I knew it. I found myself thinking "ONLY THREE PAGES TO GO, HOW CAN THIS ALL END???" and yet it did, and satisfactorily, and with the promise of other and more wonderful adventures to come.
The book has only been out a day, and I'm already impatient for the next. Five stars for Fairyland, again!
August 1, 2017
I escaped back to Fairyland because life had gotten a bit heavy and was in the need of a bit of souffle. This is the first book of the series where September is not the hero.
What? You ask.
Is Cat Valente trolling her readers removing from their eyes her wyverary and wayward girl from Omaha? Is she falling into that dratted conceit of CS Lewis where people can be aged out of Fairyland and find the door barred?
No, not really.
It's just that this is a tale of a troll and a fetch who have to fetch their lives after they are kidnapped.
As before, this is a lovely book. The wordsmithing is delightful, clever, and full of little chuckles. It is an fair story though not a cruel or harsh one. They say it's one for kids, but bah humbug. The wise know better than to trust the labels of marketers. Marketers wield mathematics when books are creatures of magic.
So, I do have one hesitation for potential readers of Lost.
Have you ever gone to a buffet and seen a pile of pies, puddings, cakes, cookies, ice creams, puffs, and just gone a bit too nuts? This book is a little like that. It's possible that it is too indulgent and too stuffed with the things that make it delightful. And sadly, there is a limit on the dessert one can consume. The plot is fine, but the story is a little thin. The characters are delightful, but their ability to act on the world may be less than how the world acts on them. Are they the catalysts of story or just the vehicle through which fate acts? It is a world of delights and wisdom, but one with very little action... even if quite a lot happens.
If you enjoy Fairyland you will not be disappointed. It offers what it promises. It delivers even more than that, but it is the more that may be taxing.
What? You ask.
Is Cat Valente trolling her readers removing from their eyes her wyverary and wayward girl from Omaha? Is she falling into that dratted conceit of CS Lewis where people can be aged out of Fairyland and find the door barred?
No, not really.
It's just that this is a tale of a troll and a fetch who have to fetch their lives after they are kidnapped.
As before, this is a lovely book. The wordsmithing is delightful, clever, and full of little chuckles. It is an fair story though not a cruel or harsh one. They say it's one for kids, but bah humbug. The wise know better than to trust the labels of marketers. Marketers wield mathematics when books are creatures of magic.
So, I do have one hesitation for potential readers of Lost.
Have you ever gone to a buffet and seen a pile of pies, puddings, cakes, cookies, ice creams, puffs, and just gone a bit too nuts? This book is a little like that. It's possible that it is too indulgent and too stuffed with the things that make it delightful. And sadly, there is a limit on the dessert one can consume. The plot is fine, but the story is a little thin. The characters are delightful, but their ability to act on the world may be less than how the world acts on them. Are they the catalysts of story or just the vehicle through which fate acts? It is a world of delights and wisdom, but one with very little action... even if quite a lot happens.
If you enjoy Fairyland you will not be disappointed. It offers what it promises. It delivers even more than that, but it is the more that may be taxing.
March 4, 2015
Sort of upset. Catherynne Valente is one of my favorite writers. I think her tone is remarkable and inventive and exactly how fairy tales should be told. I loved the first two books of series so, so much. Unbelievably much. And when the third wasn't really the greatest, I thought I could let it slide, because it had some redeeming qualities, and I thought it was just preparing for the next two books, which I was sure were going to be the greatest. I loved the premise of this book, and was so excited to read it
But, unfortunately, this just really wasn't great. It was good, definitely, but not great. I enjoyed the parts where Hawthorn was coming to understand himself, and I think they could have gone further. But then once they got to Fairyland, everything happened really fast, and nothing really happened at all, and then it ended with another cliffhanger. Honestly, I think the book needed to be about 50-100 pages longer.
Furthermore, I feel like the writing itself was lacking. Valente's characteristic vividity was still present, but to a lesser extent. I was originally happy the book wasn't overly full of pithy sayings like the last one had been, but then I sort of started to miss them. There were some great moments, and some less great moments. Also, we only really met about three actually intriguing characters.
But really, I think I'm jsut upset about how nothing was resolved. We learned very little, we were told a lot of things that probably could have been shown, and a lot of it just felt thrown together. I'm really hoping the last book will be unbelievable and do all the book justice, because I'm not willing to see this series fail.
But, unfortunately, this just really wasn't great. It was good, definitely, but not great. I enjoyed the parts where Hawthorn was coming to understand himself, and I think they could have gone further. But then once they got to Fairyland, everything happened really fast, and nothing really happened at all, and then it ended with another cliffhanger. Honestly, I think the book needed to be about 50-100 pages longer.
Furthermore, I feel like the writing itself was lacking. Valente's characteristic vividity was still present, but to a lesser extent. I was originally happy the book wasn't overly full of pithy sayings like the last one had been, but then I sort of started to miss them. There were some great moments, and some less great moments. Also, we only really met about three actually intriguing characters.
But really, I think I'm jsut upset about how nothing was resolved. We learned very little, we were told a lot of things that probably could have been shown, and a lot of it just felt thrown together. I'm really hoping the last book will be unbelievable and do all the book justice, because I'm not willing to see this series fail.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2015
I'm kinda conflicted about this one, and it makes me sad, since I wanted to love it so much.
It's not the change in characters so late in the series (only one more book to go): Hawthorn and Tamburlaine are lovely, especially the little troll's struggle to understand human society and all its little quirks and unspoken rules that make absolutely no sense.
It's not even that September and the rest of the characters we know so well are absent for a great part of the book (though, once you get over the book's tipping point, you keep on thinking that CMV is deliberately hiding them all).
It's mostly that, after the aforementioned tipping point, it feels rushed, paler than its predecessors, as if both the story and the author were in a hurry and forgot to properly paint the sketch of a scenery we're running through. If you've ever read Catherynne Valente before, you know that luscious language and descriptions are basically what her books are made of, which makes the lack of it even more disconcerting. It makes me wonder if it had something to do with the carpal tunnel issues she had in the last years, which greatly reduced her writing speed, when she could write at all.
I'm still digesting the ending, which feels somewhat both too late and too sudden. It feels like the book needed 50-100 more pages to really get through.
It's not the change in characters so late in the series (only one more book to go): Hawthorn and Tamburlaine are lovely, especially the little troll's struggle to understand human society and all its little quirks and unspoken rules that make absolutely no sense.
It's not even that September and the rest of the characters we know so well are absent for a great part of the book (though, once you get over the book's tipping point, you keep on thinking that CMV is deliberately hiding them all).
It's mostly that, after the aforementioned tipping point, it feels rushed, paler than its predecessors, as if both the story and the author were in a hurry and forgot to properly paint the sketch of a scenery we're running through. If you've ever read Catherynne Valente before, you know that luscious language and descriptions are basically what her books are made of, which makes the lack of it even more disconcerting. It makes me wonder if it had something to do with the carpal tunnel issues she had in the last years, which greatly reduced her writing speed, when she could write at all.
I'm still digesting the ending, which feels somewhat both too late and too sudden. It feels like the book needed 50-100 more pages to really get through.
December 27, 2018
Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.
It’s rather weird and jarring to go from the last book into this one focused on someone who isn’t September. The narrator nods to that fact, but really it’s no less infuriating: the last book left September in the lurch and I needed to know. It wasn’t so bad on this reread, but still. Still!
It’s not that Hawthorn isn’t a darling and his companions aren’t excellent and that the depiction of our world through the eyes of Fairylanders isn’t funny and wry and all wonderfully aslant, because all of those things are there. Hawthorn is a darling, his Rules for understanding the world are great, Tam is great. But. September!
Reading it a second time and knowing that, though, and having some more patience with it, I did love all the callbacks to September’s story, the little narrative references and mirrorings. It’s all very clever, in a very typically Valente-ish way, and it’s enjoyable to read it and notice what she’s up to. (And that level of the reading is what makes me think the series had so much to offer older readers as well as young: there’s just so much cleverness to savour.)
But I’m still very glad to get back to September and Ell and Saturday when this book is over.
It’s rather weird and jarring to go from the last book into this one focused on someone who isn’t September. The narrator nods to that fact, but really it’s no less infuriating: the last book left September in the lurch and I needed to know. It wasn’t so bad on this reread, but still. Still!
It’s not that Hawthorn isn’t a darling and his companions aren’t excellent and that the depiction of our world through the eyes of Fairylanders isn’t funny and wry and all wonderfully aslant, because all of those things are there. Hawthorn is a darling, his Rules for understanding the world are great, Tam is great. But. September!
Reading it a second time and knowing that, though, and having some more patience with it, I did love all the callbacks to September’s story, the little narrative references and mirrorings. It’s all very clever, in a very typically Valente-ish way, and it’s enjoyable to read it and notice what she’s up to. (And that level of the reading is what makes me think the series had so much to offer older readers as well as young: there’s just so much cleverness to savour.)
But I’m still very glad to get back to September and Ell and Saturday when this book is over.
September 1, 2016
This is the fourth installment in this series by Valente. I wasn't too taken with the #3, but this one did have some lovely passages that took me back to the original in the series.
I found the final few chapters were the key to book #5. This is when we meet September once again (she is the reason we ended up in Fairyland).
This is a quick read, but I still felt like it didn't add much to the series as a whole.
I found the final few chapters were the key to book #5. This is when we meet September once again (she is the reason we ended up in Fairyland).
This is a quick read, but I still felt like it didn't add much to the series as a whole.
February 2, 2021
"Far away from Pandemonium, a woman is crying. Her name is Susan Jane. It’s a very Grown-Up name, and she’s never liked it very much, but then, Susan Jane is a Grown-Up. I’ve not told you her name before now because most children who are not secretly trolls do not call their parents by their Grown-Up names.
But you have met her before. Susan Jane’s sister and her husband make tea and hold on to her and then swap places. Their eyes are so red, poor dears.
“What’s happened to her? Where can she have gone? It’s been three days— where is my little girl? How can she just disappear like that? Just—gone one morning like the sun erased her?” Susan whispers. Her dog, a small, amiable soul who doesn’t know how to make a single thing better but won’t stop trying, licks her limp hands.
“She’ll come home, darling,” whispers her husband, who is called Owen.
“She has to. She’s so clever, you know. She’s all right. Somewhere, she’s all right. I came home, after all, against the odds. Remember?”
Susan Jane reaches out for her sister. Their dark eyes lock, the same eyes. The late afternoon Nebraska sun peeks in to see if it can be of any use.
“Oh, Margaret. Tell me September will find her way back to us. Tell me and I’ll believe it.”
Aunt Margaret drinks her tea. She can’t bring herself to answer. It’s not always such fun, being a narrator. We must stand by and say nothing so very often, even when we know the very thing that would dry every eye and wake up the house again. I’ll put a new kettle on for all of us. Hold tight, Susan Jane. Don’t cry, Owen.
Hush, now.
But you have met her before. Susan Jane’s sister and her husband make tea and hold on to her and then swap places. Their eyes are so red, poor dears.
“What’s happened to her? Where can she have gone? It’s been three days— where is my little girl? How can she just disappear like that? Just—gone one morning like the sun erased her?” Susan whispers. Her dog, a small, amiable soul who doesn’t know how to make a single thing better but won’t stop trying, licks her limp hands.
“She’ll come home, darling,” whispers her husband, who is called Owen.
“She has to. She’s so clever, you know. She’s all right. Somewhere, she’s all right. I came home, after all, against the odds. Remember?”
Susan Jane reaches out for her sister. Their dark eyes lock, the same eyes. The late afternoon Nebraska sun peeks in to see if it can be of any use.
“Oh, Margaret. Tell me September will find her way back to us. Tell me and I’ll believe it.”
Aunt Margaret drinks her tea. She can’t bring herself to answer. It’s not always such fun, being a narrator. We must stand by and say nothing so very often, even when we know the very thing that would dry every eye and wake up the house again. I’ll put a new kettle on for all of us. Hold tight, Susan Jane. Don’t cry, Owen.
Hush, now.
March 29, 2024
Valente does it again but I mean that's to be expected from one of the greatest fantasy authors of this or any age. Seriously. This series ranks right up there with Gaiman's Stardust and Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter in fully evoking the magic and adventure and meanness of Fairyland but it also matches those masterworks on a literary level which is a heckuva thing to say about a YA quintet but I stand by it.
December 16, 2022
I guess this is 3.5 stars, rounded up. I loved the story of the characters we were traveling with, and the descriptions of everything in fairyland (and Chicagoland), as usual, though at the end I was confused about what was going on. Maybe if I had read #3 more recently (or reread), more would have clicked.
February 6, 2022
I have no words. Valente took them all. Damn her. I love her.
May 2, 2021
This was a nice change of pace as we are not following September but a changeling.
August 9, 2022
An interesting interlude. But a bit frustrating because it seemed unnecessary to the full story. Hoping things tighten up in the final novel of the series.
March 20, 2015
For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.
3.5 stars
I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for The Boy Who Lost Fairyland. Catherynne M. Valente’s series is one I believe is destined to become a classic in years to come. The Fairyland series references beautifully the classics that came before, most notable Alice in Wonderland, but has a magic all its own. It is by turns absurd, incredibly deep, and deeply silly. The Boy Who Lost Fairyland is, in some ways, a departure from the previous books, but ultimately proves a wonderful addition to the series.
For the dedicated Fairyland reader, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland is a bit of a startling departure. Aside from our dear narrator, the cast is entirely new for most of the book. That is not to say that the cast is not delightful, but they’re not the dear September and her wyverary who we’ve spent three books coming to care very deeply about. For much of the book, it’s unclear how this story connects to September’s. In fact, the connection of the titular boy’s story to September’s is the purpose of the novel.
The concept is an interesting one. After following September, taken away to Fairyland from the human world, we now travel with a young troll named Hawthorn to the human world. It turns out that these two worlds are driven by Newton’s Third Law, so for every human child taken to Fairyland, a Fairy creature must be sent to the human world. These creatures take the place of the human child.
Hawthorn’s young life with human parents is a rather sad tale, one that can parallel the experience of anyone who feels different. He doesn’t feel like he fits in his own skin for one thing, even though he no longer remembers who or what he was by the time he would be old enough to truly understand it. Worse, he doesn’t understand a lot of common assumptions human society makes and deems common sense, such as:
Hawthorn, now known as Thomas Rood even to himself, has trouble understanding these things. He believes that every thing should be alive, from the family oven to his pencil. It saddens him that they’re not, but he names them all anyway. For what is seen as an overly active imagination, he is shamed and judged by his parents. The main lesson of his young childhood is that he should hide beneath a facade of normalcy, something I believe most kids can relate to.
Things take a turn for the better when he wins over the kids at school with his unique vision of the world. They’re charmed and amused, showing how much better children are at dealing with imagination and why it’s kids that can travel to Fairyland. They find nothing strange in the idea that a desk might think and one day even talk.
The true beauty in this series for me remains in the magic of the writing and the world building. Valente is a master wordsmith. She balances classical, ornate language with a modern, lively feel so well. This is one of those books where I highlight bunches of quotes, because so much of what she has written is clever wordplay, impossibly brilliant, or both things at once.
Though The Boy Who Lost Fairyland may be my least favorite of the series, it is still impossibly beautiful. Valente’s Fairyland books are not to be missed. They are triumphs of the imagination.
3.5 stars
I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for The Boy Who Lost Fairyland. Catherynne M. Valente’s series is one I believe is destined to become a classic in years to come. The Fairyland series references beautifully the classics that came before, most notable Alice in Wonderland, but has a magic all its own. It is by turns absurd, incredibly deep, and deeply silly. The Boy Who Lost Fairyland is, in some ways, a departure from the previous books, but ultimately proves a wonderful addition to the series.
For the dedicated Fairyland reader, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland is a bit of a startling departure. Aside from our dear narrator, the cast is entirely new for most of the book. That is not to say that the cast is not delightful, but they’re not the dear September and her wyverary who we’ve spent three books coming to care very deeply about. For much of the book, it’s unclear how this story connects to September’s. In fact, the connection of the titular boy’s story to September’s is the purpose of the novel.
The concept is an interesting one. After following September, taken away to Fairyland from the human world, we now travel with a young troll named Hawthorn to the human world. It turns out that these two worlds are driven by Newton’s Third Law, so for every human child taken to Fairyland, a Fairy creature must be sent to the human world. These creatures take the place of the human child.
Hawthorn’s young life with human parents is a rather sad tale, one that can parallel the experience of anyone who feels different. He doesn’t feel like he fits in his own skin for one thing, even though he no longer remembers who or what he was by the time he would be old enough to truly understand it. Worse, he doesn’t understand a lot of common assumptions human society makes and deems common sense, such as:
"If you smile, people smile back and usually start liking you. If you scowl, they scowl back and start unliking you. This is true even though smiling means showing your sharp teeth and even though you can smile at the same time as being angry or sad, so I don’t see why people should want you to do it so much, but they do."
Hawthorn, now known as Thomas Rood even to himself, has trouble understanding these things. He believes that every thing should be alive, from the family oven to his pencil. It saddens him that they’re not, but he names them all anyway. For what is seen as an overly active imagination, he is shamed and judged by his parents. The main lesson of his young childhood is that he should hide beneath a facade of normalcy, something I believe most kids can relate to.
Things take a turn for the better when he wins over the kids at school with his unique vision of the world. They’re charmed and amused, showing how much better children are at dealing with imagination and why it’s kids that can travel to Fairyland. They find nothing strange in the idea that a desk might think and one day even talk.
The true beauty in this series for me remains in the magic of the writing and the world building. Valente is a master wordsmith. She balances classical, ornate language with a modern, lively feel so well. This is one of those books where I highlight bunches of quotes, because so much of what she has written is clever wordplay, impossibly brilliant, or both things at once.
Though The Boy Who Lost Fairyland may be my least favorite of the series, it is still impossibly beautiful. Valente’s Fairyland books are not to be missed. They are triumphs of the imagination.
February 1, 2016
Five ginormous, shining, smiling stars!!! I absolutely love this series by Cat Valente!! This fourth book in the series may be my favorite one yet. Valente seems to have written this book as a bridge connecting the earlier adventures in Fairyland, to what I believe will be September's last hurrah in "The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home". This is definitely a series to be read and enjoyed in order. And at the heart of it all, Valente has much to say on the topic of growing up and being true to yourself!! (Always a good choice!) Her writing is just as beautiful and lyrical as ever:
"Look around you, little blind mouse! Everything rhymes! There's the Guava Grove on the edge of Lava Cove, the Savannah of Bananas, beaches full of peaches, moonflowers growing in the evening hours. And look there! The pink-backed snake basks in the shade of the ink-black mandrake, the cuckoos in the bamboo, the wide-mouthed frogs in the seaside bogs, the crocodiles sleeping in the hollyhock isles, the ocelots among the apricots, the mistletoe twists around branches of pistachio, the plum trees gossip with the gum trees, dryads tango through the mangoes--and when night falls, the fruit bats and the muskrats and the wildcats and wombats hold their wild sabbats on their thorny ziggurat! If you look closely at the world, you will see that it is made of nothing but interlocking verses. For everything that is, there is a mirror and a match, a rhyme and a rhythm. Ask me instead what does not rhyme? That would be easier."
"Everybody's strange," Blunderbuss said, pawing the sandwich-mushrooms with her paws. "Everybody's strange everywhere. Most of the trick of being a social animal is pretending you're not. But who do you fool? Nobody worth talking to."
Love! Love! Love! This fourth book is a wonderful installment in the series! I highly recommend it!
"Look around you, little blind mouse! Everything rhymes! There's the Guava Grove on the edge of Lava Cove, the Savannah of Bananas, beaches full of peaches, moonflowers growing in the evening hours. And look there! The pink-backed snake basks in the shade of the ink-black mandrake, the cuckoos in the bamboo, the wide-mouthed frogs in the seaside bogs, the crocodiles sleeping in the hollyhock isles, the ocelots among the apricots, the mistletoe twists around branches of pistachio, the plum trees gossip with the gum trees, dryads tango through the mangoes--and when night falls, the fruit bats and the muskrats and the wildcats and wombats hold their wild sabbats on their thorny ziggurat! If you look closely at the world, you will see that it is made of nothing but interlocking verses. For everything that is, there is a mirror and a match, a rhyme and a rhythm. Ask me instead what does not rhyme? That would be easier."
"Everybody's strange," Blunderbuss said, pawing the sandwich-mushrooms with her paws. "Everybody's strange everywhere. Most of the trick of being a social animal is pretending you're not. But who do you fool? Nobody worth talking to."
Love! Love! Love! This fourth book is a wonderful installment in the series! I highly recommend it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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March 30, 2015Having left us on a terrible cliffhanger in The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland..., Valente teasingly ignores it altogether, or at least affects to do so ("Fairyland is like that sometimes. It just...doesn't play nice."), and introduces us to someone else altogether. In place of young September, snatched away from Omaha to Fairyland, here is Hawthorn, an infant troll taken from Fairyland and brought as a changeling to Chicago, where he's perpetually baffled and disappointed by the world's strange rules, by the way things like lights and desks don't reply when you talk to them, by the sense that he ought to be far bigger and grander than a mere human boy. Obviously, you could consider this a fine metaphor for the experience of any human child who has ever felt themselves to be Not Normal; it works very well as such, but I think I prefer to follow Mike Carey's Lucifer and say no, this is the thing for which childhood alienation is a metaphor. Even when she's seemingly stranded herself in our mute and maddening world, Valente's intoxicating prose conjures something far stranger and truer than reality, something which will ring true for anyone who ever wanted "to tear around the house hollering: "WOMBAT! WOMBAT! ONLY WOMBATS! I AM THE WOMBAT PRINCE OF CHICAGO!"" And I would be suspicious of anyone who has not.
Inevitably, our conspiratorial narrator does eventually lead us back to Fairyland, which once again is not quite as expected; and yes, we do find out what became of September, but only in order to be left on a tenterhook even more suspenseful than the last one. But we forgive, for while we wait for the concluding volume there are sentences here which will survive being turned over and over in the memory, showing a shiny new facet each time.
Inevitably, our conspiratorial narrator does eventually lead us back to Fairyland, which once again is not quite as expected; and yes, we do find out what became of September, but only in order to be left on a tenterhook even more suspenseful than the last one. But we forgive, for while we wait for the concluding volume there are sentences here which will survive being turned over and over in the memory, showing a shiny new facet each time.
January 2, 2017
First book of 2017 finished, and it's a good one! I'm actually having trouble deciding between 4 and 5 stars, so I guess I'll go with 4.5.
Book #4 takes us away from September and gives a changeling story. Hawthorn the troll is whisked from Fairyland by a cheeky wind, and brought to Chicago and switched out for Thomas Rood, a very human child. Hawthorn eventually makes it back into Fairyland with the help of another changeling child and an adorable, magically-sentient yarn wombat, yet I actually enjoyed his time struggling being human in Chicago to be the best parts of the book!
I'm very excited to read the last book because there's a Margaret in it. And she's an Aunt! (I'm an Aunt Margaret x 11, and I won't say whether I've been to Fairyland or not.)
Book #4 takes us away from September and gives a changeling story. Hawthorn the troll is whisked from Fairyland by a cheeky wind, and brought to Chicago and switched out for Thomas Rood, a very human child. Hawthorn eventually makes it back into Fairyland with the help of another changeling child and an adorable, magically-sentient yarn wombat, yet I actually enjoyed his time struggling being human in Chicago to be the best parts of the book!
I'm very excited to read the last book because there's a Margaret in it. And she's an Aunt! (I'm an Aunt Margaret x 11, and I won't say whether I've been to Fairyland or not.)
July 3, 2024
review from NOW:
this is maybe the best book in this whole, entire series and i stand by this. reading this book feels like talking with a best friend, or a heart to heart with your own heart from when you were seven years old and still could play make believe and GOD i want to write like this.
review circa 2015:
I was a little worried when I saw that this book didn't have September and A through L, but I was not disappointed. It was fun to have a large part of the story set not in Fairyland, but in Chicago through a changeling troll's eyes. And though Blunderbuss the cantankerous, passion fruit-shooting wombat was no wyverary, she was an awesome animal companion.
this is maybe the best book in this whole, entire series and i stand by this. reading this book feels like talking with a best friend, or a heart to heart with your own heart from when you were seven years old and still could play make believe and GOD i want to write like this.
review circa 2015:
I was a little worried when I saw that this book didn't have September and A through L, but I was not disappointed. It was fun to have a large part of the story set not in Fairyland, but in Chicago through a changeling troll's eyes. And though Blunderbuss the cantankerous, passion fruit-shooting wombat was no wyverary, she was an awesome animal companion.
June 27, 2016
This was a fun one. It is the 4th book in the Fairyland series by Catherynne M Valente. The 2nd one is the only one I haven't read yet because my library doesn't have it. I liked this from the boy/troll's POV. What a perfect changeling. This book was a great read. I will also say that the narrator did a fantastic job. He was perfect for this book.
September 13, 2021
Out of all the books in the Fairyland series this one was my least favourite but that’s not to say that it wasn’t good, it was still an utter delight to read, I just really like September and her motley crews adventure more. In this tale through Fairyland, we follow a troll named Hawthorn and his friends as he makes his way back through Fairyland, his true home.
It’s a fun, absurd, and fabulous read. Her writing heightens the senses, you can really see, hear, touch, smell, and taste all the beautiful words she is describing. It’s strongest moral is he ability to be comfortable in your own skin, knowing what does and doesn’t feel right to characters own body, and that there really is no such thing as being ‘normal’. I loved Blunderbuss the combat wombat!
The ending was in true Valente style; heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
The story takes its time to finally getting to Fairyland, as the first main part of the book is set it Chicago, which was a stalemate for me personally, as I like full fantasy worlds or maybe 2-3 chapters set in our world and the rest the fictional landscape (if we are talking about portal fantasy).
It is better to read this book in the series as it does connect to the last book, but Hawthorn’s story is completely his own compared to September’s first trilogy.
IG Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Dyjn8Ao...
It’s a fun, absurd, and fabulous read. Her writing heightens the senses, you can really see, hear, touch, smell, and taste all the beautiful words she is describing. It’s strongest moral is he ability to be comfortable in your own skin, knowing what does and doesn’t feel right to characters own body, and that there really is no such thing as being ‘normal’. I loved Blunderbuss the combat wombat!
The ending was in true Valente style; heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.
The story takes its time to finally getting to Fairyland, as the first main part of the book is set it Chicago, which was a stalemate for me personally, as I like full fantasy worlds or maybe 2-3 chapters set in our world and the rest the fictional landscape (if we are talking about portal fantasy).
It is better to read this book in the series as it does connect to the last book, but Hawthorn’s story is completely his own compared to September’s first trilogy.
IG Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Dyjn8Ao...
July 19, 2020
I have a new rating system to explain my criteria for a good book. A yes to each of the following questions gains the book 1 star.
1. Is the writing style professional, understandable, and entertaining? Yes. ❤️
2. Are the characters relatable, round, deep, and interesting? Yes. I LOVE this new introduction to Hawthorn as the main character. This series needed something to switch it up and this was perfect. He is so lovable and funny.
3. Are there important and interesting themes, motifs, subtext, and lessons learned, whether obvious or subtle?
Yes.
4. Is the plot creative, interesting, well-developed, and unpredictable? Oh my YES. was NOT expecting anything! So good!
5. Is this a book I would want to own or read again? Yes, definitely!
ALSO BONUS POINTS FOR BEING SET IN CHICAGO!
1. Is the writing style professional, understandable, and entertaining? Yes. ❤️
2. Are the characters relatable, round, deep, and interesting? Yes. I LOVE this new introduction to Hawthorn as the main character. This series needed something to switch it up and this was perfect. He is so lovable and funny.
3. Are there important and interesting themes, motifs, subtext, and lessons learned, whether obvious or subtle?
Yes.
4. Is the plot creative, interesting, well-developed, and unpredictable? Oh my YES. was NOT expecting anything! So good!
5. Is this a book I would want to own or read again? Yes, definitely!
ALSO BONUS POINTS FOR BEING SET IN CHICAGO!
February 19, 2017
Boek 4 en miljaarde, ongelofelijk hoeveel fantasie deze vrouw heeft, hoe kleurrijk de wereld, de mogelijkheden, de magie.
De hele serie tot nu toe is adembenemend mooi en fantasierijk maar in geen geval kinderachtig of cliché. Het is een prachtige wereld om in te verdwalen en elk hoofdstuk brengt nieuwe mogelijkheden ... tegelijk zijn de gelijkenissen met onze wereld ... onnavolgbaar.
Voor liefhebbers van ongebreidelde fantastische verhalen
http://us.macmillan.com/theboywholost...
De hele serie tot nu toe is adembenemend mooi en fantasierijk maar in geen geval kinderachtig of cliché. Het is een prachtige wereld om in te verdwalen en elk hoofdstuk brengt nieuwe mogelijkheden ... tegelijk zijn de gelijkenissen met onze wereld ... onnavolgbaar.
Voor liefhebbers van ongebreidelde fantastische verhalen
http://us.macmillan.com/theboywholost...
February 15, 2022
I've read the first three of these and will now focus on finishing the series of five books. This is the first that has featured a boy(a troll child, actually. The super-ripe language takes some getting used to but I'll be back at it tonight.
Moving along now as Thomas/Hawthorn the changeling troll-human has returned home(-ish) to fairyland after breezing through years of Chicago grammar school and acquiring exactly(or so it seemed) one friend, fellow-changeling Tamburlaine, a sort-of Pinocchio-person. The theme here seems to be that one must search for one's true self and then follow on from there. To do otherwise is a frustrating and unhappy path. Anyway ...
- Oh No! Someone's head "whips around" =- I'd have thought that Ms. Valente was above and beyond that sort of thing.
I'm enjoying this one the more I read it as the action has shifted back to Fairyland, where Charlie Crunchcrab, onetime Ferryman and now King of Fairyland, seeks the help of our fearsome foursome, who have escaped from dreary old Chicago and will be meeting up with September - I suspect.
- Ms V. has the "Red sky at night ..." thing bass-ackwards.
Finished last night in cliff-hanging mode. The last printed chapter was the first chapter of number 5, which I intend to read now and get the whole thing over with. I find that leaving so much time between reading the first four installments crippled my understanding and recall of plots and characters. Not this time!
- "one thing 'lead' to another"?!?! Methinks it should be "led"
- Too many "you-see's" and too much of things "whipping around."
- Seems like September introduces Aubergine to the gang when Aubergine is not yet present in the scene.
- Name confusion occurs as "Tom" and Tam" get switched.
Moving along now as Thomas/Hawthorn the changeling troll-human has returned home(-ish) to fairyland after breezing through years of Chicago grammar school and acquiring exactly(or so it seemed) one friend, fellow-changeling Tamburlaine, a sort-of Pinocchio-person. The theme here seems to be that one must search for one's true self and then follow on from there. To do otherwise is a frustrating and unhappy path. Anyway ...
- Oh No! Someone's head "whips around" =- I'd have thought that Ms. Valente was above and beyond that sort of thing.
I'm enjoying this one the more I read it as the action has shifted back to Fairyland, where Charlie Crunchcrab, onetime Ferryman and now King of Fairyland, seeks the help of our fearsome foursome, who have escaped from dreary old Chicago and will be meeting up with September - I suspect.
- Ms V. has the "Red sky at night ..." thing bass-ackwards.
Finished last night in cliff-hanging mode. The last printed chapter was the first chapter of number 5, which I intend to read now and get the whole thing over with. I find that leaving so much time between reading the first four installments crippled my understanding and recall of plots and characters. Not this time!
- "one thing 'lead' to another"?!?! Methinks it should be "led"
- Too many "you-see's" and too much of things "whipping around."
- Seems like September introduces Aubergine to the gang when Aubergine is not yet present in the scene.
- Name confusion occurs as "Tom" and Tam" get switched.
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