Catherynne M. Valente – The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

Author: Catherynne M. Valente

When I was about 75 pages into this book, I gave it a four star rating on Goodreads. I rarely rate books before I read them in their entirety – I have to be 90% certain that an early rating will be the final rating. I gave this book four stars because I was 90% certain that very soon A-Through-L and Saturday and maybe even the Green Wind would show up and really bring the story to life. When I reached the end of the book and they had shown up only for a celebration in the final pages, felt like the story was no longer deserving of four stars. I was so looking forward to spending time with these delightful characters and that did not happen. A lot of new characters were introduced, but I would only place Aubergine in the same group as Ell and Saturday, and even then she just doesn’t have the same presence. I can understand that the author might have wanted to shake things up a bit, have some fresh new characters, but the Wyvern and the Marid were a major part of why I loved the first book, so I felt greatly letdown when they were not featured again.

That being said, a lot of things I loved about this first book were still present in this one – little creative tidbits, colourful prose, ties into the real world, the narrator, an interlude. I liked how it connected with the first book (Oh, the dear Marquess!)  and how it continued to set up the next book for the missing fairies. However, the narrator’s distinct presence and the interlude with the crows were not nearly as strong as in the first book, so I found that a little disappointing as well.

Overall, this book is a good fun read and I would recommend it. I’m giving it three stars in comparison with the first book – I think it would be difficult to follow up the first book with another one just as good, so I’m not too disappointed. Read this book, just don’t expect as delightful and charming read as the first book.