Review: A New Dictionary of Fairies by Morgan Daimler

Title: A New Dictionary of Fairies: A 21st Century Exploration of Celtic and Related Western European Fairies
Author: Morgan Daimler
Format: eARC
Pub. Date: March 1st 2020
Source: Netgalley / Moon Books


Book Description:

Fairies are a challenging subject, intertwining culture, folklore, and anecdotal accounts across centuries and millennia. Focusing primarily on the Celtic speaking cultures, with some material from adjacent cultures including Anglo-Saxon and Norse, A New Dictionary of Fairies has in-depth entries on a variety of fairies as well as subjects related to them, such as why we picture elves with pointed ears or where the idea of fairies being invisible comes from. It also tackles more complicated topics like the nature and physicality of the fairy people. Anyone with an interest in the Good Neighbours will find this book a solid resource to draw from.

Review:

★★★★

This is a really good reference book and a comprehensive guide for all things related to fae and fairy folk.

As the title suggests, this isn't a book so much as a dictionary, so things are listed alphabetically in an index, as a dictionary would be. Some of the entries are a really short few sentences, and some entries stretch on for multiple pages. Because it's listed in a dictionary format, it is extremely easy to navigate if you're looking for something specific to reference.

I was pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of items that are included in this book. It ranges from mythology/lore from all sorts of areas (such as Celtic, Norse, and Christianity), there's poets and poems and ballads, there references to actual, real historical accounts/people, and things like how the various fae folk look in appearance, or their demeanor.

Because there's such a wide canvas here, this is a good reference guide not just for magick practitioners and those interested in the fae, but authors and writers as well. There's also a lot of footnotes and research, so you can do further searching with relative ease.

The actual writing itself is a bit choppy and could use a little editing, but it was solid enough that I didn't notice too much.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, thank you!

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Title: The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Format: Hardcover, 328 pages
Pub. Date: February 5th 2015
Source: Xpresso Reads


Book Description:

Tell the truth. Or face the consequences.

Near the little town of Fairfold, in the darkest part of the forest, lies a glass casket. Inside the casket lies a sleeping faerie prince that none can rouse. He's the most fascinating thing Hazel and her brother Ben have ever seen. They dream of waking him - but what happens when dreams come true? In the darkest part of the forest, you must be careful what you wish for...

Review:

★★★

My girlfriend picked this book for me to read. I warned her that I have never read a fairy book that I loved. I was hopeful that this would be the one that broke my streak... But unfortunately, it follows the same pattern. That's not to say this book was bad. It wasn't. But when I closed the book, having finished it, the only thought I had was, "huh." And then I reshelved it and picked up something else to read almost immediately. It's maybe worth nothing (since I know she's a bestseller and lots of folks love her) I had never read a Holly Black book prior to this one.

Conceptually, I absolutely adored this book. The idea of the horned boy in the coffin in the forest is captivating. I love the idea of a contemporary town where weird things happen and everyone in town knows that "ah yes, must be the forest folk." I loved the idea of a strong female character, a knight no less! I appreciated that so much of the book focused on the sibling pair of Hazel and Ben, and I appreciated the LGBT representation of Ben falling in love with Severin.

I also love the cover, though I know that has nothing to do with the story. And, I'll admit, after doing some Googling this book has some absolutely gorgeous fan art that I love.

So much of the writing was well done. Descriptive, flowery, detailed. Things that I look for in a fantasy novel.

But.... I was so bored through so much of it. And it hurts me to say that, because I wanted to love this book. Hazel was pretty unlikable to me. She was forever kissing people for no real plot. I felt like the kid in Princess Bride. She was very tell and not show. She didn't do anything that angered me and I don't think she's the worst. I just didn't find her particularly interesting- and that's saying something when she's living a double life as an Elfen knight!

It felt sort of fragmented. Not hard to follow, but more patched together in an odd way. It's mostly Hazel's perspective, but every once in a while another character gets a chapter, but with no regularity or pattern. They mention how their parents are artists, and how they weren't super great at being parents. But then there's a mention that they were downright neglectful, and there's no real expansion or closure about it. Thing just sort of get mentioned now and then when convenient.

The bad guy comes off almost as a cartoon villain. The sort of bad guy who announces his betrayals and master plans and then is shocked (insert Pikachu face) when the plan is thwarted. Don't worry though, Mystery Inc gets to the baddie before too much damage is done. Then there's the name.... The monster that is sad is named Sorrow. The name of one of the bad guy's assistants is Grim.

There was so much potential in this book, and there were plenty things about it that I liked... Ultimately, it just wasn't for me. If you're a fan of Holly Black's, of fairy related stories, or strong female leads. This may be a book that you enjoy more than I did- it seems that plenty of other people absolutely adored it. I hope that's the case for you too.

Review: Moribund by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge

Title: Morbund
Series: Circuit Fae #1
Author: Genevieve Iseult Eldredge
Format: Paperback, Print, 300 pages
Pub. Date: October 24th 2017
Source: Goodreads First Reads


Book Description:

Dark Fae. Romance. Evil Plots. High school.
Our heroines could be in for the greatest adventure ever.
​
If only they could decide whether to kill or kiss each other.

High school sophomore Syl Skye is an ordinary girl. At least, she’s trying to be. School photographer and all-around geek, she introverts hard and keeps her crush on sexy-hot glam-Goth star Euphoria on the down-low. But when a freak accident Awakens her slumbering power, Syl is forced to accept a destiny she never wanted—as the last sleeper-princess of the fair Fae.

Suddenly hunted by the dark Fae, Syl’s pretty sure things can’t get any worse. Until she discovers her secret crush, Euphoria, is really a dark Circuit Fae able to harness the killing magic in technology. Even worse, she’s been sent to destroy Syl. With mean girls and magic and dark Fae trying to kill her, it’ll take more than just “clap if you believe in fairies” to save Syl’s bacon—not to mention, her heart.

Review:

★★★

I wanted to love this book, really I did. It has a lot going for it, but unfortunately for me it just fell a bit fact.

Plus, the cover is beautiful. I would love to have a print of it on my wall.

I love books with gothic/punk characters. And this book definitely has one. Euphoria seems so cool. She's a gothic musician and a dark fae, and she's pretty bad ass. She has a great sense of loyalty and of sticking up for what she wants. Plus, she's LGBT. So, I absolutely love this character. I love the idea of taking faerie magic and combining it with technology and a cyber punk type style. It's an original idea, and I think it's a cool one.

The main character, however, fell flat for me. I found Syl pretty irritating and I didn't really care for her. I love that she loves girls. I love that she has a sense of fighting for what's right. But everything else about her just bugged me. She makes so many emo jokes, and self depreciating jokes about herself to the point of annoyance. There's a bunch of catty mean girl drama that's forced and eye-rolling. Her vocabulary also really bugged me- I'm not sure who this book is written for. The whole bad ass saving lives and being in love with rock stars in night clubs thing feels high school to me, but the way Syl talks is definitely more junior high, but it all seems confused. One quote is "so darn sexy".... So she's old enough to be thinking about sex and sex appeal, but can't say damn? It's weird. She can also "sure as heck try" and "holy cats". Not to mention she knows her true identity for all of 3 seconds before she somehow solves a problem that none of the other faeries have thought of.

It's also really hard to differentiate these voices at times. The chapters alternate, but the two characters are written very similarly to the point of confusion.

This book also has what I like to call Batman Syndrome. Remember all those old episodes of the Batman tv show, where while Batman was tied up, the villain would narrate his whole master plan while Adam West struggled to undo the ropes? And the whole time, you're thinking "Why are you telling him all this, just do the plan!" That's what happened here. There's a ton of dialogue and narration but not enough actual story telling and world building and actions. I got kinda talked out.

All in all, this book was a mixed bag for me. I totally understand why people love it, and I definitely love parts of it. But parts of it were just a bit too disappointing for me. I'd be willing to reread this in the future to see if I still feel the same way, but for now I'm going to hold off on continuing the series.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mini Review: The Petite Fairy's Diary by Jun Asuka

Title: Fairies: The Petite Fairy's Diary
Series: Disney Fairies
Author: Jun Asuka
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: December 2017
Source: Tokyo POP


Book Description:

Petite is the smallest fairy in all of Neverland. She’s even smaller than a bug! Petite’s small size makes her clumsier than all of the other fairies in Pixie Hollow. With the Moon Banquet coming soon, all of the fairies must present their talents to Queen Clarion, but Petite hasn’t found her talent yet! Can Petite find her talent before the Moon Banquet in just a few days?

Join the fairies of Pixie Hollow in another whimsical adventure!

Review:

★★★★

I love Disney, manga, and fairies, so the new Disney Fairies Manga series is definitely right up my alley. Though I wasn't crazy about Vidia and the Fairy Crown, I saw that this upcoming edition to the series had a different author/artist so I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did, as I liked this one better!

The characters are really cute, and so is the story. It's a feel-good type plot that goes to show that even if you're different, you're fine just the way you are, and in some ways, even better! I think that's a lesson that we all need to hear every once in a while.

I liked the artwork better as well. I found it more detailed, and it went very well with the words on the page.

I think this is a good book for pre-teens/kids who are just starting to get into graphic novels or manga, though if you're older than that you can still certainly enjoy this book.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Mini Review: Vidia and the Fairy Crown by Haruhi Kato!

Title: Fairies: Vidia and the Fairy Crown
Author: Haruhi Kato
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: July 25th 2017
Source: Tokyo POP


Book Description:

When Queen Clarion's crown goes missing on the night of Pixie Hollow's biggest bas, all fingers point to one thief - the rude and standoff-ish fairy Vidia! To keep from being banished from Pixie Hollow forever, Vidia goes on an outrageous hunt for the crown that takes her from one end of Neverland to the other. Can she find the crown in time to save Vida's reputation.

Review:

★★★

I love Disney. Love love love love it. I'm a big fan of their novelizations and manga adaptations as well, so I was really happy to pick this one up. It's a pretty cute book.

The artwork isn't my favorite, but it's pretty cute.

The story is really simple and a bit lacking in my humble opinion, but I really liked the attention that was paid to the characters. You really got to know them and got a lot of information about them, and got to watch them change over the course of the story.

I think it'd be a good book for the pre-teen age, though it's certainly enjoyable beyond that. If you like Disney or Tinkerbell, or even just fairies, it may be worth checking out. Personally, I enjoyed it well enough but it's not something I'll likely re-read in the future.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Blog Tour: Review, Playlist, & Giveaway: The Last Changeling by Chelsea Pitcher

Title: The Last Changeling
Series: Faerie Revolutions #1
Author: Chelsea Pitcher
Format: Paperback, 360 pages
Release date: November 8th 2014
Publisher: Flux Books

Book Description:

A Kingdom at War . . .

Elora, the young princess of the Dark Faeries, plans to overthrow her tyrannical mother, the Dark Queen, and bring equality to faeriekind. All she has to do is convince her mother’s loathed enemy, the Bright Queen, to join her cause. But the Bright Queen demands an offering first: a human boy who is a “young leader of men.”

A Dark Princess In Disguise . . .

To steal a mortal, Elora must become a mortal—at least, by all appearances. And infiltrating a high school is surprisingly easy. When Elora meets Taylor, the seventeen-year-old who’s plotting to overthrow a ruthless bully, she thinks she’s found her offering . . . until she starts to fall in love.



Buy it here:

Amazon

About the Author:

Chelsea Pitcher is a native of Portland, OR where she received her BA in English Literature. Fascinated by all things literary, she began gobbling up stories as soon as she could read, and especially enjoys delving into the darker places to see if she can draw out some light.
Website | Twitter | Facebook

Playlist:

For my tour stop today, I'm excited to include a playlist of songs that I thought of while I was reading The Last Changeling. They're very different and don't necessarily seem like they belong in the same library, but I have wide tastes. As of now the playlist embed isn't working, but here is my list of songs:

1) Revolution by The Used
2) The Popular Song by Mika ft. Ariana Grande
3) One Day I'll Fly Away by Nicole Kidman
4) Lips Like Morphine by Kill Hannah
5) Dark Lady by Cher
6) Time for Tea by Emilie Autumn
7) Alive by Omnia
8) Broken by Seether ft. Amy Lee
9) It Ends Tonight by All American Rejects
10) I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
11) Revolution by Jim Sturgess
12) Walk Through the Fire by Sarah Michelle Gellar
13) Goodnight Demonslayer by Voltaire

Review:

★★★ ★

Three and a half stars.

This book left me really torn. It wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be, but in spite of that it was still a book that I enjoyed well enough to read in one sitting.

When I first read the blurb of this story, and saw mention of queens and faeries and courts and revolution, paired with the amazingly beautiful winged cover art, I thought that I would be diving into a fantastical, fairy tale book. This is not that book. It is set almost exclusively in our mortal world, and any history of the faeries and their world are told only through the bedtime stories that the lead female, Elora, tells the male lead, Taylor. I'm a bit disappointed by this lack of faerie world building and setting; it's what I expected to be reading. This goes for the character species/beasts/monsters too. I would have liked more time dedicated to explanations.

Now with that out of the way, once I got used to the contemporary earthly setting (which took a while, admittedly), I found myself enjoying this book for different reasons. Though I was bummed by this lack of fantasy worlds, I did like the continuing theme of Elora telling Taylor her story in snippets as a nightly story. I thought it was cute, and it helped to illustrate how they grew towards one another. The characters overall were something I really enjoyed. I liked Elora's "weirdness". She's not from our world, so when she gets here, she has some learning to do. I appreciated the diversified characters. Gay, non-white, disabled, and bisexual characters all make their appearances. I liked watching how Elora's very presence helped to shape Taylor from a quiet, passive outcast into a stronger character, and by end of the book I was rooting for their romance to work. There was insta-love at the beginning, but Elora does keep him at bay, which I also liked.

Back to the LGBT characters for a moment, Taylor and Elora make friends (and gain bullies) by joining the Gay Straight Alliance. They tackle issues regarding same sex couples at prom and equality and as a member of this community, I was really excited to see these elements being featured in the story. We have a lot more freedoms now than in the past, but getting kicked off the team for being gay or getting unequal treatment by school faculty is very alive and very real in a lot of communities. I did think that this was talked about a bit longer or more in depth than Elora's plot needed but hey, I'm not really about to complain about exposure to this topic. Pitcher also had one of the most accurate quotes about being in the closet that I've ever read, especially in YA fiction:

"People hate you and they haven't even met you. But it's better than the alternative... Because when you're hiding, all you do is hate yourself." page 82

Once acclimated, I liked this mix of fantasy and realism. I think it's an entertaining read that has romance, humor, action, and of course, faeries. If you don't go into this thinking it's as fantastical-set as I did, I think you'll enjoy it more. This is a good read for people who like contemporary fantasy/urban fantasy, romance without sex, and mythical creatures from other worlds. Be warned that there's drinking, drug use, bullying, and gay slurs in this book, but they're there for importance.

Thank you to Flux Books for my copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

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Check out the rest of the tour here!

Giveaway:

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