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A review by mynameismarines
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
5.0
[March 23, 2015] Putting together any semblance of a review is difficult for me because of all the ways I loved this book and how much I'm loving this series. My notes are really just a bunch of highlights and exclamation points and things I wish I could memorize instantly and internalize forever. Words I want to eat and I wish were my own and I'd love to display. Characters as bright as the setting and a setting as unique as the characters. I want everyone to love this as much as I do, but here is one instance where it wouldn't bother me if no one else loved it; there'd only be more to keep to myself.
I loved the first installment of this series and was a little hesitant going into the follow-up, scared that I would be disappointed with what I found. Not so. The Girl Who Fell is every bit as wonderfully written and beautifully woven as The Girl Who Circumnavigated. It even seems a bit smarter for the line of continuity it created. One scene of the adventure she had in book one has led to a new situation needing solving in book two. Not only that, but we find September a year older, that much smarter, and all of her story a helping darker for the lessons she's learned and what she still has to learn about people, and the burden of having an ever-growing heart.
This story is jam packed full of oddities and details. Every encounter brings a new creature with a new story and I suppose that this could be completely overwhelming. What keeps it grounded for me are the messages Valente sends through every interaction. There is so much to chew on and so many big life observations mixed into a seemingly simple fairytale. Valente does an amazing thing by making Fairyland deceptively accessible. None of her prose feels overly dressed up, and yet all of her prose feels full of life.
The entire premise of this book is a good example. September travels to Fairyland-Below to find her shadow and set things right. At face value, it's the story of a girl and her shadow, yet Valente manages to fit in so much about light and dark and gray and forgiveness and the good and bad things people do and hope and memories and pain and what makes a person a person.
Yes, this is one big squee-fest. I will say that I was a little slow to really get into the story, mostly because I was anxious to see 1- if we would encounter some of my much loved supporting characters and 2- I wanted to know how September would make it out of her dilemma. It was probably my own mindset that made it difficult to settle here, though there is a sort of ambling pace as all the pieces of the new adventure fall into place.
I wish I had more to say. Perhaps one day, I will have. For now: I loved this book.
[April 6, 2016] My full review above does a pretty good job capturing my love for this series. I'm marking for reread and to make one additional note: The slower pace of the first half of the story wasn't a me thing, I don't think. I think this book does just amble a bit more than the first. Something about being already familiar with the world and yet discovering all these new pieces of it just slows the story down a bit. Not enough that this is anything less than 5 stars for me, but the slowness is there.
I loved the continuity here. I think it was frustrating for me the first time around to not get more of the characters I fell in love with, but this time, I appreciated the ones we were introduced to and the way we got some really wonderful and significant cameos.
[April 1, 2020] Marking for reread.
[December 2, 2020] Marking for reread.
[December 4, 2022] Marking for reread. Also, did this cute little live show.
"The smell of loving is a difficult one to describe, but if you think of the times when someone has held you close and made you safe, you will remember how it smells just as well as I do."
"Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight that you end up bound forever in hopeless knots, even to the shadow of a beast you knew and loved long ago."
"But some stories sprout bright vines that tendril off beyond our sight, carrying the folk we love best with them, and if I knew how to accept that with grace, I would share the secret."
"Friends can go odd on you and do things you don't like, but that doesn't make them strangers."
"A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world."
"People will call you whatever they want. New owners, new name. If it bothers you, you oughtn't come when you're called. They'll learn eventually. I rarely come trotting when someone hollers for me. That's all a name's for, in the end."
I loved the first installment of this series and was a little hesitant going into the follow-up, scared that I would be disappointed with what I found. Not so. The Girl Who Fell is every bit as wonderfully written and beautifully woven as The Girl Who Circumnavigated. It even seems a bit smarter for the line of continuity it created. One scene of the adventure she had in book one has led to a new situation needing solving in book two. Not only that, but we find September a year older, that much smarter, and all of her story a helping darker for the lessons she's learned and what she still has to learn about people, and the burden of having an ever-growing heart.
This story is jam packed full of oddities and details. Every encounter brings a new creature with a new story and I suppose that this could be completely overwhelming. What keeps it grounded for me are the messages Valente sends through every interaction. There is so much to chew on and so many big life observations mixed into a seemingly simple fairytale. Valente does an amazing thing by making Fairyland deceptively accessible. None of her prose feels overly dressed up, and yet all of her prose feels full of life.
The entire premise of this book is a good example. September travels to Fairyland-Below to find her shadow and set things right. At face value, it's the story of a girl and her shadow, yet Valente manages to fit in so much about light and dark and gray and forgiveness and the good and bad things people do and hope and memories and pain and what makes a person a person.
Yes, this is one big squee-fest. I will say that I was a little slow to really get into the story, mostly because I was anxious to see 1- if we would encounter some of my much loved supporting characters and 2- I wanted to know how September would make it out of her dilemma. It was probably my own mindset that made it difficult to settle here, though there is a sort of ambling pace as all the pieces of the new adventure fall into place.
I wish I had more to say. Perhaps one day, I will have. For now: I loved this book.
[April 6, 2016] My full review above does a pretty good job capturing my love for this series. I'm marking for reread and to make one additional note: The slower pace of the first half of the story wasn't a me thing, I don't think. I think this book does just amble a bit more than the first. Something about being already familiar with the world and yet discovering all these new pieces of it just slows the story down a bit. Not enough that this is anything less than 5 stars for me, but the slowness is there.
I loved the continuity here. I think it was frustrating for me the first time around to not get more of the characters I fell in love with, but this time, I appreciated the ones we were introduced to and the way we got some really wonderful and significant cameos.
[April 1, 2020] Marking for reread.
[December 2, 2020] Marking for reread.
[December 4, 2022] Marking for reread. Also, did this cute little live show.
"The smell of loving is a difficult one to describe, but if you think of the times when someone has held you close and made you safe, you will remember how it smells just as well as I do."
"Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight that you end up bound forever in hopeless knots, even to the shadow of a beast you knew and loved long ago."
"But some stories sprout bright vines that tendril off beyond our sight, carrying the folk we love best with them, and if I knew how to accept that with grace, I would share the secret."
"Friends can go odd on you and do things you don't like, but that doesn't make them strangers."
"A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world."
"People will call you whatever they want. New owners, new name. If it bothers you, you oughtn't come when you're called. They'll learn eventually. I rarely come trotting when someone hollers for me. That's all a name's for, in the end."