This book does one amazing, 5 star thing for me - it goes to battle against grief using whimsy as a weapon. Not surprising though, coming from an author who is a pediatric oncologist. Many years ago, I spent quite a bit of time in this hospital ward, when my friend's child developed brain cancer. The ward did battle in the same way, with its bright colors, toys, posters, games, glitter, face paint, etc.

But while grief underpins the book, the story itself is a magical romp, drawing on elements from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It isn't a retelling of Shakespeare - although it did get nearly as convoluted in parts. There are fairies, magic, Peter Pan-like lost boys, a play within a play (Soylent Green!), and three lovelorn adults who are each lost in their own way. And there's lots of fairy sex :)

The only thing that kept me from rating this book higher was the need for tighter editing, especially when it came to wandering in the park/forest. I think it would also have benefitted from more breaks in the layout - there were too many pages of dense text, barely broken by paragraphs or dialogue. I think by the end I was feeling a bit exhausted and less able to make connections between story threads and characters.