It's Holly Black writing about faeries, so of course I devoured this series with barely a crumb left on the table. The critiques of the artwork are valid, in that all of the characters have the same overly-contoured, holy-shit-cheekbones appearance, but the style didn't bother me as much as it bothered a lot of readers. A fast-paced story with changelings, faerie lore, magical plots, and teenagers with quirky senses of style. Very Holly Black, and for me, very fun.

Objectively this is not a two-star novel, but for me it is. I love all things Faerie, and Moning writes a Fae-infested Dublin well. So initially I liked this book a lot, and I continued to enjoy the detailed and grisly descriptions of the Fae. But the characters, particularly Mac, annoyed me so much that I was eager to reach the end of the book. Probably not going to continue this series.

This is disturbing and turned my stomach, but it also is masterful in its blending of the twee and the grotesque in the way of a Disney/Angela Carter mashup. Great art. Lingering questions. Things you can’t unsee.

An ambitious volume that seeks to trace the history of fairies in folklore and popular culture from the ancient world to the turn of the Millennium, which of course is the subject of libraries of books. While Purkiss by necessity treats portions of her subject briefly—with increasing brevity as the centuries roll onward—she does so with clarity and manages to pack a great amount of analysis into a relatively small space. There are ideas here that I hadn’t considered in my years of interest in fairies, and these new perspectives made this book highly enjoyable for me. I do find the exclusion of Brian Froud and Labyrinth from the final chapter suspect, but their inclusion would have thrown a wrench into the author’s assertion that fairies are dead in pop culture (an assertion that is impossible to make 19 years after this book’s publication, much to my joy).

When these came out I thought they were too young and beneath me, so naturally I’m reading them now when I’m nearly 30.

First book of 2018! Woot!

Katherine Arden was one of my favorite discoveries of 2017, which I know isn't that original a thing to say, because who didn't read The Bear and the Nightingale last year? So I was happy to see that The Girl in the Tower builds on the good things from the first book while developing Vasya and taking her out of her familiar surroundings. She still is the fiercely independent girl who bristles against societal constraints, but now she's been out in the world and really tested those limits. She's suffered and saved people and proven that she's really a badass, in no small part because of her compassion and her ability to problem-solve when things go spectacularly wrong. (And they do that often in this book.) She is imperfect. She makes mistakes and stupid decisions and takes so many risks. She doesn't listen to people when she should. And I love that about her.

Spoiler

I also love that she knees Konstantin in the balls. Super satisfying. Should have done it sooner. Should do it again.

I cannot wait for the third book to come out in August and teach me even more reasons why I'm glad that I don't live in Medieval Russia. In the meantime, I'll be on the lookout for anything I can learn about Russian folklore, because how have I not given it a second thought before reading these books (beyond liking Baba Yaga a whole lot)? A shame.