Review – The Halcyon Fairy Book by T. Kingfisher (3.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fairy Tales/Fantasy
Length: 395 pages
Publisher: NESFA Press
Release Date: June 20, 2017
ASIN: B0732GM3CR
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed eBook from Library
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
“The Halcyon Fairy Book is a delightful collection of wry and insightful comments on traditional fairy tales, originally presented in her blog, along with her first collection of fairy-tale inspired original work, Toad Words.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this as an ebook through Netgalley to review.
Thoughts: I didn’t realize when I got this book that it is two books combined in one. The first section of this book is weird and obscure fairy tales with Kingfisher’s snarky comments sprinkled throughout. The second half of the book is a collection of original fairy tales that was originally published as the “Toad Words” story collection. Kingfisher has been hit-and-miss for me. I really loved her Clocktaur War series and have loved a lot of her more recent novels like “Nettle & Bone” and “Nine Goblins”. However, there are other books she’s written I just haven’t enjoyed as much, like “The Twisted Ones” and “The Saint of Steel” series.
Initially I found the collection of weird obscure fairy tales fascinating and really enjoyed Kingfisher’s comments on them. However, this part started to drag on and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was reading a this a little bit at a time over a longer period of time (unfortunately I got this from the library, so I had a limited time to read it). There are only so many weird stories that make absolutely no sense that I can read one after another. The snarky comments also got a bit predictable and repetitive. So, while this was kind of fun…it’s not something I would read again and I thought it was a bit long.
I enjoyed the “Toad Words” section of the book more. This is a collection of short poems and short stories; each is a twist on a known fairy tale. There is a longer, nearly novella, length story, “Boar and Apples”, which was my favorite of the bunch. I always love fairy retellings and some of these were very fun, while others were so-so.
My Summary (3.5/5): Overall I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I picked this up and it ended up being okay. When I started out I really enjoyed the weird fairy tales and the snarky comments but this section of the book got very long and I struggled to get through it (3 stars). I would recommend reading the first part of this book gradually over time to enjoy it more. The second half I liked more (4 stars). The second half included some short stories I liked and some poems that were so, so. All in all this was a mixed bag for me. However, if you love fairy retellings, it’s worth at least picking up the “Toad Words” portion of it.
