A while ago I went book CRAZY and bought a stack of amazon goodness.
One particular book I was saving to read on a long train journey. Well, that long train journey has come and gone folks, so here is what I think.
I read Faery Tale by Signe Pike.
Firstly, I think Signe is a fantastic name. Much approval there.
Secondly, about the book. In summation, a lady getting tired of working in magic-less Manhattan after her papa dies. She gets a bit obsessed with faeries and having something to believe in again. So she quits her job and treks around Britain and Ireland for three months on the hunt for faeries to prove that they exist. Along the way she chats to some very cool people. And it’s all a true, honest.
I liked the fact that she was very sceptical the whole way through the book. Like half of her was going “Faeries faeries faeries!” and the other half was going “Really? Faeries? Must we?”. It makes me trust her a bit more I think. I am a bit sceptical of full-on super belief in something invisible with no questions asked. I like a little real-world struggle here and there.
I really liked the fact that she had a normal amount of faerie encounters in a normal person way. I remember reading Doreen Virtue’s Healing with the Faeries and it was BABOOM faerie encounter BABOOM faerie encounter BABOOM in a stunningly rich and coherent manner every time. Awesome to read, but a bit hard to believe, and very hard to indentify with in a that-could-happen-to-me sort of way. Let’s face it, I’m deeply unlikely myself to start seeing faces in tree trunks and bushes and the like a la Doreen Virtue, and the first thing I’d do if I did would be making a trip to the psychiatrist. Signe’s experiences however trot along in a similar vein to my own – weird knowings and feelings, very occasional sightings and subtle co-incidences, almost half non-faery but half super-faery at the same time. Signe is pretty nervous about everything faery as well, and gets easily spooked by stuff like hanging out on hillsides in the dark, which I think is cute.
I especially liked the fact that the faery Signe explores isn’t a new-age-angels kind of faery. I luh-huh-huved all the folklore and mythology snippets she stuck in there, and how she drew from ancient texts like the Book of Invasions and old British folklore to work out what she was looking for. As a result, her faery isn’t all healing and light. It needs to be respected, and is potentially dangerous, with peeps that will help you and peeps that won’t. Faeries tend to get linked with angels a lot in new-age culture, and as angels are supposed to be there to help us in any way possible, it’s assumed faeries will too. Nuh-uh. Faery isn’t here to be our bitch in any way, shape or form. Faery has it’s own agenda, and Signe picks up on this a lot in the book.
All in all, I approve, I liked it, and I would recommend reading it on your own lengthy train journey, especially if you do live in Britain, as it’s completely re-awakened me to all the magic of my country. Maybe I need a little faery road trip of my own.
On a scale of one (which is just pants) to ten (which is ohmygod my life is changed, staying up till 5 am to finish reading then dancing around the kitchen in excitement), lets give it a safe six, which is simply good book, muchos liked.