"I’m not like storybook girls": Linking and recommending Valente's Fairyland

[juushika]

Follow September into Fairyland:
Livejournal | Facebook
Updates every Monday!
Author Catherynne M. Valente (yuki_onna) is in a distressing financial situation, and among her other projects is offering a weekly crowdfunded serial novel called The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. I could introduce it, but I find that the book does a fine job of that all on its own.

Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her father’s house, where she washed the same pink and yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her, and flew to her window one evening just after her eleventh birthday. He was dressed in a green smoking jacket, and a green carriage-driver’s cloak, and green jodhpurs, and green snowshoes. It is very cold above the clouds, in the shanty-towns where the Six Winds live.

"You seem an ill-tempered and irascible enough child," said the Green Wind. "How would you like to come away with me and ride upon the Leopard of Little Breezes, and be delivered to the great sea which borders Fairyland? I am afraid I cannot go in, as Harsh Airs are not allowed, but I should be happy to deposit you upon the Perverse and Perilous Sea."

"Oh, yes!" breathed September, who disapproved deeply of pink and yellow teacups, and also of small and amiable dogs.

"Well, then, come and sit by me, and do not pull too harshly on my Leopard’s fur, as she bites."

So it begins. Fairyland appears in Valente's novel Palimpsest, teaching one of the characters to jump boldly into her new world, despite the difficulities and the cost. It is her inspiration: let it be yours. Fairyland is a must-read if you've read Palimpsest (oh, lupanotte!), but it also stands alone and is suitable for young audiences. September is ill-tempered and brave, fairyland is whimsical but not peaceful, and the narrator is as playful as wise—and thus is the story of one girl's journey to fairyland. I imagine folks like delicatetruth and sisterite would greatly enjoy it, but I encourage everyone to go take a look. The third chapter went up this week—in it September finally reaches Fairyland proper and we get our first impression of both this magical but disturbed place and the plot to come—and it has cemented my love for the book. I recommend it wholeheartedly: it has been a joy to read thus far, promises much to come, and Valente is a solid, seasoned, skillful writer who I trust to carry on strong to the end.

If you want to, read. If you can, donate. Visit Fairyland.