Anyone whose owned a doll realizes - at least once and usually when home alone - its potential to be scary - even horror film sort of scary. Holly Black, one of my favorite authors about faeries took on the rumors about dolls and created a ghost story-ish plot that puts readers on the trail to solving a mystery about (wait for it) Doll Bones. This doll is rumored to have the ashes of a little girl stuffed inside the body - and maybe even her bones. The mystery is solved by kids, but there isn't that Scooby Doo, old man down by the swamp feeling that so many mysteries wind up sounding like near the end.
It is definitely not my favorite book by Holly Black, but its a ghost story with more than a little of her magic realm charm - and gumption - woven throughout the plot. I give this book a 4 stars and might be crafting a set of doll bones - but not out of little girls' ashes - in October when ghost stories are always a good choice to talk and craft about.
Seraphina, by Rachel Hart, Audio book narrated by Mandy Williams
I have read the book, and this time listened to
the audio book while painting. It is
also considered YA, but this book could easily be read by kids younger than
12. The plot is imaginative and
draconic: dragons entering society in their human forms. The author writes the book in an intellectual
tone, symphony terminology, wine discussed as vinters would, and even clothing
mentioned in historical terms. Its not a
swamp monster dragon morphing into a t-shirt and going to a bar. It is historical, high-society dragonry with
princes and footmen. I liked it as an
audio book and loved it as a novel. Mandy Williams did a great job reading aloud
to me while I painted, but something was lost along the way in all the
interruptions and replaying of chapters when some part got skipped. This plot is also a bit over-the-edge. Its not boy meets girl, boy saves girl, but
boy meets dragon who he thinks is a girl, boy is a prince, dragon flies over
the city - nothing gets burned to the ground that leads to scores of deaths or
anything, but it is necessary to stay with the intensity of the plot to keep up
with the writing and get the whole point of the story. If I had only listened to the audio book, I
might not have gotten the sublties in the plot that I got from reading the
book.
In several parts I am ashamed to say that I loved
The Darkest Part of the Forest, but I loved this book. I think it is because of its traditional YA
excursion into what the author in her acknowledgments calls writing over the
cliff. It does go over, but most fae
legends do, and I think she was influenced by her knowing more than just a few
tales from ancient faerie lore.
That's why it was something I should not love. She so skillfully grounds the imagined fantastic with truths about love, lust, friendship, high school parties, the
difficulties of growing up, and even adds alternative lifestyles to the tumult (like bohemian
artist parents and bi-sexual relationships) all while taking the reader through with her
particularly grounded insights. Sort of like clinging to her arm at a high school party, you know everything will turn out okay if you just stick with her and her Hazel, her very empowered yet very mixed up heroine.
I liked
this book's fae mystery allure, drawing the reader literally deeper and deeper
into her forest of faerie folk and happenstance - by choice, even eagerly - awaiting the next jaunt
into the forest with Ben and Hazel Evans leading the way. Ofcourse, you should NOT listen to me. I live next to a faerie possessed land and I
never, ever should have gone 'into the forest'.
You shouldn't either, but this book WILL take you there and it is to the
author's credit that we follow so willingly into the darkest and most mystical parts.
As a parent, I would have
suggested this book to my kids at 16, but that's because I am a mother and an
author of books for younger readers.
Holly Black, also the author of the Spiderwick Chronicles, has a handle
on what Young Adult literature readers demand and I can imagine she has grown
up along with readers of the Chronicles as to still be a favorite author in times when YA is being read earlier and earlier. There is sexual reference, lots of kissing,
beer parties and a little Elderberry wine.
The faerie legend is alive and well and living in Fairfold, the small
town setting of the novel, which seems to be begging for a horror film plot as
tourists and townspeople love the horned boy in his coffin as sort of a city landmark, complete with late
night beer parties and dancing on top of his coffin.
I got so pulled in by her characters and plot, stayed
with her when she wrote us over the cliff, and didn't hate her when it all
pulled together at the end. On Goodreads I gave it 5 stars! At home, I crafted my monthly vlog content for The Faerie Project after Severin, the horned boy, the Dark Forest's Faery Prince. Watch video 1, below and find parts 2 and 3 at the links, here:
Anyone whose owned a doll realizes - at least once and usually when home alone - its potential to be scary - even horror film sort of scary. Holly Black, one of my favorite authors about faeries took on the rumors about dolls and created a ghost story-ish plot that puts readers on the trail to solving a mystery about (wait for it) Doll Bones. This doll is rumored to have the ashes of a little girl stuffed inside the body - and maybe even her bones. The mystery is solved by kids, but there isn't that Scooby Doo, old man down by the swamp feeling that so many mysteries wind up sounding like near the end. 
It is definitely not my favorite book by Holly Black, but its a ghost story with more than a little of her magic realm charm - and gumption - woven throughout the plot. I give this book a 4 stars and might be crafting a set of doll bones - but not out of little girls' ashes - in October when ghost stories are always a good choice to talk and craft about.
- Audiobook.
