I finished the fourth book in the Fairyland series, and I shall now review it.
The book
The boy who lost fairyland is the fourth book in the Fairyland series.
It is not about September, but about Hawthorn. Hawthorn is sort of the opposite
of September. She comes from our world to Fairyland. Hawthorn is a Changeling.
He was born a troll in Fairyland, and he was taken to our world by the Red
Wind, and put in a human home, where he grows up. He knows he doesn’t really
belong there, but he doesn’t know exactly where he’s supposed to be.
Thoughts
I love this world, I love Valente, and I love these stories. And while I
really, really, love September, I didn’t mind having this other perspective. It
was really nice to see our world from the perspective of someone who is from
this magical place. And who doesn’t understand this world he has been sent to.
I really loved his rules. So Hawthorn comes to Chicago and becomes
Thomas Rood, the son of Nicholas and Gwendolyn Rood. And the real Thomas Rood
is sent to Fairyland. Hawthorn doesn’t understand the world he’s been sent to
so he writes down rules for how to behave, how school works, how the land of After School works. It’s just really
magical and beautiful. Thomas’ dad is a psychologist, and he keeps telling
Hawthorn that the things he does aren’t Normal, and the questions he asks
aren’t Normal. So Hawthorn writes down rules for how to be Normal, and it’s
beautiful and heartbreaking.
I love Tamburlaine. Tamburlaine is another Changeling who goes to the
same school as Hawthorn and she sort of brings him out of being Thomas, and it’s
amazing. And Tamburlaine is awesome. She grows up in a house of books. Her dad
is a librarian and he has filled their house with books, and named her after a
king in a Shakespeare play, which is great. I like that Valente had a tough,
clever, badass girl even if this wasn’t focused on September.
September is in the story, I won’t say where she is, or how we meet her,
but I thought it was done really cool. At the end of the third book September
is unable to go home to Omaha, and something happens to her and Saturday, and
we get to see what happened to her. And there are little interludes throughout
this book that shows what happened to her parents when September didn’t come
home.
Finally
It was beautiful, and funny, and sweet, and I loved Hawthorn. I loved
Tamburlaine. I loved, loved, loved Blunderbuss, Hawthorn’s patchwork wombat.
And I am so excited that the last book comes out this year.
