When I finished Some Kind of Fairy Tale, more than anything I wanted to discuss it with someone else who’d read it. None of this “no spoilers here” “simply whet your appetite” review stuff! Sigh. I promise to be good here and not give away anything too crucial, so I would like to calmly and politely ask you to go get your own copy, read it quickly, and then come back and we’ll discuss it in comments or something. Please?
Some Kind of Fairy Tale tells the story of Tara Martin who disappeared 20 years ago at the age of 16. Now she’s standing on her parents’ doorstep, claiming to have been gone only 6 months in some sort of magical enchanted place that she refuses to name. Could it be true? If so, how exactly? On the one hand, she doesn’t seem to have aged much for someone who should be 36; on the other hand, fairyland doesn’t actually exist in the real world, even though her tales are adult and not really all that fantastical. Her therapist thinks she had a traumatic experience at 16 and this is how she’s handled it.
Obviously, her disappearance devastated those left behind–her parents, her older brother, her boyfriend, who was blamed for her vanishing. How can they deal with her reappearance, which is nearly as devastating, as it breaks down their carefully constructed explanations and is so fantastic and unbelievable?
Since many people see the words “fairy tale” and think “for children” (and Tolkein had lots to say about that!), I will mention that this isn’t a children’s book. Tara’s descriptions of Faery will be familiar to anyone who has studied folklore, combining elements of Celtic mythology (the idea of a shifting entrance and certain “sacred” days) as well as customs dating back to Shakespeare (such as the food or drink of the fairy-folk being dangerous). Her fairyland is definitely an adult place, which again fits in with real folklore, albeit not with Disney. (You really don’t want me to go off on Disney and how they’ve infantilized all our stories, so I won’t.) However, the focus of the novel is set firmly in the cold harsh light of everyday, prosaic life–how her boyfriend dealt with the accusations that he was the one responsible for her disappearance, what it did to his friendship with her brother, how her brother has moved on with his own wife and children, and even a rather delightful subplot of Tara’s nephew and his elderly neighbour, an old woman that some might call a witch.
The book really is, as the title says, Some Kind of Fairy Tale. You could even read it as not a fairy tale at all–except perhaps a cautionary one. It’s a book about family, about people and how they deal with things. It’s really well done, and I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it, and, as I’ve mentioned already, ask that you read it as soon as possible.
Elizabeth does love a good fairy tale, and has since she was a child. Learn more at her blog Planet Nomad.