Wow. I was on pins and needles, not sure if this tale was going to pull through the muck of fairy tale pop culture garbage. Or, worse, turn into some kind of horror tale.

It flirted sometimes with both, but then Joyce pulled it out of such dangers and the ending was just wonderful.

This was a wonderfully original story, yet faithful to what is known of old traditional Faery lore (not to be confused with the Disney-fied junk, which is even worse than the sanitized Victorian romantic gossamer notions of the Folk).

Good writing, wonderfully imagined POV, and deliciously satisfying. ( )

I had read a preview of this book in the summer, but decided to wait until closer to Christmas to read it, since the story opens at Christmastime. I'm glad I waited, because the ambiance of the season really added to my enjoyment.

The story drew me in immediately and had me looking for opportunities to steal away for a few minutes to read some more pages. The story, in short, winds its way through the viewpoints of several characters wrestling with how to respond to the reappearance of Tara, who disappeared 20 years earlier at the age of 16, and claims she has been living with the fairies all that time (although for her it was but 6 months). Every person in the book has a different response, based upon their relationship with Tara, and Joyce does a wonderful job of conveying their hurt, their perplexity, and their happiness at her return. I certainly hope to re-read this book at some point in the future, and I can honestly urge you to read it as well. ( )

ar fi putut fi o nuvelă excelentă, dar așa, lungită cât un roman, sunt mult prea multe vorbe și pagini pentru prea puțină idee (da, idee, că e doar una, bună deși deloc originală, dar nedezvoltată suficient). Are 2 stele de la mine datorită scriiturii foarte fluide, care mi-a permis s-o citesc într-o seară; doar pentru poveste lua 1/5... care poveste? ( )

So, you go off fairyland and spend a few months there, only to come back and find that in the real world, 20 years have passed. Sucks, right? It kinda did. Tara's family does not believe in her story, although some of them are willing to admit that at least she believes in it.

I did like the premise of this book, and mostly it wasn't too bad, but I have two main issues. One is that I couldn't see where it was going for most of the story, and not in an "omgwhatsgonnahappennextImustknow"-kind of way, but rather in an "ok this boring-ass subplot better have a good pay off"-way. Not a great way to write a novel.

And the writing is my other problem with it, because the author (whom I learned halfway through passed away last year, RIP) mixes a lot of writing styles, and I don't see that there's a good reason for this. It's first and third and even second person mixed, with a few different styles mixed in there two, such as journal entries (with not indication that they are that, other than having it outright stated), stream of conciousnessy parts of drunkenness, all-knowing narrator ... it's just a liiittle too much of it.

It also annoyed me that the book refuses to tell you whether or not fairyland is actually real or not, or if maybe it was all just in Tara's head, by really flat-out having the "narrator" say that they won't reveal who they are or whether or not it was true, and then following it up with an epilogue that really only makes sense if it was true or not. The ambiguity didn't work for me.

But definitely not the worst I have read and the premise was pretty interesting. What really happens after happily ever after? ( )

Not what I was expecting, but very readable and compelling. ( )