The Princess of Nebraska

[bloodygranuaile]

 Book number two of the trio of books with pretty purple covers that I read to match my pretty purple nails, all of which were also fantasy books and the second volume in a series, was Catherynne M. Valente's The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, the sequel to the crowdsourced phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, which I read... oh, several years ago now. Like five years ago or something. How did that happen?

 

In this one, September, now 13 and no longer entirely a child and therefore beginning to grow a heart, makes her way back to Fairyland--but this time must go to Fairyland-Below, where her shadow, cruelly removed at the end of the last book, is now ruler. September's shadow goes by the name Halloween, which is perfect, and Halloween, the Hollow Queen, is stealing the shadows of all the other creatures in the above Fairyland. This is causing some ruckus among the original inhabitants of Fairyland-Below, although not nearly as much ruckus as it is causing in Fairyland-Above. September then finds herself on a Quest to wake up the Sleeping Prince who is the rightful King of Fairyland and see if that helps anything.

 

There are some important themes about World War II and rationing and freedom and what we owe each other and hidden parts of our identities (the shadows basically have the hidden personalities of the people they are shadows of, it's deep)  and especially the perennial question of coming-of-age stories, how to find and know one's place in the world. Some of this is not subtle; at one point, September exclaims, "Folk are just folk, wherever you go, and it's only a nasty sort of person who thinks a body's a devil just because they come from a different country and have different notions." I'm not criticizing; this is an excellent lesson for children, and some people manage to read books that have those messages very clearly but still miss them if they aren't spelled out explicitly enough and grow up to be, like, Star Wars fans who are also Nazis, and weird shit like that. Moralizing in kidlit is good!

 

So yes, where was I, deep themes blah blah blah, but also mostly everything is funny and whimsical and CUTE AS SHIT. There are Night-Dodos and kangaroos that mine memories because they're forgetful without their magic memory jewels and a stern lady minotaur and some scholar-monks that study quests. There is an entire chapter on Goblin Economicks with the best description of Marketplaces I have ever read. There is a Duke of Teatime and a Vicereine of Coffee who have many delightful children who are also coffee and tea types, and there's some other drinks in there somewhere, like the Dauphin of Gin, but they're not talked about much because this is a children's book. September and her companions--mostly the Night-Dodo and the shadows of her companions from the last book--travel through many whimsical different parts of Fairyland-Below and meet lots of whimsical characters, and it could have come off like it's ripping off classic kidlit but it's Cat Valente and instead it's an amazing jewel of a new addition to the whimsical kidlit canon. I love my classics like Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland and the original Wizard of Oz books (of which I read all 16, I think, or at least as many as I could get my hands on), and since I am not actually a heartless child but instead a sappy old lady of 30, there are parts of this book when I cried almost as hard as when Nibs said he wanted to buy his mother a cheque-book even though he doesn't know what a cheque-book is, and if you haven't heard me ramble on about Nibs' mother's cheque-book, it is something I have lots of Feels about. 

 

Anyway. I think there's more books! Hopefully it won't take me another 5 years to read them! Book 3 is going on my carefully curated and preplanned list of Things It's Acceptable To Buy At Readercon.