The Treachery of Beautiful Things

July 2, 2012
Like the myriad tales and ballads that are her sources, fantasy author Long, in her first YA book, presents Faerie as a dazzle of strange creatures, unknowable motives, and threat. Caught in the chaos is 17-year-old Jenny, whose brother, Tom, was snatched by a tree-man seven years earlier. Seeking catharsis for her guilt, Jenny goes to the edge of the wood and hears the flute Tom always played. She plunges after it into a primeval world. Long’s rich knowledge of folklore is the blessing and the curse of her plot: each scene is vividly, often horrifically imagined, but there are too many characters, terrors to fear, and secrets to parse. Puck, the Wild Hunt, Redcaps, the greenman, the court of the Sidhe—everything gets a turn. Individual episodes play out like the short tales from which they derive, but do not cohere to build steady narrative tension. Long is a solid writer, but when nearly every encounter ends in betrayal, it’s difficult not to grow jaded by the parade of wonders. Ages 12–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary and Media.

July 1, 2012
Entrapment in a faerie forest has never been so delectable yet thorny, green yet purple, romantic yet sacrificial. Years ago, Jenny and her brother walked past a copse. His flute-playing excited the trees, which grabbed him and stole him. After seven years of nightmares and psychiatrists, Jenny returns to the copse and gets swirled into the Realm, which is teeming with fae. These range from Folletti, whose "wings [make] different colored lights as they fluttered," to archetypal figures Titania, Oberon and Puck (though this is no Midsummer Night's Dream). Trees, leaves and soil make a palpable forest setting through which Jenny runs, bleeds and swoons, seeking her brother. She's fierce and steely when necessary, yet falls for a broken fae boy so she can fix him; when he warns her he's dangerous, she doesn't believe him, which the text constructs as love. Amid tangled vines of motive and alliance, savvy readers can discern secrets before Jenny does. Prose grows like weeds ("a flash of light, golden, as bright as newly restored hope"), particularly the descriptions of eyes, which "glisten" both in the sunlight and "like broken glass." However, there's real gravity beneath the overgrowth through a seemingly mundane name--Jack--and the layered meanings of its common-noun forms. As Jenny and Jack prevail over curses, thorns, blood tithes and hidden identities, this fairy-myth blooms past floridness into a worthy, memorable read (with movie potential). (Fantasy. 12-16)

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October 1, 2012

Gr 7 Up-As a child Jenny saw her older brother Tom swallowed up by trees that came to life. At 17, she has struggled for years with what she saw. No one believed her story, her parents have withdrawn into sorrow for their missing son, and she is ostracized by her peers. When preparing to leave for university, Jenny decides to visit the spot of Tom's snatching, and while there she hears music, the kind only her prodigy of a brother could make, and she runs into the wood searching for him-despite her terror. The small stand of suburban trees becomes a gigantic forest as she runs, and Jenny finds herself trapped in Faerie. Full of gorgeous beauty, the realm also holds danger, treachery, and intrigue. Estranged King Oberon and Queen Titania both want Jenny for their own ends, and the creatures she meets on her quest to rescue Tom are not what they seem, especially the Guardian of the Edge, Jack, to whom Jenny is irresistibly drawn. He, too, finds her irresistible and wants to protect her, but he is already torn between two powerful feuding Courts. Also, Jenny unknowingly brings her own kind of power into Faerie-enough perhaps to change the balance of power and free not only her much-changed brother, but even to break the enchantments binding Jack. Vivid imagery brings the lush, dangerous world alive, and the story moves at a brisk pace. The immediate connection forged between Jenny and Jack will melt the hearts of romantic readers and have them rooting for the pair to overcome the impossible odds they face.-Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2012
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* When Jenny was 10, her older brother, Tom, disappeared before her eyes into the forest near their English home. Seven years later, Jenny goes to the forest to say good-bye, and stumbles into the fairy realm, where she learns that Tom is being held captive in the Sidhe court. Jenny's quest to reclaim her brother becomes a fight not only for her life, heart, and soul but also for Jack o' the Forest, with whom Jenny is falling in love. Jenny attracts the attention of both the Summer Queen and the Winter King, and she becomes a pivot point in their courtly machinations. Led by her heart and purity of purpose, she discovers that there just might be a way to save not only Tom but herself and Jack as well. In her debut novel, Long has created a delicious and wonderfully romantic meld of several legends and fairy tales, including elements of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the ballad of Tam Lin, with plenty of action mixed in. Lyrical prose, along with highly imaginative and descriptive phrasing, makes the forest settingand its creatures and peopleimmediately present and sparked with magic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
Seven years after the forest took Jenny's brother Tom, she returns to save him. Aided by Jack o' the Forest, she encounters many dangers, from blood-sucking Redcaps to cruel Queen Titania, during her journey through the Faerie Realm. This ambitious reworking of the "Tam Lin" story (incorporating characters from [cf2]A Midsummer Night's Dream[cf1]) will reward readers with rich, vivid writing and a sympathetic heroine.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)