Review: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (Fairyland #2)
by Catherynne M. Valente (Author), Ana Juan (Illustrator)
Published October 2nd 2012
by Feiwel and Friends
ARC from Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

September returns to Fairyland to reunite with A-Through-L, Saturday, and Gleam, and to confront her shadow-self, who has become the queen of Fairyland-Below, the upside-down world beneath the Fairyland of the first novel, filled with creatures of water and shadow, tales of ancient Fairyland before the human world was born, and not a few hungry buffins, blind birds of ice and moonlight. The yearly revels of Fairyland-Below climax in a mysterious rite September must avert or else lose her shadow forever.

Thoughts:
As in the first book, September yet again stumbled upon the Fairyland and found herself in unusual circumstances. Apparently the folks in Fairyland have forgotten about September's earlier adventures and how she defeated the mischievous Marquess and restore order in Fairyland. Now, Charlie Crunchcrab; the ferryman has become King Crunchcrab but all is not well in Fairyland since the shadows from Fairyland-below are stealing people's shadows which created utmost chaos. It's up to September once again to confront the shadows and fix things up in Fairyland since her actions in the first book inadvertently cause the shadows to become rebellious in the first place.

I think it takes a certain type of people to really appreciate Valente's style of writing. It's whimsical, quirky and dark humour may not appeal to everyone and the astounding vocabulary even made me scratch my head a couple of times.

But for those who have the patience and the flair for this kind of writing will indeed truly appreciate the creativity and the extraordinary talent needed to create such immense and rich fantasy world that equals Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, C.S. Lewis Narnia or even L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz.

I really enjoyed the series but in reality I'm not sure kids will enjoy let alone understand the story. If I'm going to read the book to my little son, a dictionary will indeed be helpful. Or maybe a chart depicting all the characters since I had a hard time explaining how a Hreinn looks like.

Verdict: 4 stars.
In my Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge 
Available on: Amazon