Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Read with Gloucester Book Club.

I would have preferred it if the ambiguity was still there as to whether the fairytale was real or not. Having the old lady say that it happened to her sort or confirmed it to me. I liked the psychological aspect and think it would have been better to have turned out to be a psychological issue than true. It reminded me of Life or Pi.

This is my book group’s December read. A work of speculative fiction, it won the British Fantasy Society’s novel of the year award in 2013. Chosen with some trepidation, I really wasn’t sure, but I was looking for a novel with a link to Christmas. So I took the chance and I’m really glad I did. A tale of enchantment indeed. A young woman, missing from home for 20 years turns up on Christmas Eve saying she’s been traveling the world, but where has she really been?

It’s a story about relationships, things not being as they seem, and the power of a parallel world. The relationship between past and present, less of a connection and more of an overlay, because the past is always with us.

Joyce writes charmingly, and I found myself quite mesmerized. So what started as a tentative choice, was vindicated, for me anyway. I just hope the rest of my book club feel the same!