Bones of Faerie

November 17, 2008
It has been 20 years since the war between faeries and humans destroyed everything. Liza, a teenager living in what was once the Midwest, has always been taught that magic kills. When Liza’s mother gives birth to a faerie baby with “hair clear as glass,” her father abandons the infant on a hillside to die; Liza’s mother then runs away, and Liza begins to have magical visions of her own. Petrified that her powers might cause death, Liza flees into the woods with her friend Matthew, only to be attacked by deadly trees and rescued by a woman with magic. The plot quickens as Liza realizes that the woman is connected to her mother’s past, knowledge that propels Liza into a dangerous journey into the land of Faerie, in search of her mother. Debut novelist Simner’s style is poetic (“A land of steel and glass, of towers and sharp angles. A sky the color of dried blood”), but she only vaguely describes Liza’s world. It’s hard to understand how, for example, a faerie differs from humans with magical powers, or what triggered the cataclysmic faerie war. Despite the murkiness, the plotting is strong, and readers will want to stay with Liza until her questions are resolved. Ages 12–16.