This one was a pleasant surprise for me. It's not often an author can take an overused trope from YA (fairies) and spin it into something new.
I can't even compare it to Holly Black or Melissa Marr's worlds - except in terms of quality - though it's very, very different in tone and subject.

Simner's style is very quick, sparse and... bleak. Frankly this evoked "Hunger Games" more than "Wicked Lovely." 15 yr old protagonist Liza lives in a village near St. Louis in the dystopian aftermath of the Fairie War. (Believe it or not, the St. Louis Arch is used as a gateway between the Fae world and ours.) It's never stated, but we obviously nuked fairyland and they nature-bombed us - making trees, animals and even water into semi-sentient, vicious enemies humans have to battle on a daily basis while attempting to wrestle a living out of throwback-Depression era conditions.

When children are born with signs of magic in them (like Liza's baby sister- born with clear hair) they're 'put out' of the village. Liza's mother goes insane from this, and leaves her alone with her war-shocked, emotionally numb father. Liza, after a beating, runs away, intent to find her mother, since she's started having visions of her - which means she has magic - which means, she's gonna be 'put out' soon too.

But Liza learns her father's rules aren't always right, or always true.

It's a quick read, and I rather like that it doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary over-emotive descriptions. Given how little the protagonist (and all the characters) know of what's happened to their world,it's rather an asset. This is about survival, not a romance novel.

Glad to see there's a sequel "Faerie Winter". Definitely gonna have to read it.
(PS- yes, I used all the different spellings of 'fairy' on purpose, I'm bratty that way. It annoys the purists & the grammar nazis.)

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Every once in awhile, a book comes along that makes me shake my head in wonder. It might be a fresh take on an old idea, or prose that sings, or characters that are so real they could bleed. Bones of Faerie is such a book, for all those reasons and many more I can't even articulate.

This is my first encounter with Simner's work, and in only the first few pages, I was struck by her stark, emotional writing. When a storyteller can bring a reader close to tears in only the first few pages, you know the book is not to be missed. Her word choice is deliberate and masterful at all times, and more than once I reread a sentence just to savor it one more time before moving on. To sum it up - wow. I have become a fast fan.

Beyond the actual writing, the story of the Bones of Faerie is equally special. Part post-apocalyptic thriller and part fantasy-adventure, the book spins the tale of Liza, a girl with one foot in two very different worlds. She lives in a place where magic has polluted the land, scarred by the Faerie War that destroyed the human world as we know it. Here -- in a land formerly known as Missouri -- the plants fight back when crops are harvested, butterflies burst into flames without warning and formerly gentle animals have been changed forever by magic. Magic is illegal and a scourge on society in this world, and magic ultimately robbed Liza of her mother and her infant sister, as well as other innocent children born tainted by enchantment. It is not to be trusted -- it is to be feared, to be reviled.

So when Liza begins to experience strange visions herself, she knows that she must run away to protect her family from shame -- and possibly, to save her life from the wrath of her abusive, magic-hating father. Liza finds herself lost in the enchanted woods, where magic has completely taken over and even the rocks on the ground aren't safe. To make matters worse, Liza is followed by a strange and ominous shadow that seems to want something from her. Fortunately, an old friend from home saves her life from the feral magic of the forest, and both are in turn rescued by a new, mysterious friend who gives them safe passage to another community that has embraced magic, and learned to live in harmony with it. Here, Liza realizes she can find answers to the mystery of her missing mother, her strange visions and the truth about the Faerie War. But first, Liza must learn to see life through new eyes, to overcome prejudice and fear, and to reevaluate the view of the world she's held since birth. As she discovers more and more about magic and its role in her history, she learns more about her past, her present and her future.

I enjoyed the breadcrumbs of the old world that Simner weaves into her dystopian fantasy. Here, coins are treasures from a forgotten world. Maps are artifacts -- renderings of a world of full of empty roads to cities that no longer exist. It's shiver-inducing, atmospheric stuff, and it's part of what makes this book really exciting.

Overall, Bones of Faerie is a beautifully imagined work that I have recommended to many friends -- even those I wouldn't refer to other "faerie" tales like Marissa Marr's Wicked Lovely books, or Julie Kagawa's delicious Iron Fae series (although I'm a huge fan of both). It's a quick read, full of potential waiting to be explored in its follow up, Faerie Winter.

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Book is decent and the setting is interesting. Kind of like post apocalyptic faerie world. The characters are pretty good, too.

It's not the best faerie book out there, but it's enough of one to hold a status.

If you're into fey, go for it. If not, I don't think you would appreciate fully.

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I really enjoyed this book. I am a big fan of the Fey and supernatural. The story keeps you interested to the very end. Book 2 could be a possibility:)

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I had been wanting to read this book for a long time. Overall it is an interesting book with a creative premise. I thought it was okay, but it didn't blow me away.

It's been twenty years since the fairies destroyed the human world by suffusing everything with wild magic; and twenty years since we did worse to their world. Liza is a girl raised in a town where magic is feared. Anyone with magic is killed. Then Liza's mother gives birth to a baby with silver spun hair and the baby is left to die. After that things start to change. Liza's mother leaves, leaving Liza with her abusive father; then the unthinkable starts to happens, Liza starts to show signs of having magic herself. When she flees the village and wanders into the woods after dark; disobeying the greatest rule of their village, she has no more thought than to escape and find her mother. But what happens when she finds out that her village's way of life isn't the only way of life? What happens when she finds out about the truth behind the magic?

The premise propelling the plot is amazingly creative. A post-apocalyptic world where the final war between fairy and humans tears the world apart. I love how magic suffused every aspect of the world making it dangerous and desperate. The ways that Simner came up with to incorporate magic into deadly seeds and plants was well done. Unfortunately outside of this, I didn't like much else about this book.

The characters were kind of dull. Even Liza is pretty tame until she finally stands up to her father; which takes a long time. They were okay, just not all that interesting or all that engaging. The writing style was very simplistic and this is a very short book. Really I felt like I was reading a book for younger children, except that the topics that the book dealt with (abuse, world destruction, and death) were much to heavy for a younger age set. I guess I just felt like the writing style dumbed down this fabulous concept way too much. Also the focus of the book is very narrow, involving only a few people in a small area. The scope of the world destruction felt like it should involve, well, the whole world. We never got to see outside of the tiny sphere that made up the characters' lives.

Overall is was an interesting idea that was done in a child-like way; the result for me was an okay story but nothing to write home about. I am glad I was exposed to the idea, I wish it had been implemented with more depth and more engaging characters.

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