Spell Hunter (2009)

A re-read. I enjoyed it once again. The characterizations are excellent and I love the different take on faery culture and history. [Mar. 2009]

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In general I like the idea of fairies while really resenting their cutesy image (yes, Tinkerbell, I’m talking about you). So Anderson’s debut book, which keeps the tiny size of fairies while making them much more complicated and interesting had that going for it from the start. In addition, it managed to make the faery society both sympathetic and deeply flawed. Very well done! [2009 in books] ( )

Something isn't quite right in the Oakenwyld. The fairies are terrified to go outside, they're losing their creativity, and their numbers are dwindling. Young Bryony has a chance face-to-face meeting with a human that leaves the other fairies aghast and Bryony remorseful but curious. After Bryony comes of age, Queen Amaryllis appoints her as the Queen's Hunter. Bryony is thrilled. Now she gets to venture out of the tree on legitimate business every day and see a bit of the wider world. She starts to question the way things are, and soon she finds herself torn between not wanting to endanger her friends and trying to find out if she can help them lead a better life.

I enjoyed this. I love fairy tales and I love the idea of fairies. Unfortunately, most of the modern books I pick up about fairies disappoint me. They're so very dark and dangerous. I want to see the cute little flower fairies. (Why, yes, I do think Disney Fairies are the cutest things ever!) This delivered the cute fairies with flowery names while also giving me a mystery that kept my attention. This is probably more of a middle-grade book than a young-adult book, but I still couldn't guess how everything was going to tie together and end up. There's a little darkness, a little twisty-ness, but nothing that went too overboard.

Bryony is such a feisty little thing, I couldn't help but love her. She's practically fearless. Fearless can lead to stupidity in real life, and it happened a little with Bryony too. She would occasionally get over-confident and she'd pay the consequences and learn from her mistakes. She isn't content with hearing, "That's the way things are," she wants to know why things are the way they are and if it doesn't make sense to her, she challenges the status quo.

The next book in the series, [b:Wayfarer|6399294|Wayfarer (Faery Rebels, #2)|R.J. Anderson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1261096445s/6399294.jpg|6587991], was just released in the US, and I'll be keeping an eye out for it. This was a nice little break for me.

Pick this up if you don't like your fairies quite so dark. ( )

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, it didn't look like much and the blurb wan't terribly exciting. Knife is captured by humans and is unsure what they're going to do to her... yeah, not much here that I haven't read before.

Knife comes from a tree, she grows up wondering what's going wrong with faery and wondering if it's possible to fix it. The magic in her world is diminishing and things aren't going well for anyone. Knife's curiousity gets her into trouble when she ventures into the human space but what she discovers will change the lives of faerie and human, both.

I did like it, I found it an enjoyable read and probably would have read it quicker if I had the US cover. ( )

Bryony (Knife) lives in an ancient oak tree at the bottom of a garden in an isolated community of fairies. Life is tough, survival is not ensured. When she is selected as fairy Queen Amaryllis’s hunter, her survival skills are put to the test and the pressure is on as the community relies on her hunting abilities. Bryony takes the new name ‘Knife’ after she steals a blade from the humans which fashions it into a formidable weapon. One foe is Old Wormwood, a crow who has eaten several of the fairies and developed a taste for them. Knife tries to discover why the fairies have lost their magical abilities and are slowly dying out. They no longer have any artistic abilities and have lost many traditional fairy skills. When Knife tumbles into the lap of a wheelchair bound human, Paul, the story takes an interesting turn. This is a magically woven and original take on the fairy world. Very enjoyable. ( )

What I liked:Unique worldStrong main characterinteresting relationship between Faeries and humansWhat didn't work as well for meTheme of giving up everything in the name of loveThe writing felt simplistic to me at times (probably due to younger target audience).I'll check out the next book, and see where the series is heading. ( )