Martin Millar

What a remarkably strange book! Meet Ruby through the eyes of an unnamed protagonist, if he can stop hallucinating about alien abductions, goddesses in his bed, and robot astronauts for long enough, that is. Ruby who always walks barefoot and wears nothing but a violet dress and sunglasses. Ruby who is sensible in all things (except maybe boyfriend choice). Ruby the dreamer. Underneath a strange gritty exterior, this book is about the best kind of friendship, the kind where you can help your show more friend fit her diaphragm right while discussing poetry and werewolves. show less

This is a fun book that stays with you long after it's finished.

For the first few chapters I wondered what exactly I'd bought. Millar's writing style is hard to tag and initially I found it distracting but as I let myself listen to the rhythm, I realised that the occasional jerkiness of the text was deliberate.It gives this book a sort of Punk energy that kept me slightly off-centre but always engaged. It's the writer's equivalent of shooting a movie with a hand-held camera, the result is show more less smooth than using a dolly but it gains a kind of credibility, a sense of really being there, that the fixed camera can't match.

"Lonely Werewolf Girl" is a big book with a large character list and rich back-story. It is filled with humour even though the themes are dark and it rattles along, urging you to keep turning the pages even though you know you should have been asleep an hour ago.

Initially I thought that the lonely werewolf girl of the title was Kalix MacRinnalch, a vulnerable, violent, self-abusive and anti-social young girl who is also brave, passionate and wonderfully unable to understand the world around her.

By the end of book I understood that all of the MacRinnalch women qualify as lonely werewolf girls.

The world that Martin Millar builds is energetic, vivid, quirky and addictive. Thankfully there are two more books in the series. show less

I doubt I can write a better synopsis than Neil Gaiman does in the introduction to this book.

Morag and Heather are Scottish fairies, who crash into a Lower East Side apartment in New York after an especially excessive night of magic mushrooms, whisky and fiddling (they play fiddles). They can't remember how they got to New York from Scotland, but they determine to make the most of it.

Morag moves in with Kerry, an artist with Crohn's Disease who lives across the way from Dinnie, an overweight show more curmudgeon who is extremely displeased to find two drunk fairies vomiting on his carpet. Nevertheless, Heather decides to stay to help Dinnie whether he likes it or not (he doesn't) and she sets about giving him a make-over and a purpose in trying to win Kerry's heart. Kerry herself is busy competing with her ex - Cal - in a local arts competition to pay him back for breaking her heart (and never teaching her New York Dolls guitar solos as he promised to do).

Heather and Morag are comical: foul-mouthed, drunken, bickering and conceited. It's debatable whether Dinnie and Kerry's lives are enriched by their presence. They are also on the run, having cut up a fairy banner into pieces that they could wrap their fiddles in. They're not the only fairies in New York though, and their knack for causing trouble wherever they go eventually leads to a showdown in Central Park, with a guest appearance by Johnny Thunders along the way.

Enjoyably different. show less

Possibly one of the oddest books I have ever read, this had me chortling all the way to London and back on the train.

The Good Fairies of New York is a story of many, many characters. Right from the off, we meet Morag and Heather, two Scottish thimble fairies, who are transported to New York while escaping the old country and the chaos they left behind them. After a rather amusing and vocal disagreement, the fairies go their separate ways; Heather with the unsociable, ungracious and musically show more untalented Dinnie, and Morag with the sweet but self-centred Kerry, who suffers from Crohn’s disease. It turns out that Morag and Heather are not the only fairies in New York, in fact the city is rather heavily populated by many races and cultures, just as with the humans. These other fairies aren’t too impressed with events that proceed, Morag and Heather cause many a scene, followed by the tumultuous arrival of other Scottish, English and Irish fairies, hot on their trail.

I won’t give any more details, as it is difficult to summarise the story without utter confusion. As you can imagine, the story descends into absolute chaos, with alcohol, magic mushrooms, music, adventures, fights and laughs aplenty. Good Fairies was a surprisingly quick read and perfect for my frustrating journey to London, keeping my mood light with many a giggle and guffaw. Needless to say I received many a bewildered look from other passengers.

This latest addition has an entertaining introduction from none other than the great Neil Gaiman, and with an endorsement like that, how could not enjoy it. Martin Millar is actually British, which comes across in his knowledge of Scottish lore and his style of humour, despite the story being set in New York. I shall definitely be reading more of Millar’s work and highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy, humour and music. show less