Far Far Away

I first read Far Far Away last year as an ARC, but at the time I wasn't able to figure out how I felt about it. When I stumbled across an audio book of it last week, I decided to give it another shot. See, I love fairy tales. Specifically the older ones that weren't afraid of a little darkness. There's something beautiful about those tales and their ability to show the true nature of things. That's what Tom McNeal has captured in Far Far Away. He's taken the Brothers Grimm and channeled their energy into a new story. It's dark, twisted, and yet gorgeous in its own way. Best of all? I was much better able to appreciate it this time around.

First off, let me say that I absolutely recommend the audio version of this. W. Morgan Sheppard is show more a stellar narrator, and I could listen to him read to me for hours. Well, in fact, I did listen to him read to me for hours. I could have listened for hours more though. He is the perfect addition to this story. His voice enchants you into feeling like you're a part of Jeremy Johnson Johnson's life. It's as if you're walking the streets of the town of Never Better. As if you're right there with the ever incorporeal Jacob. I adored listening to this!

As for the story, well, let me tell you that it's definitely not what you're expecting. Like all good fairy tales we start with a character who isn't quite what he seems. When I first met Jeremy I honestly believed I knew where his life would take him. I thought that, as most fairy tales do, things would wind their way to getting better for him. I believed that his best self was hiding inside that shy outer shell, and that he would be rewarded for being such a good person. Oh yes, Jeremy is as good as they come. Which is why I also loved Ginger, the female MC of this story. Her fire, and her mischievousness, really brought the book to life.

So yes, I truly believed that I knew exactly what would transpire. The truth is though, as I should have expected, things took a very drastic turn. We all know that fairy tales need a villain of some sort. Someone who we can loathe and who makes our hero bloom. Tom McNeal threw me a curve with the villain in this story. No spoilers, oh no you won't get them from me. Suffice it say that you won't see it coming. When it does? And things get darker, and darker still? You'll likely find yourself wondering where it all stemmed from, but feeling to consumed with what happens next to really worry about it.

When I read this the first time, I settled on a three star rating because my thoughts were too conflicted to really do more. This time, I'm happy to report that I had a much more enjoyable time in Never Better. I wouldn't doubt that it has something to do with our lovely narrator, but the fact remains that this is now a four star read for me. If you love fairy tales, give this a shot! You might be pleasantly surprised. show less

This book is a wonderful celebration of the Brothers Grimm. Set in modern times, Jacob Grimm wonders the earth as a ghost, lost, without a cause, when he comes across a boy who can miraculously hear him speak. The boy, Jeremy, is an outsider of sorts, who lives in a bookstore with his mostly-absent father, and who spends most of his time lost in his mothers old books - collections of old fairy tales collected by Jacob Grimm himself 2 hundred years earlier.

Jacob Grimm, who still suffers the loss of his nephew at young age, takes it upon himself to protect the boy. Jeremy considers Jacob his only friend, and is just happy to have someone to talk to. What follows is a tale that I think the Brothers would have been more than happy to add to show more their collection.

Tom McNeal sets the perfect tone. Technically the story is painfully ordinary - it involves a teenage boy doing relatively ordinary things, like studying for exams or awkwardly conversing with his peers - but there is constantly the feeling of magic on the periphery. I suppose it helps considering Jacob Grimm narrates the entire story in the first person, as a ghost. Nevertheless, there are references everywhere. I found myself forgetting at times the setting, imagining that I was reading a book set in a small hamlet deep in the woods of Germany before Deputy McRaven is described driving by the scene in his police cruiser. It's a mistake I made multiple times, and I'm not at all mad about it.

The book was so good that I even forgave the awkward YA romance-y bits, which fortunately weren't terribly intrusive and were also meaningful to the plot.

Highly, HIGHLY recommended for anyone with any interest in the Brothers Grimm or fairy tales in general.
Edit | More show less

Listen, if you will...

...as the ghost of Jacob Grimm keeps watch over Jeremy Johnson Johnson in a town called Never Better. Jeremy lives with his father in a home they are about to lose to a bank foreclosure. After Jeremy participates in a prank with the long-legged, copper-haired, lively Ginger Boultinghouse, the townspeople turn against him. In fact, the only people that remain kind to him are Ginger, Jeremy's father, Jenny Applegarth, and the baker, Mr. Blix - the target of Ginger's prank. Mr. Blix gives Jeremy and Ginger work when no one else will hire them, and they are grateful. But who is the Finder of Occasions from whom Jacob's ghost is supposed to protect Jeremy? And why are there so many missing children in Never Better? FAR show more FAR AWAY is as magical, mysterious, suspenseful, dark, and elegant as the fairy tales from which it draws. The narration is ingenious, the characters believable and touching, and the story enchanting.

Quotes

Sometimes avoiding something can give it more and more meaning rather than less and less. (39)

"Problem is, in a town like this, the appearance of doing something wrong can be as bad as actually doing it." (110)

...and truly, relief can sometimes come within an inch of happiness itself. (232)

How much time passed by in this state of pure and guileless pleasure, I cannot accurately say, but it is the nature of such happiness that its intensity is often matched only by its brevity. (247)

And then the baker and the grocer went about their business just as they might have done at any ordinary moment of any ordinary day. Is this how the horrors move hidden among us - carried in the pockets and cuffs of the commonplace and the routine? (254) show less

Jacob Grimm may have died in 1863, but his spirit is doomed to wander until he figures out what it is he has left undone. After some years of roaming, he finds a boy in a small town who is one of the few in the world who can hear the voices of ghosts. Jacob knows that there is also in Jeremy's small town a Finder of Occasions, who will do Jeremy harm if left unchecked. If Jacob can protect Jeremy and encourage him to excel in school and go away to college, Jacob reasons, he can perhaps move on himself, to whatever comes next. Of course, it won't be that easy. . . .

I'm over-simplifying the plot with that summary, and certainly not doing it justice. This book has magic, humor, suspense, and romance. The characters are excellent, the show more writing is brilliant, and I didn't figure out who the Finder of Occasions was until fairly late in the story, though perhaps a savvier reader would have caught on sooner, since there are some nice fairy-tale related clues dropped with gentle precision at key points. There are some dark parts to the story, as well -- I wouldn't recommend it to kids, necessarily, but readers from middle school up who love magical realism and fairy-tale references should definitely read this book! show less

"What follows is the strange and fateful tale of a boy, a girl, and a ghost. The boy possessed uncommon qualities, the girl was winsome and daring, and the ancient ghost . . . well, let it only be said that his intentions were good."

So begins an unusual and intriguing story told as both a timeless and modern-day fairy tale -- a real fairy tale, mind you, not the Disney kind -- and narrated by the aforementioned ghost, who happens to be none other than Jacob Grimm. Jacob finds himself in the Zwischenraum -- not passed on like most departed souls, but not in life either: he exists in the space between, whence he must remain until he can determine what is undone, unfinished. He meets Jeremy Johnson Johnson, a lonely boy who can hear him, show more and determines to befriend and protect him. The friendship between Jacob and Jeremy is touching and lovely, with Jacob coaching and tutoring him. Jacob recognizes that Jeremy's only escape from this small town, from the sadness that is his motherless and nearly fatherless home, from the isolation Jeremy experiences from being odd and different, will be through scholarship. Things are looking up for Jeremy as the school year ends -- he befriends the beautiful and slightly reckless Ginger Boultinghouse, and has the potential to win big (and save his home) by appearing on a televised game show. When Ginger persuades him to join her friends in some teenage mischief, things take a terrible turn for Jeremy, as the fairy-tale evil bubbling and seething just below the surface emerges to reveal real fairy tale evil.

I enjoyed the book very much, and certainly found it to be a page-turner, though I can't say it will end up on a "best of" list at year's end. I loved how closely entwined were actual fairy tales as well as fairy tale elements. These traditional stories, collected by the Brothers Grimm and retold countless times emerged here as mirrors, as models, as warnings, and as quintessentially human life-sustaining stories. Well done. show less

This story is a fairytale that features the ghost of one of the masters of fairytales, Jacob Grimm. Jacob is dead, but stuck in the Zwischenraum — the space between — where some troubled souls reside because of some unmet desire. Jacob doesn’t know what that is, but understands he must discover it before he can move on to the afterlife. In the meantime, he becomes the companion of one of the Exceptionals - a small number of mortals who can sense the presence of these ghosts. The Exceptional he befriends is 15-year-old Jeremy Johnson Johnson. [Jeremy’s mother and father both had the same last name.]

Jeremy lives alone with his father, who turned into an uncommunicative recluse after Jeremy’s mother abandoned them. Now, they are show more being threatened with eviction. Jeremy’s friend Ginny devises a plan for Jeremy to get on a trivia quiz show so he can win enough money to pay for their house. Jeremy, as it happens, is an expert on The Brothers Grimm, especially with Jacob there to feed him the answers in his head.

But Jeremy has another very big problem besides the possibility of losing his house. Jacob has told him that he learned in the Zwischenraum that there is a “Finder of Occasions” who lies in wait to do harm, and from whom Jeremy needs protection. This is another mystery for Jacob however; he has no idea who this Finder of Occasions is, and how, being incorporeal, he could protect Jeremy when the time comes.

As with the original Grimm fairytales, this story turns very dark, and Jeremy, Ginger, another friend, Frank Baily, are placed in mortal danger by a character who, to employ a fairytale analogy, may appear to be like a friendly grandmother, but in actuality is a wolf in disguise. And this wolf is, additionally, a very modern and relevant threat to young people. Jacob can only save them by finding out why he is in the Zwischenraum, but there is a very real possibility he won’t be able to do so in time, if at all.

Discussion: Far Far Away is a coming of age story with a creative twist, featuring humor as well as suspense and scariness. Jacob’s musings as Jeremy’s surrogate father and tutor are at turns funny and warm and thought-provoking. Jacob is forever after Jeremy to study, and to stop paying attention to girls. He has the usual frustrations with teens that fathers and teachers everywhere experience:

"‘Are you well, Jeremy?’

‘Am I well’?...Why can’t you just talk like everyone else? Why can’t you just say, ‘How you doin’? You doin’ good?’

‘Very well, then’, I said. ‘I look forward to the day when every schoolchild will read Shakespeare’s great comedic play All's Good That Ends Good.’”

And when Jeremy and the other children are in danger, Jacob, who spent his life collecting fairytales, struggles with the idea that evil could prevail:

"...why not mercy and justice to a sweet youth from an omnipotent and benevolent Creator? There are only three answers. He is not omnipotent, or he is not benevolent, or - the dreariest possibility of all - he is inattentive.”

Evaluation: Fans of fairytales will appreciate this meta mélange of fairytale content, construction, and style. The coming-of-age tale parts of the story are tender and sweet, and the parenting aspect will amuse readers with its familiar mix of affection and frustration. show less

This book has a strange premise, but I'm so glad I took a chance on it. I loved the narrator, and the way fairy tales were weaved into the story had just the right amount of whimsy and darkness. It reminded me just a tad of The Book Thief, though really the only similarity is a non-human narrator, who happens to be German.

I wasn't expecting to get such an enjoyable, satisfying read out of this. Do yourself a favor and don't read any summaries on this book—just dive in and let it sweep you away.