Stray

First things first, the cover is really weird right? Not in a bad way, in a 'what is going on here novel explain it to me' sort of way. Since I read an e-ARC I'm interested to see how it looks in real life. Secondly I freely admit that the first part of this book is of more interest to me then the second latter half. Without spoilers I found Aislynn's life at the Academy and with Linnea to be fascinating and wanted to know more about it.

I felt bad for Aislynn; you could tell from the start that she was so desperate to fit into the life being laid out for her even as she had her doubts. Seen through her eyes the entire system is horrific. Truly, utterly horrific. There's no room for another life--either you marry and uphold the show more "traditions" or you are regulated to a chaste, loveless life as a "Fairy Godmother". Want something different? So sad too bad you're earmarked as an enemy of the state (a "Stray") and condemned as "evil".

Sussman has used the bare bones of fairy tales and crafted an intriguing, disturbing world where who you shouldn't try to be more then you are (men or women). Women using magic, even in defense of themselves or their loved ones is considered too dangerous to allow. Men who didn't control their women were just as penalized quite frankly, though not as overtly. Men who sympathized or aided the "Strays" were hunted and condemned as well.

Its not a great world for anyone with a thought in their head honestly. This is a book filled with harsh class structures, oppressive societal pressure and worst of all, you can't trust anyone. Aislynn tries, oh she tries so so hard, to be what everyone wants her to be. She tries to live the "true path" she tries to fit in and be the perfect devout follower.

Aislynn's life, both before and after she is condemned to be a Fairy Godmother, at the Academy was of the most interest to me. Even after she is sent to be a Fairy Godmother Aislynn believes in the Path, which I think illustrated something I think a lot of fantasy books in YA land tend to overlook. Aislynn didn't get betrayed and suddenly find the light about how wrong her world was, she accepted (if not happily) that what happened to her was part of the culture. Did she want more? Sure. But she thought the "more" could be attained by proving herself ever more devout. She was a believer and believers need more then a socially approved sanction for misbehavior to break that faith.

Outside of the Academy things get a bit more twisty and I admit I lost some interest. Josetta and the "Strays" are (of course) not what they appear to be because (of course) propaganda being what it is those in charge didn't want folk thinking there was any alternative to their abusive system. Not to say either side is completely on the side of Angels, but well one is more right then the other.

As a subverted fairy tale fantasy this works really well. Sussman does a good job of taking those pieces and hijacking our expectations. Often for darker purposes (looking at you Fairy Godmothers...though in truth they always kind of creeped me out), but sometimes to illustrate how our expectations are what really deluded us (a Prince will not always save you for the right reasons...).

Definitely a recommended read and I look forward to seeing what happens next! show less

A dystopia within a mash-up of fairy-tale retellings.

Stray wasn't perfect. It made classic mistakes for the first book in a new series; namely, leaving too many unanswered questions in an attempt to coax readers into the next book, which led to its not being a complete story all on its own. Plus, the climax/ending was rushed - jamming way too much into too few pages.

HOWEVER, I liked this book a lot. From the beginning I kept wondering, where's this going? What's really going on here? And, though I finished the story without knowing much for sure, the possibilities are exciting. Sussman created an incredibly believable dystopian society within a fantasy world populated by her own reimagined versions of fairy-tale characters and show more symbolism. Her characters felt alive and unique. I will definitely read Book Two in the Four Sisters series.

Cute Alert #1: "Oh, soot!" as profanity.

Cute Alert #2: The recipe for Tahlia's Cinnamon Bookbinder Bread was included at the end of the book.

4 stars show less

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Stray is an enchanting original fairy tale that will completely captivate you. It surprisingly covers a lot of realistic issues in a fun and interesting way. I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like this before!

Opening Sentence: Aislynn’s hands were bleeding.

The Review:

Princess Aislynn has never really felt like she was good enough. She is a princess so she figured she would grow up to be graceful, beautiful, and the curse would never be a problem, but that’s not what happened. There is magic inside her that is always fighting to get out and she doesn’t always have the purest thoughts. Girls that don’t learn to control their abilities are much more likely to show more stray from the sacred path that has been put in place to protect everyone.

All girls of noble birth are introduced to society at the age of 16 and if they aren’t married by the time they turn 17 they are sent to become fairy godmother’s to other noble girls. It is finally Aislynn’s 16th birthday and she couldn’t be happier to be introduced to society. But something terrible goes wrong at her ball and instead of meeting prince charming she is shipped off to become a fairy godmother. She is assigned to Princess Linnea, an orphaned girl that has had a rough childhood. As they get to know each other Aislynn comes to realize that she wasn’t as different as she thought and that maybe magic isn’t such a bad thing. There is so much Aislynn doesn’t understand, but she knows that there are people out there that will do anything to make sure she doesn’t stray!

Aislynn is a very interesting character to get to know. She has some wonderful traits but at the same time lots of flaws as well. She is a very caring person and she is always trying to do the right thing, but at the same time because she is so naïve she makes a lot of mistakes. In a lot of ways this was really a coming of age story and I enjoyed watching Aislynn grow into a woman. Even though she started out as a shy girl that was easily influenced, she quickly learned that if she wanted to be happy she was going to have to pave her own path. She was a very easy character to like and connect with.

I adored Thackery and he was probably my favorite part of the story. He is sweet, clever, brave, and stubborn. Pretty much from the first moment I met him I was completely taken with him. To be perfectly honest there isn’t really a lot of romance in the story but there is just enough to make you want more. Their relationship developed slowly and it was done so perfectly. For the most part, Thackery is a pretty minor character in the story, but I am hoping that we will get to see him a lot more in the next book.

Stray is a beautiful dark fairy tale that completely captivated me. To be totally honest, there were parts of the story that dragged and some things were a little confusing. So it obviously wasn’t perfect, but I found that its flaws were easy to overlook because the story was so intriguing. I loved the characters, they were engaging and easy to connect with. The idea was very unique and I can honestly say I haven’t ever read anything quite like this before. It did start out a little slow but it caught my interest enough that I wanted to keep reading and I found that my interest never wavered throughout the story. The ending was pretty abrupt and I am glad that there is going to be another book because I still have lots of unanswered questions. I wouldn’t say that this book is for everyone, but if you like fairy tales or want a unique young adult book, I would recommend you give this one a try!

Notable Scene:

Madame Moira held the glass jar aloft. Inside was a glowing orb, pulsing and blinking like a firefly. Its bright blue light filled the room. The headmistress quickly sealed the jar and, with a ring of keys, unlocked one of the doors in the wall. She placed the jar inside, the glowing thing that had once been a part of Aislynn swiftly locked away.

Aislynn waited for pain. She waited for a sense of loss, of unfathomable sadness, but nothing came. She felt the same. Had it worked? She glanced over at the apple on the headmistress’s desk. The heat that had been there earlier when she had thought about Thackery was gone. She thought about Everett too, and there was no twinge, no ache. Her heart beat steadily on, no longer stopping at the thought of him.

It felt wonderful.

FTC Advisory: Greenwillow/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Stray. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less

First of all, I did really like the concepts and the fantasy world presented in this novel. However, I found it really hard to get into and even towards the end I found myself reading just to finish it, not out of a true interest in the characters. Now this could have been due to my gloomy January mood, but I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.

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Before Stray was added to my Sadie Hawkins queue, I’d mostly made up my mind to skip it. See, my lovely friend Debby (Snuggly Oranges) read it and let’s just say that she didn’t care for it. Wait, no, that’s not strong enough. She pretty much disliked everything about it. Obviously, I trust Debby. We agree on a lot of things. Her not liking Stray tells me that it’s not a shippy book, which was accurate by the way. Perhaps because Debby had warned me and lowered my expectations, I didn’t feel as negatively towards it as she did, but I still feel like it was a very meh read all around. Not impressed, but not offended either.

The world building is a mess. I mean, show more yay for fairy tales and all, but I feel like I have yet to see fairy tale schools actually done well. They always seem to tip over to the sexist. Ladies take courses on deportment and make up while men do whoever the fuck knows what. It’s pretty obvious that this system isn’t being held up as ideal, but I also don’t see any outright condemnation of the system. Aislynn finds it stifling certainly and doesn’t want to live within in it, but she’s still following the Path by the end. I’d guess that more will be said and could see this series taking up a feminist mantle. The evil guys do seem to be representatives of the patriarchy at any rate. However, not much has been done with respect to this so far.

My big issue with the world building was that it was utterly nonsensical. Young ladies of wealth are sent to schools whenever they exhibit magical talent. This usually happens around fourteen, but for the more powerful, like Aislynn, might happen younger. This is where they learn about dancing and flirting, so that, during their sixteenth year, they can find a husband. Each girl has a fairy godmother, who assists her and, much like Big Brother, reports back to the administration any instances of her charge using magic. The sole goal in life of the girls is to find a husband once they’re out in society. I’ll not go into the weird tiered system of kings, so that many of the girls can be princesses, because I frankly didn’t understand it.

If the girl does too much magic, she has strayed from the Path and must be Redirected, as happens to Aislynn, When this happens, she’s forced to become a fairy godmother. They can use magic in service of their assigned lady. Aislynn is immediately assigned to one of the highest ranking girls in the kingdom, because reasons. The fairy godmothers wear habits and have their hearts taken away and learn magic. Aislynn, again because reasons, has feelings even though her heart is taken away. She’s just special, I guess. She is unlike any other fairy godmother. She can have a romance and break rules. Whatever.

Then there are the servants, aka the only people who appear to actually do anything of use in this kingdom. They ALSO have magic. This is my issue. There are all of these rich people ruling over the country. Half of them are trained not to use their magic. Then there are all of these people in subservient roles who are taught how to use their magic really well. Yet, they only use their magic in service of their masters. If I were a Redirected princess, I’d take everyone out with my fairy godmother magic fu. I suppose the removal of the emotions is meant to squash any rebellious tendencies, but wouldn’t that just make me more logical and inclined to see how I could fight most effectively?

Aislynn, much like her book, is meh. I don’t loathe Aislynn. She’s just sort of there. The only time she ever really seems like a person is when she’s cooking. Otherwise, she ventures to oft towards special snowflake syndrome. I don’t like that she’s the only fairy godmother to retain some of her feelings. I want there to be a reason. Did someone fuck up when taking her heart? If it’s just that she’s special, I want to barf on this book. Her magical abilities also come and go at really convenient times to move the plot along. She finally seems to master them without any training whatsoever. In fact, training made her worse. How convenient. Indeed, a lot of things just sort of drop into her lap, like the end of the book where a wolf friend just appears to defend her and reveal plot points to her. Her love interest, Thackery, is alright. The romance was sort of kind of cute, at least from his side.

Ultimately, I’m just not really sure what the point of all of this was. The world doesn’t work for me which places everything else on this really shaky foundation. If I cared about Aislynn, then I could ignore that, but I really don’t think there’s anything to her. I didn’t unship the romance, but it was mostly just there. I’m not sure if I’ll read the next book or not. I’m not planning on it, but a pretty cover or curiosity to find out what the point was might lure me in. show less

This book was cute; I liked the main character. Her motivations were so real. Wonderful story. Would recommend for sure.

This book was great. It is kind of fairytale-ish. There was fairy godmothers, slippers, briars, spindles, evil queens, princesses, and magic.

It starts with Princess Aislynn believing she is wicked and cursed, being a woman who can do magic. She can't control this magic, which in her eyes, makes her worse than the other girls at her school. So much so that her magic comes out when she least wants it to and she gets in more and more trouble because of these outbursts. She gets sent to a new school to learn to become a fairy godmother. Here she meets Thackery, a gardener who brings her out of her own head long enough to help her relax.

This was a book that I couldn't wait to listen to, since I listened to it on audiobook, each time I had show more free time and was able to listen to something. I give this 5 stars and can't wait for the next book to come out. show less