The Sleep of Stone

A well-written story for YA about the last of the "old folk." Hundreds of years old yet still an adolescent and very lonely. What humans called gremlins at one time but actually an innocent and well-meaning shapeshifter who still knows the old magic.
In the long past, humans and gremlins knew and respected each other and sometimes intermarried. Now gremlins are the stuff of nightmares and legend. No one believes they exist any longer. She has no recollection of any of her own kind. And she knows that humans would consider her true form as ugly.
She falls in love in a with kind local man and presents herself to him as various wild animals who will come to his hand. An animal-lover, he speaks softly and kindly of his love for what he thinks show more are the various wildlife. In her innocence and youth, she takes it as true love.
Her naïvité, confusion, loneliness and love for this man set her on a sad path. Believing he is being forced into an arranged marriage, she plans to usurp his rightful bride's place. Like a child, she convinces herself that what she wants is what he wants. But that is not the case. He truly loves his prospective bride. There are no good guys or bad guys. Just a sad congruence of events. When the young gremlin finally realizes her mistake, she takes a step toward adulthood, and the goodness of her heart shines through... Sad but lovely. show less

This book is about a shapechanging gremlin-like fey creature who falls in love with a prince- and what happens when the prince's fiancee comes to marry him. It's short, not even 200 pages. The quality of the writing makes it seem like a retelling of a fairy tale, though it's told mostly from the perspective of the "monster". The ending has all of the inevitablity of a fairy tale as well. Despite the short length it's worth reading if you can find a copy.

La estatua de piedra nos introduce en el misterio y la magia de la raza del antiguo pueblo, cuya última superviviente vive ahora en el mundo poblado por los humanos.