Bones of faerie

by Janni Lee Simner

Dedication: "To Larry: 3333, 4556, 5645. But you knew that, right?"

First paragraph: "I had a sister once. She was a beautiful baby, eyes silver as moonlight off the river at night. From the hour of her birth she was long-limbed and graceful, faerie-pale hair clear as glass from Before, so pale you could almost see through to the soft skin beneath."

Review: Liza lives in a world of post-apocalyptic war between humans and the faerie world. As a result magic has taken over and Liza's father lives by the rule "anything/anyone magic must be destroyed" including her newborn baby sister. The trees and plants are predators, rocks glow, and nothing remains as it was Before.

This book was very intriguing. It was a different take on a post-apocalyptic world then I had ever heard before. Simner did a great job at forming this 1800 setting - dirt roads, simple, poorly put together houses, no electricity or running water - except it happens at some point in the future (Maybe late 2000's?) but not so far in the future that things were much different, well they weren't too different Before.

Some parts of the story were a little hard to grasp - vegetables vines and fruit trees attacking humans - but the rest was pretty easy to get into. I loved the courage that Liza was able to gain throughout the story. Her character was really able to develop throughout the story and her personality flourished. The Liza at the beginning of the story was one of my less favorite characters but by the end I had really grown attached.

I really enjoyed this book and how different it was then a lot of the books I've been reading lately.

Click Here for Sumner's Bones of Faerie website.