Wondrous Strange -- Lesley Livingston
17-year-old Kelley Winslow is living the dream (or trying to) -- she recently moved to New York City, where she's attempting to break into the world of theater. Due to a broken ankle on the part of the leading lady, she's just been moved up from gopher/understudy to the star of the show: she'll be playing Titania in an off-off-off-off-off-off-off Broadway production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
18-year-old-(ish)* Sonny is a Janus guard. He and twelve others, at the Winter King Auberon's command, guard the Samhain Gate in NYC's Central Park, the only place where everyday, run-of-the-mill fae can cross over to our world. Eight years out of nine, it only opens for one night a year. The last year of the cycle, the Gate is open for nine nights -- and the Janus guard is kept extremely busy trying to keep the fae in their own realm and out of ours.
This year, of course, is a nine-night year. When Sonny meets Kelley, he knows that there's something different about her -- and it isn't only his immediate instinct to protect a lovely girl. Though she's not yet ready to admit it to herself, Kelley knows that there's something about Sonny, too -- she shouldn't trust someone who's basically acting like, well, a stalker, but she does. She knows, deep down, that there's something odd going on in general -- something bigger than the horse who's suddenly decided to take up residence in her bathtub -- and that it's going to be life-changing.
Theater, faeries, the inimitable Robin Goodfellow, Shakespeare, sparring royalty, action, romance, magic and mystery in NYC: Wondrous Strange.
I'm a sucker for stories about mostly unseen magic in familiar places, as well as stories about the stage**, and obviously I like the action and romance and mystery. So this one was a no-brainer of a pick for me. I especially enjoyed the scenes at the theater, as well as the interactions between Sonny and the fae living in our world. I enjoyed discovering the mostly unknown version of NYC with Kelley. And while I saw most of the big twists coming***, there were still a lot of minor surprises that made me happy.
I did think that some of the dialogue didn't work -- occasionally it pulled me right out of the story because I just couldn't bring myself believe that someone would actually say those things aloud****. The prose was occasionally a bit flowery for my personal taste*****, but as I said, that's very much a personal issue. And in a book that deals with Shakespeare, I think it's quite understandable that the author'd be feeling a little flowery.
So, overall, fun. I enjoyed it. I think it'll certainly be popular with the urban fantasy/romance/subset:theaterlover crowd. (That's a crowd, right?) And I always approve of YA novels that bring attention to the classics. Unless it's providing a positive portrayal of Wuthering Heights. Yecch.
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*SEMI-SPOILER: I never quite got a handle on how aging works in this book. Maybe it was explained and I just missed it. Does it have to do with the realm or the genetics? I assume that the Faerie royals can majick people to retard the aging process, but I did wonder if Kelley took longer to grow up or what. Because I thought Sonny'd been around much longer than her, but if they were about the same age when they were kids... I DON'T KNOW! It didn't bother me while I was reading, but now it's making me a bit crazy. END SEMI-SPOILER
**I actually wished there'd been more of that -- got any good theatre/theater book recommendations?
***BIG SPOILER: For someone raised among the fairies, Sonny's mistake was a pretty bone-headed one. I mean, jebus. If it makes me say, "NO, YOU ASS! NOOOOO!" OUT LOUD, I know that it's especially bad. END BIG SPOILER
****SPOILER: Like: "To loose that insatiable, death-mad Faerie war band on an unsuspecting mortal populace here--the carnage would be unspeakable, the death toll catastrophic!" I just... the characters in the conversation are well aware of the Wild Hunt and what it is, so it wasn't a necessary line in the scene -- it felt like the line was the author's way of imparting information to the reader. Which pulled me right out. Not a major issue, but stuff like that gets to me. END SPOILER
*****The line on the back of the book is a good example of this: "She felt his arms tighten around her as they spiraled up, borne aloft on wings that were dark as the night, bright as a new star." Not my thing. But, then, the Roys are known for their tendency to get all squicked out by flowery romance-y stuff. We're all kind of like 9-year-old boys in that respect.