The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While

Fairyland #0.5

by Catherynne M. Valente

This original short story tells the tale of how a girl named Mallow defeated King Goldmouth with the help of the Red Wind, Mr. Map, and many fairyland friends new and old--from Catherynne M. Valente, author of the children's fantasy sensation The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, Fairy Tales, Childrens

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 27, 2011

About the author

Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and camphor wilds of Japan.

She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.

Reviews

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread, January 2018. A lovely, magic-filled novella, filled with whimsy, and bittersweet. I'm upping my rating from 4.5 to 5 stars on reread.

This is one of my favorite free Tor online short stories, a highly whimsical fantasy from Catherynne Valente, which you can read here.

So, I was complaining to a couple of GR friends that I was convinced I should love The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, but I had read a few chapters of it and it just wasn't grabbing me. At all. One of these friends very helpfully suggested that I try this short story, which is a prequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated. It was a brilliant idea. (Thank you, Jess!)

This story had me from the first few paragraphs, where it compared history to your aunt's crotchety old cat:

Sometimes it rests in a sunbeam for a peaceful century or two, but on the whole, history is always plotting, and it bites very hard. It stalks around the world, fickle and dissatisfied and often angry. It demands to be fed just a little earlier each day, until you find yourself carving meat from the bone as fast as you can, faster than you thought possible, just to satisfy it.

And with that wonderful imagery already putting me in a pleasant, eager-to-like-it mood, I was ready to be delighted with all of the whimsical notions that populate this story.

One of her dearest and handsomest friends was a sorcerer, and from him she had learned so much magic even her hairpins got up and started living serious-minded lives, writing hairpin-ballads, celebrating hairpin-holidays, and inventing several new schools of philosophy.

This is a story about a young girl named Mallow, who lives by herself in a country home in a corner of Fairyland, and has no inclination to marry or engage in Politicks or trade in the market. She tells others:

I shall only engage in commerce if books are the coin. Come to my door if you have a book—and a good one, not just your great-aunt’s book of doily patterns—and I will give you an egg or a cake or a pair of woolen socks. I am a practical girl, and a life is only so long. It should be spent in as much peace and good eating and good reading as possible and no undue excitement. That is all I am after.

A book lover! What could go wrong? But Mallow also has a curious streak, and when King Goldmouth issues a proclamation that there will be a World's Fair Foul and that everyone's attendance is mandatory, Mallow willingly leaves her home to travel to the World's Foul. But what is this Tithe that is to take place at the Foul? No one is quite certain.

This begins as a light-hearted tale, but soon the Tithe slowly weaves its way into the story like an ominous dark ribbon, and it gradually becomes clear that not everything is as it should be in Fairyland. The ending is a bit lopped off, but Mallow turns up again in the novel and knowing what happens with her later make this short story very bittersweet.

I thought this was a charming and delightful story. And it totally got me motivated to dive back into The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland.

[Nataliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

As it has become customary in Valente's Fairyland books, this one is made of wistful melancholy and whimsical sadness dressed up as children's story.

“Temptation likes best those who think they have a natural immunity, for it may laugh all the harder when they succumb.”

Temptation to make things better can lead you down a dangerous road, and having a pure and practical heart thirsty for knowledge and peace is not always the shield from badness. The big fat cat of History preys on hearts just like this. And you can say all you want: "I do not want to muddle about with Politicks, and whenever two Folk of any sort are in a room together there are always Politicks to be muddled in," but your wishes do not command History. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, they say, and here we get to see the beginnings of this path.


This is a very short (actually, painfully short because, if you are a Fairyland books fan you will want it to go on for much much longer) story about how the villain of the first Fairyland story took the journey to become no longer Mallow but Marquess. In short, it's the book "In which a young girl named Mallow leaves the country for the city, meets a number of Winds, Cats, and handsome folk, sees something dreadful, and engages, much against her will, in Politicks of the most muddled kind."

You don't even need the wistfulness to know that Mallow's actions, despite her kind and practical nature, will lead down the slippery slope. Your goal may be simply to fix what's broken, to make sure that the badness does not happen again - but power corrupts, and temptations based on the belief that you know what's better for everyone are strong, and your deepest desires may prove to be ultimately the darkest. What's best for you may not be that for everyone. And Mallow will make mistakes in her quest to fix things, mistakes based on best of intentions, the results of which you only know if you have already read the first Fairyland book.

"Mallow was not like the other creatures in Fairyland. She had used her magic to make a pleasant life for herself, where she could be alone as she preferred, and where nothing would disturb or hurt her if she did not want to be disturbed or hurt. This was important to her, for she wished to be safe, and she wished to live in a kind world, which on the best of days Fairyland could only manage for an hour or two before getting bored and playing a trick on a maiden or nine."

Billed as a prequel to the Fairyland books, this one should really be read only after the Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland to fully appreciate the little Easter Eggs for fans of that book - because, truly, this is what it is. The Green Wind story, Iago the Cat, and "a sweet young Wyvern who confessed with a blush to her spring-green scales that she had, of late, become betrothed to an eligible young Library" will be heartwarming to those already familiar with this world.

'I am a practical girl, and a life is only so long. It should be spent in as much peace and good eating and good reading as possible and no undue excitement. That is all I am after.'
Poor thing has had troubles in her youth. She only wanted a gentle, slow sort of living from then till forever."

And having seen what Mallow's rule ultimately brought Fairyland, you cannot help but wistfully sigh seeing the intentions and the motivations behind what's to come. Sometimes we may love something so much that we want to guard it from all that is evil and love and cherish it - but in good-intentioned overbearing we can suffocate and destroy it. Love and caring does not always will you points with History, and that is what we know is in store for Mallow and Fairyland, once Mallow unexpectedly finds herself in charge of carrying for the land being destroyed by her cruel predecessor.

"I have never lost a love and I do not intend to. One can only lose love if one is careless, and I am never careless. You might say, really, that of anything I am best at caring, at paying close attention and minding what I’ve got."

If you haven't read the first Fairyland book, you may smile at the sadly optimistic ending. If you have, you will feel a bit of sadness creeping into your heart. And, knowing what's to come, I still can understand Mallow way too well - because a practical and kind girl has to protect those she's responsible for. Too bad the good intentions do not work out.

3 stars only because I know what Valente in capable of in her books, and this one, however whimsically melancholic and beautiful it may be, is little but a sketch, meant to throw a bone for the fans. It's lovely - but all the potential it's packing is not quite realized. I still love it, and still recommend it to all Valente fans. 3.5 stars.

The girl who would find herself, against long odds, Queen before dinnertime stood up and looked at her new friends, at her darling Leopard, at the glittering needle in her hand. Then she looked to the empty, hollowed-out city.
“Well,” Mallow said, feeling a wave of powerful practicality break on her heart. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

-----------------------------------
As for the other Fairyland books:
- My review of the first one, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, is here.
- And my review of the second book, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, is here.

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is a practical girl and will get the job done. One terrible job. He is a greedy king and would eat the world if he could. Many worlds.

Valente is a witch with the words, an enchantress. She made a layered trifle of surprising richness: the top a dreamy wisp of airy gauze, the bottom a corrugated sheet of metal; between them some brightly-colored ribbons of whimsy, spicy bits of savory and sugary bits of sweet, daintily shaped but stone-hard filigree, and a fragile flake of vellum heartbreak carefully hidden betwixt it all.

Read this short story for free! Right here:

https://www.tor.com/2011/07/27/the-gi...



The road to Pandemonium is paved with good intentions...

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 4 out of 5]

No matter where one begins telling a story, a very long road stretches out before and behind, full of wild and lovely creatures performing feats and acts of daring. No matter how much a narrator might want to, she cannot pack all of them into one tale. That’s the trouble—history goes on all around the story at hand, it is what made it happen and what will happen after, all of those extraordinary events and folk and dangers and near-misses, choices that had to be made so that everything after could happen as it did. A single story is but one square of blueberries growing in one plot, on one farm, on the fertile face of the whole world. A heroine steps in, and sees a wickedness in need of solving—but she is never the first, or the last. She plays her part, blessedly and necessarily innocent of that fat old cat sneaking around the borders of her tale, licking its paws while she bleeds and fights, whipping its tail at her trials and yawning at her triumphs. The cat does not care. It has seen all this before and will see it again.

In short, Fairyland has always needed saving.

Read it here: https://www.tor.com/2011/07/27/the-gi...

[Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)* · Rating 5 out of 5]

And she does it again, in a short story this time!



This is ever so slightly shy of a 5, but that is merely because I wanted just a touch more out of it.

What a wonderful world Valente's fairyland is! As in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, I found myself struck by the paganist vibe within her magical world. This short may be just a smidgen more fantastical in it's language - many of the words she uses do not exist in our world - but not to such an extent that it is difficult to follow.

This short is set prior to Mallow ruling fairyland and shows Valente's skill, once again, at crafting characters that are neither annoying or cliché! Our MC is a practical creature who has chosen to live on the outskirts of fairyland with her ducks and hairpins on the shores of whiskey lake.

Until one day she is summoned, along with all of fairyland, to The World's Foul... along her travels she will meet all manor of magical creature and treasure.

Mallow had never seen anything so wildly, savagely, noisily beautiful in all her days

Expressing myself in Chiara Bautista again....

[Richard Derus]

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In which a young girl named Mallow leaves the country for the city, meets a number of Winds, Cats, and handsome folk, sees something dreadful, and engages, much against her will, in Politicks of the most muddled kind.

My Review: How can anyone not fall a little in love with characters like Valente's? Don't ask me, I am one of the smitten. Since I don't support censorship-ridden sites, you'll have to read my review at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. I hope you will.

[Mare · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books?

[Suanne Laqueur · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021 re-read, because I need it. If you haven’t read the Fairyland series and aren’t sure it’s your jam, this little prequel is a great way to find out. It can be the gateway drug, or just a one-time standalone.

I was between books and needed a little something. Like a scoop of sorbet between courses. This was utterly perfect. Quick. Beautiful. Charming. Lovely. Magic. It made me feel like I was 7 or 8 and sitting on the carpeted floor of the school library, listening to a story.... Yet it resonated with me as an adult. The language was amazing: as you read you could feel the words in your mouth. This books begs to be read out loud.

I highly recommend this one-sitting jewel of a book to take you someplace enchanting. Or snuggle up with someone of any age and read it aloud.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this was ... different. Not bad, not by far. But different.
Considering that this is the origin story of how Mallow became Queen, I expected more. And considering that this is also the story of how Fairyland was before Queen Mallow's reign and before the Marquess took over, I expected Fairyland to be more as well.
I did love the story of the Great Cats of Nephelo though and of how one can become one of the winds.
So all in all, this was a nice little interlude to pass the time with until the second book finally gets here but it did lack most of the magic the first book had.

[Jess ❈Harbinger of Blood-Soaked Rainbows❈ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy. It covers a wide variety of worlds, doesn't it? You have the Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones variety of complex worlds, long-faced wizards, dark and ancient magic, burned scrolls, and buried secrets. Then comes the Neil Gaiman/Tim Burton kind chock-full of colorful underworlds, parallel universes, new and creative beings parading the streets of the unknown. The Harry Potter realm with good vs evil thematic elements, magic and goblins, fire-breathing dragons, and a reinvention of classic creatures. And then there is the last sub-genre of fantasy. The beautiful and whimsical. That of Alice, and Dorothy, and a certain lion, witch, and wardrobe. Fairies and nymphs, books and alchemy, colors and madness. It is of this fairytale variety that this story lives.

I have heard nothing but wonderful things about Catherynne Valente's novels and when I saw this story on tor.com for free, I knew I wanted a taste. I was not disappointed.

Valente writes beautifully and is quite the master of vivid imagery. I will definitely be putting this story's companion novel, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, on my radar. I could picture each colorful character in this short story vividly and found myself longing for the artists of Syfy' s Face Off to create a living makeup for each one. The tone of the story is set by the imagery and even the fairy tale and fable elements join with to create a whole exquisite world in only a few short pages. There was nothing lacking in characterization or plot, and I came to the end feeling a little cut off, but in a totally good way. The ending is a bit abrupt, however, the mysterious elements force you to think about what a dark fairytale of this nature is telling us. There sometimes is no neat and tidy ending and as with life, a story's ending can also be the beginning of a new chapter. I am hoping that it is a new chapter explored further with this author's other novels. 4.5 stars. Serious lovers of fantasy,read this story here:http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/07/th...

[Samantha Matherne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should definitely NOT be read before the actual first book in the series, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, because a major spoiler would be found that would disrupt the ending of September's first story. The day after finishing that book, I felt instantly compelled to read its prequel. I only knew this would be about Mallow, and for a minute at the beginning I forgot the focus is Mallow and NOT Maud. The tale is brief but gives insight into how Mallow came to rule Fairyland. I enjoyed it, as I have been enchanted by this world already.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time, a girl named Mallow grew very tired indeed of her little country house, where she grew the same enormous luckfigs and love-plantains every summer, slept on the same talking bed, and studied the same tame and amiable magic. Her friends would visit her from time to time, for she lived on the shores of a whiskey lake where trifle-trees hung heavy with raisin and soursop tarts, but they had their own quite thrilling lives, and Mallow did not insist that they stay just to make her happy.

This fairy-taleish beginning to The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland - For a Little While is typical of Catherynne Valente's prose: exploding with imagination in every word, and subtle jokes and wisdom in every sentence. It is also deceptively charming, as is the story of Mallow traveling to a Foul at Pandemonium, the capital city of Fairyland, as ordered by the King. Along the way, she meets a charming fairy fellow named Mabry Muscat, by whom she is absolutely, positively not going to be charmed.

“Listen,” Mallow interrupted. “I haven’t any interest in following you to a stash of gold in the hills or dancing at a Fairy ball or answering riddles or meeting any eligible Fairy dukes who have a castle just on the other side of a curtain of mist—no. I am a magician—mostly—and I am on my way to the Foul like everyone else. Don’t try to charm me, please. I am a practical girl.”

...

The endless reeling affairs of Fairies exhausted her. But all the many social circles of Fairyland held in agreement that if one brings up the subject of one’s love, the other party is obligated to ask after it and listen to whatever ballad might follow. To do otherwise would be just terrible manners.

But in the nature of all true and great fairy tales, it becomes serious and dark, though never less magical.

This free online short story is a prequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, which as you know I consider one of the best MG/YA books ever!

Is TGWRFFALW quite as good as TGWCFIASOHOM? Maybe not quite as good, because it's shorter and thus doesn't have the opportunity to cram as many brilliant, clever ideas and wonderful sentences into its length as a full-length novel. But it's still absolutely wonderful if sad. You should read the book first, because otherwise you might not enjoy the short story quite so much, not recognizing all the characters. But I think the story will still seduce you with Valente's word-smithing.

Although the Fairyland books are technically children's books, they're absolutely sophisticated enough for adults, and so is this story. The love and loss probably won't be fully appreciated by children, though they can certainly appreciate the cats who are winds and the fairies with mittens on their wings and the wyvern who is engaged to a Library.

Go click the link and read this story. It's how Good Queen Mallow came to rule Fairyland... for a little while.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a 3.5 - I gave this one four stars mostly because I was happy to return to Valente's Fairyland. This is a short story prequel to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and it won't make much sense if you don't read that first. On its own merits, the short story is good but light. Valente's style - which I very much enjoy - is evident but the story does not have the substance of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland.

That being said, I think Valente's style generally leaves the reader a bit hungry - in a good way. You get the sense that there is always more that could be said but the narrator is choosing to omit or hold back.

Overall, I think Catherynne Valente has a unique and mystical quality to her work that is a wonderful addition to the genre of fantasy / YA literature. I certainly hope we will soon see more adventures in Fairyland.

[Tamara · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Listen,” Mallow interrupted. “I haven’t any interest in following you to a stash of gold in the hills or dancing at a Fairy ball or answering riddles or meeting any eligible Fairy dukes who have a castle just on the other side of a curtain of mist—no. I am a magician—mostly—and I am on my way to the Foul like everyone else. Don’t try to charm me, please. I am a practical girl.”

Practical girl, my ass.

Started interesting but lost me at ''But ducks must always have the last word, and they are very much heavier than hairpins." Umm, say what now? My head hurts from all the skimming I did. Finally skimmed a short story. Yay. 2016 you really really REALLY sucked ok?

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

*fangirl gibberish* The aesthetic... I just can't even.... *melts*

I cannot describe how well this made Mallow a sympathetic character--a character I rooted for and want a right proper novel about. Wistful and sad and empowering all rolled up into a neat little bundle of Nostalgia Magic.

"I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books?"

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

”In which a young girl named Mallow leaves the country for the city, meets a number of Winds, Cats, and handsome folk, sees something dreadful, and engages, much against her will, in Politicks of the most muddled kind.”

The Girl Who Rules Fairyland – For A Little While is the prequel of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and introduces us to Mallow, a young Dry Magic magician who lives like a hermit at the edge of Fairyland. She is happy to be left in peace with her talking bed, her cast-iron ducks and her ballad-singing hairpins. But curiosity and a yearning to learn Wet Magic makes her travel to attend King Goldmouth’s Faul, held in Fairyland’s capitol Pandemonium. There she meets the various Winds and the Great Cats of Nephelo and the real purpose behind Goldmouth’s Tithe.

I loved this so much. No question I must read the other books in the series (all available on Scribd. Yay!) Author Catherynne M. Valente conjures a whimsical and charming world with an undercurrent of darkness. Just what I was looking for today!

Themes: fairy tale, Winesap: A Pracktical Towne, a Whiskey Lake, Dry Magic, a hermit, King Goldmouth’s Tithe, a lift to the Faul in a carriageless horse, onwards to the moving city of Pandemonium, a blood price must be paid, so much to ponder over. Loved it.

4.3 Stars

[Kira Simion · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can read this free on her website!

I’m sorry, but this writing style was not for me. It made the happy moments no longer happy and the sad no longer sad. Just filled each with description after description and new words to fill in missing parts of description.

[Chi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Mallow, and the people she meets, was really well-written. But there was a quirk to the writing style and the story that didn't completely appeal. I'll sit on it for a bit and see if it's worth tackling the novel or not.

[Jonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often books captivate me with the first sentence - this book did just that: History is a funny little creature... It then goes on to explain that history is like a bitch-ass cat, which in my opinion is totally accurate. Yeah, this is my jam!

I haven't read any other books in the Fairyland series, but I'm already sensing a strong liking towards them - if they're anything like this little number. This odd story has such a individualistic element to it, I couldn't even relate it to any other book I read if I tried. The closest possible reference I could make is The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories - but that's poetry, so it's not even close (it's difficult to describe, go easy on me).

It's true the world will always hurt you, we say, so best to stay with your ducks by a pleasant lake, and feed them the sparks of your dinner-fire, the fat ones with orange bits especially."

This book may have made more sense if I'd read the other ones first, but hey, who's complaining (not me). It was still a thoroughly magical and absorbing read and I was absolutely enthralled with it. The descriptions were just so quirky! And Mallow (I don't know what kind of role she plays in the other books) - her mind was so utterly familiar to me, aside from the obvious magic and funky junk.

I am a practical girl and a life is only so long. It should be spent in as much peace and good eating and good reading as possible and no undue excitement. That is all I am after.

Fantasy fiends need to get amongst!

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mallow really is a practical girl.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everything was fine until she got into the "iron horse." I liked Mallow, I loved her house, I even found Jack in the Green intriguing (thanks to Songs From the Wood). The ducks were just my drop. But when they got to Pandemonium too late to look around much or have any fun, I began to suspect. Valente tried to redeem herself with that furry tent full of cats, but she didn't. She couldn't, because of what came after.

This is a short story pretending to be a novel, or a novel on a diet trying desperately to fit itself into last year's trends. It needed either better development or severe pruning of the purple prose. It left me with a very bad taste in my mouth indeed.

[Susana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most whimsical and charming (albeit at times gory) tale. I definitely should start reading this series as soon as possible.

[Shara · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I posted my review for Valente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, I knew I had to take the time and read the short story Valente published on Tor.com last year. I didn't know how it fit into the book I'd read for December's book club, but I did know it was all a part of the same world, and I didn't want to read it until I had the book firmly under my belt.

You can read "The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland -- For a Little While" for free on Tor.com. However, it looked like a length story when I pulled it up, and since it was only $0.99 on my Kindle, I figured, what the hell? Valente's a must author for my anyway, and I didn't mind spending 99 cents on something I could've read for free. I can do that much to support a favorite author. At any rate, it was quite the perfect little thing to read on my Kindle.

Right away, I was charmed. I was also surprised, because this story is actually a prequel, and we learn how Mallow became who we know her to be in The Girl Who Navigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. As Fairyland was already familiar to me, I didn't have any sort of learning curves in terms of getting settled into the world. Oh, sure, there were differences, but with Valente, there's usually a learning curve, but having read the book, there wasn't. That's a plus.

It was a delight to see how things in this story set up events in The Girl Who Navigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Everything from Green Wind to the Leopard to the Panther to, well, Libraries. If you enjoyed The Girl Who Navigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making whatsoever, this story will be an absolute joy to read, and well worth the time and money (if spent) you put into it. Me, it something I can see myself coming back to, and that's always the mark of a good story in my book. :)

A quotable bit, just to whet your appetite:

You couldn't predict who that cat might decide to love, or who it might decide to bite. You couldn't tell what it thought or felt, or how old it might really be, or whether it would one day, miraculously, decide to let you put one hand, very briefly, on its dusty head.

History is like that.

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://www.tor.com/2011/07/27/the-gi...

The perfect prelude to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. I definitely wanted this backstory!

[Princessjay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the whimsy -- the mournful cast-iron ducks who love their mistress, the talking bed that composes poetry, the wrathful clouds -- so much.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit on the over descriptive side for me. Not bad, very fairy tale feel to it. 3 solid stars.

[Netanella · Rating 3 out of 5]

'. . . I have all the books I could need, and what more could I need than books? I shall only engage in commerce if books are the coin. Come to my door if you have a book—and a good one, not just your great-aunt’s book of doily patterns—and I will give you an egg or a cake or a pair of woolen socks. I am a practical girl, and a life is only so long. It should be spent in as much peace and good eating and good reading as possible and no undue excitement. That is all I am after.’



Having recently read a book that just slayed my emotions, I need a cleanser, something light and whimsical and 'not just your great-aunt's book of doily patterns.' This short story set in Valente's Fairyland universe was just the ticket. I loved the greedy goblin king and the Wind Cats and the practical little girl with her needle. Magical.

[Annemieke / A Dance with Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

You couldn’t tell what it thought or felt, or how old it might really be, or whether it would one day, miraculously, decide to let you put one hand, very briefly, on its dusty head.

History is like that.

Such excellent writing.

[Kristin B. Bodreau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting backstory for the series. Not nearly as much impact as the longer stories.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What have I read just now?
...faeries , magicians ,a house on the shores of a whiskey lake ,a talking bed,and pet metal ducks,lively hairpins , and that just the beginning. The heroine Mallow is on her way to the drifting capital of Fairyland riding inside a the Carriageless Horse... my head is spinning.
This short story makes me feel like I landend in OZ or Wonderland ... all shades of weird.

It's my first encounter with Catherynne M. Valente , and it won't be the last (I so love quirky stuff).


" “Listen to all those Ms!” Mabry marveled softly, and began to sing very gently: “Oh, Mallow Met a Marvelous Man, by the name of Mabry Muscat…”

“Listen,” Mallow interrupted. “I haven’t any interest in following you to a stash of gold in the hills or dancing at a Fairy ball or answering riddles or meeting any eligible Fairy dukes who have a castle just on the other side of a curtain of mist—no. I am a magician—mostly—and I am on my way to the Foul like everyone else. Don’t try to charm me, please. I am a practical girl.”

“Those are my favorite kind,” grinned Mabry Muscat."