Fair Peril

by Nancy Springer

When Buffy, a middle-aged divorce+a7e, encounters a talking frog and ignores all the fairy tales, her rebellious daughter Emily kisses the frog, turning him into a handsome prince, and soon Buffy finds herself in the land of Fair Peril to retrieve her daughter. Reprint.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humor, Fairy Tales, Retellings, Speculative Fiction, Urban Fantasy

246 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

BIO -- NANCY SPRINGER


Nancy Springer has passed the fifty-book milestone, having written that many novels for adults, young adults and children, in genres including mythic fantasy, contemporary fiction, magical realism, horror, and mystery -- although she did not realize she wrote mystery until she won the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America two years in succession. DARK LIE, recently released from NAL, is her first venture into mass-market psychological suspense.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Nancy Springer moved with her family to Gettysburg, of Civil War fame, when she was thirteen. She spent the next forty-six years in Pennsylvania, raising two children (Jonathan, now 38, and Nora, 34), writing, horseback riding, fishing, and birdwatching. In 2007 she surprised her friends and herself by moving with her second husband to an isolated area of the Florida panhandle, where the birdwatching is spectacular and where, when fishing, she occasionally catches an alligator.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Once upon a time there was a middle-aged woman whose slime-loving, shigella-kissing bung hole of a husband dumped her the month after their twentieth wedding anniversary."

There once was a woman who loved to tell stories filled with magic and wonder. Sadly, her own personal fairy tale didn't end very well. One day, the sad woman was strolling through the enchanted forests of a mystical land called Pennsylvania when she came upon a talking frog. He explained that he was really a bewitched handsome prince, and he had one request for the woman.



Now the woman thought long and hard about the frog's plea. Did she really want another man around telling her what to do? No, she didn't. She decided it would be cooler to have a talking frog.



Too bad her daughter had other ideas . . .

This is a hard one to review without giving too much away. I really, REALLY enjoyed the first third of this book, then something happened, and I lost interest. On the plus side, the story is imaginative, and the main character is fairly likable. But, the build up to the big finale is sort of muddled and confusing, and some of the other characters annoyed the hell out of me. My conclusion? A good premise wasted.

"You know there's nothing cute about fairy tales. You know about the fair peril and the punishments. You know that everything is itself and something else as well."

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that in the end, the woman learns a valuable lesson - we all must make our own happily-ever-afters.

[Melanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair warning - I'm not a fan of "silly" books. If I'd read a bit further in the sample before purchasing, I probably wouldn't have bothered buying or reading the book. If you do like humorous books, feel free to ignore the rest of my review.

This is a re-telling of The Frog Prince told in very symbolic and humorous terms. There's some wonderful, wonderful parts in there - for instance Buffy's storytelling - and some great points (like the idea that a woman being put up on a pedestal and worshiped can be a form of prison) but the silliness annoyed me.

The portrayal of men really annoyed me too. Is there a male equivalent of the Bechdel test?

When the ex-husband is informed that his 16 year old daughter has run off with a older man, his response is "Oh, well, that's fine. I used to go for young women too." WTF?! The book being stylized and symbolic makes it worse, because if the ex-husband is meant to be the Jungian archetypal male, then that's less than flattering of the male half of the conversation. The one somewhat tolerable male turns out to be gay. Sigh.

Really, though, with the overall silliness of the whole book and the overall obnoxiousness of ALL the main characters, I suppose the over-the-top obnoxiousness of the men shouldn't annoy me. But it does.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fair Peril is a thoughtful exploration of the pscyhology of fairy tales, love and need masquerading as pure cheese. This is a story of a dysfunctional family's interaction with a talking frog and the fairy world of Fair Peril that he leads them to, but it's about much more than that. Springer clashes together the two ways we use fairy tales -- the Grimm exploration of danger and consequences for bad behavior, and the Disney dreamy wish fulfillment. She explores many terrible unintended consequences of desperately wanting to be loved, and shows several versions of moving beyond self-involvement. Everything is symbolic, which lets Springer pack many meanings and ideas into a quick read. At the same time some of the conversations between characters are raw and true. It's been a while since I've read something both so thoroughly smart and so entirely unpretentious.

The mix of college-class-worthy ideas with absurd humor won't do it for everyone. If the very idea of a fairy story set in a mall makes you want to gag on a spoon, or if Jeff Foxworthy style white trash humor makes you want to shoot something, this novel is not for you. Recommended for fans of Jasper Fforde, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough and Seanan McGuire.

[Myra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful folly. Sure, it gets a bit disorderly at times, but I thought it was a lot of fun. And I learned a lot of new words.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This turned out to be a great book! Love the mix of the magical world and realism!!

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book held my attention, but the hostility toward men and the symbolism that was assumed to be obvious but wasn't made it far less enjoyable than I expected.

[Elle Hartford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of banter, fairy tale symbolism, and medieval insults. I found it very entertaining, even though there were pieces of the plot I did not understand/didn't quite agree with, such as . . .

Spoilers ahead!!

. . . I think the main character should have been *two* characters. One could have the divorce/daughter issues, and the other could have the frog/prince issues. They could be devoted roommates and storytelling partners, perhaps (which would make sense given the money issues Buffy faces!). Basically, I think the story would benefit from less of the "both mom and daughter love the frog" conflict . . . I get that the tension of protecting a child is part of the story, but the stress of everyone needing to be loved by the same people got a little Oedipal, I thought. But I appreciated the recurring dynamic of adult vs. child and motherly relationships. Perhaps LeeVon could be the second main character--his part in the story as it is was amusing, but felt kind of random, and he definitely deserved more.

[Linguana · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Sue Chant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiptree longlist 1996

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this fantasy. One of my favorite books. There is so much going on in the story your attention will not drift from beginning to end.

[Heather Haskins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give this a higher score because the writing had a unique voice to it, but the story itself became too bizarre and trippy for me to really enjoy past the first third or so.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peculiarly satisfying.

[Gem · Rating 1 out of 5]

kind of an odd man hating fairy tale. Nope it's terrible

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a marvelous achievement and a dear gem. I haven't read anything quite like it, and there aren't many magical fairy tales like this for actually grown-up adults. It's as if the author decided to throw an angsty Allegory Potluck event, full of adult themes. So she invited the usual suspects like jobs, divorce, infidelity, child-rearing, anxiety, failure, trophy bimbos, mothers-in-law, jealousy, glass ceilings, etc... Everyone brought along their most serious casseroles and molded aspics and solemn desserts. Only someone else showed up with a load of hash brownies, cool whip, and wacky party favors to enliven the proceedings.

I loved the story-within-story telling that Buffy engages in at various points in the book. Love that technique to bits, and sometimes wished she had done more of it. And I loved the contents of Fay's purse... On and on. There's a lot to love here, and hidden gems of expression are everywhere.

The basic story concerns a frog who claims to be a prince, and a wonderful woman who finds the frog. The frog is then stolen by her daughter, who kisses it, etc. If I was a person who thought allegorically, I'd read it was a story about a smart woman who has a secret "forbidden crush" on a too-younger man, but he is then stolen by, or steals, the daughter instead of the mother. And it's all mixed up in parallel with a tooth-grindingly annoying sexist ex-husband who had an affair with, and later married, a younger bimbo, who obviously likes him mostly for his money and prestige. Part of my mind was racing in symbolic terms about generational rivalry and decline of attractiveness. It's quite mythological and archetypal. The story gets stranger, angstier and darker as it goes on toward the climax, but the, uh, orgasm was satisfying and the Happy Ever After was suitable. I got slightly impatient during the last 10 pages or so. The writing is excellent, but the denouement felt slightly long. I'm not saying I could, or would, change that, and I understand the protagonist's turmoil... But I got a slightly antsy feeling which cleared up about 2 pages before the end. When I closed the book, I wanted to run after Buffy with a bouquet of flowers and take her to dinner.

[Roachie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your typical fairy tale re-telling. Rather than sticking to a fairy tale format, this one takes the twisty course of magical realism by starting in reality with a disenchanted angry woman whose personal (metaphoric) fairy tale has gone horribly awry, and now she is desperately trying to reclaim her own identity and reframe her story, to resurrect an old dream of becoming a storyteller. She stumbles upon a real live fairy tale in the form of a talking frog who claims to be an ensorcelled prince and begs her to kiss him. Unwilling to be dragged into another fairy tale-like situation that will no doubt result in misery, she decides that a talking frog companion is much more preferable to another pompous, spoiled, pain-in-the-ass princely-type like her ex-husband. But when her youngest daughter takes the bait, kisses the frog, and runs away with him, Buffy must use all her storyteller power to enter the land of Faery/Fair Peril and retrieve her daughter before it's too late.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A blend of fiction, fantasy and archetypal psychology, this book is an intriguing, thought-provoking story about our view of ourselves, and the ways in which we tell our own stories [or fail to].
Buffy is a woman whose life has spun out of control, as her obnoxious husband has left her for younger, less outspoken woman, in order to further his own political goals. Her youngest daughter has spurned her, and her only goal is to become a storyteller...but no one will listen to her stories.
Then, she met a talking frog, and things took a turn for the strange.
Buffy finally has to acknowledge and tell her own story, in order to set things right. The path to that goal is far from simple, especially when it goes via the nearest mall.

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is in the flavor of Springer's "Larque on the Wing", the same melding of real people with real lives suddenly caught by the power and magic of story and symbols where everything is itself and something more.

I enjoyed it rather a lot, as the consequences of the Stories are real; and I rather like the use Springer has for her character's animus and the Jungian aspects. It's a well of the unconscious rollercoaster, and I think the one thing that detracted was the odd feeling that the story never really is under any kind of control.

That said, I still finished it in one reading. So... I think I really did enjoy it a great deal.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly not my thing, although I can see why others would really like it. There's a lot of wordplay and Jungian symbolism; I think if you like Oscar Wilde, you'll have fun with this. But Springer seems to like fleshing out antiheroes and unsympathetic characters, and it's harder for me to get into a book when the main character is self-pitying and totally self-involved. She felt like a walking advertisement for the first world problems of The Feminine Mystique, and I just couldn't bring myself to care what happened to her.

[Jenni · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to say, I did NOT like this book. I had very high hopes, but the events were hard the follow, the characters were not well defined and it seemed like "magic" was an excuse to not have a plausible storyline. I will give the author some credit on her inventiveness, but this needed an editor big time.

[The Fairy Godmother]

Based on The Frog Prince.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saved itself during the conclusion...and then promptly lost it again.

[StrangeBedfellows · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute and creative story with moments of strong writing, but nothing that lingers with you after reading.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a STRANGE book!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished Nancy Springer's FAIR PERIL this morning, sleepy eyes having sent me to bed to ponder and dream my own variations on the wild and wonderful story . . .
Alice in a doubly-weird Wonderland combined with a reminder of Sir Gawain's Loathly Lady's puzzle, "What do women (and men, and frogs) most want."
Reflecting on the theme of people and objects being more than one thing at once, I will be looking carefully for multiple possibilities here in the "real world.” I wonder if I should visit the mall. Also, reminded of a few friends, good women cast off for newer model brides . . . this book would be most therapeutic.
A few wise quotes:
“She was always watching for stories, for truth, not for facts, so the teachers thought she was stupid.” (Giving thanks for my kindergarten teacher gently advising me to ask my father to talk with me about his rainbow story — basis of my “Real Vs. Make-Believe” story).
“Prison . . . the inability to go, to do, to act.” “Make a new story”