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Aetherial Tales #1
Elfland
Rosie Fox is a daughter of the Aetherials, an ancient race from the Spiral—the innermost realm of the Otherworld—who lives secretly among us. Yet she and her kind are bereft of their origins, because on Earth, in a beautiful village named Cloudcroft, the Great Gates between worlds stand sealed.
Her parents, Auberon and Jessica, are the warm heart of Cloudcroft and of Rosie’s loving family. But on the hill lives the mysterious, aloof Lawrence Wilder, Gatekeeper to the inner realms of Elfland. Tortured by private demons, he is beset by trouble on all sides: his wife has vanished and his sons Jon and Sam are bitter and damaged. Lawrence is duty bound to throw open the Gates every seven years for the Night of the Summer Stars, a ritual granting young Aetherials their heritage, their elders vital reconnection to their source. Lawrence, however, is haunted by fears of an ever-growing menace within the Spiral. When he stubbornly bars the Gates, he defies tradition and enrages the Aetherial community. What will become of them, deprived of the realm from which flows their essential life force? Is Lawrence protecting them—or betraying them?
Growing up amid this turmoil, Rosie and her brothers, along with Sam and Jon Wilder, are heedless of the peril lurking beyond the Gates. They know only that their elders have denied them their birthright, harboring dark secrets in a conspiracy of silence.
When Sam is imprisoned for an all-too-human crime, age-old wounds sunder the two families…yet Rosie is drawn into his web, even as she fears the passions awoken in her by the dangerous Wilder clan. Torn between duty and desire, between worlds, Rosie unwittingly precipitates a tragedy that compels her to journey into the Otherworld, where unknown terrors await. Accompanied by the one man most perilous to her life, she must learn hard lessons about life and love in order to understand her Aetherial nature…and her role in the terrifying conflict to come.
Her parents, Auberon and Jessica, are the warm heart of Cloudcroft and of Rosie’s loving family. But on the hill lives the mysterious, aloof Lawrence Wilder, Gatekeeper to the inner realms of Elfland. Tortured by private demons, he is beset by trouble on all sides: his wife has vanished and his sons Jon and Sam are bitter and damaged. Lawrence is duty bound to throw open the Gates every seven years for the Night of the Summer Stars, a ritual granting young Aetherials their heritage, their elders vital reconnection to their source. Lawrence, however, is haunted by fears of an ever-growing menace within the Spiral. When he stubbornly bars the Gates, he defies tradition and enrages the Aetherial community. What will become of them, deprived of the realm from which flows their essential life force? Is Lawrence protecting them—or betraying them?
Growing up amid this turmoil, Rosie and her brothers, along with Sam and Jon Wilder, are heedless of the peril lurking beyond the Gates. They know only that their elders have denied them their birthright, harboring dark secrets in a conspiracy of silence.
When Sam is imprisoned for an all-too-human crime, age-old wounds sunder the two families…yet Rosie is drawn into his web, even as she fears the passions awoken in her by the dangerous Wilder clan. Torn between duty and desire, between worlds, Rosie unwittingly precipitates a tragedy that compels her to journey into the Otherworld, where unknown terrors await. Accompanied by the one man most perilous to her life, she must learn hard lessons about life and love in order to understand her Aetherial nature…and her role in the terrifying conflict to come.
463 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 2009
About the author
Freda Warrington
52 books330 followersFreda Warrington is an award-winning British author, known for her epic fantasy, vampire and supernatural novels.
“The Blood Wine books are addictive, thrilling reads that are impossible to put down and they definitely deserve more attention” – Worldhopping.net
Her earliest novels, the Blackbird series, were written and published in the 1980s. In the intervening years she has seen numerous novels of epic fantasy, supernatural and contemporary fantasy, vampires, dark romance, horror and alternative history published.
Her novel ELFLAND won the Romantic Times BEST FANTASY NOVEL Award in 2009, while her 1997 Dracula sequel DRACULA THE UNDEAD won the Dracula Society's BEST GOTHIC NOVEL Award.
Four of her novels (Dark Cathedral, Pagan Moon, Dracula the Undead, and The Amber Citadel) have been nominated or shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel award. The American Library Association placed MIDSUMMER NIGHT in its Top Ten for 2010.
Recently Titan Book reissued her popular romantic-gothic Blood Wine vampire series set in the 1920s - A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet and The Dark Blood of Poppies - along with a brand new novel, The Dark Arts of Blood. In 2017, Telos Publishing will publish her first short story collection, NIGHTS OF BLOOD WINE, featuring fifteen lush dark tales - ten set in her Blood Wine world, and five others of gothic weirdness.
In 2003, Simon & Schuster published The Court of the Midnight King, an alternative history/ fantasy retelling of the story of King Richard III. To celebrate all the events surrounding the discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester, The Court of the Midnight King is now available on Kindle and in paperback format. Most of her backlist titles, including the Blackbird series, Dracula the Undead, Dark Cathedral and Pagan Moon, can already be found on Kindle or will be available in the next few months.
Warrington has also seen numerous short stories published in anthologies and magazines. For further information, visit her website Freda Warrington
Born in Leicester, Warrington grew up in the Charnwood Forest area of Leicestershire. After completing high school, she trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design and worked in medical illustration and graphic design for some years. She eventually moved to full-time writing, and also still enjoys design, photography, art, jewellery-making and other crafts, travelling and conventions.
Series:
* Jewelfire
* Dark Cathedral
* Aetherial Tales
* Blackbird
“The Blood Wine books are addictive, thrilling reads that are impossible to put down and they definitely deserve more attention” – Worldhopping.net
Her earliest novels, the Blackbird series, were written and published in the 1980s. In the intervening years she has seen numerous novels of epic fantasy, supernatural and contemporary fantasy, vampires, dark romance, horror and alternative history published.
Her novel ELFLAND won the Romantic Times BEST FANTASY NOVEL Award in 2009, while her 1997 Dracula sequel DRACULA THE UNDEAD won the Dracula Society's BEST GOTHIC NOVEL Award.
Four of her novels (Dark Cathedral, Pagan Moon, Dracula the Undead, and The Amber Citadel) have been nominated or shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society's Best Novel award. The American Library Association placed MIDSUMMER NIGHT in its Top Ten for 2010.
Recently Titan Book reissued her popular romantic-gothic Blood Wine vampire series set in the 1920s - A Taste of Blood Wine, A Dance in Blood Velvet and The Dark Blood of Poppies - along with a brand new novel, The Dark Arts of Blood. In 2017, Telos Publishing will publish her first short story collection, NIGHTS OF BLOOD WINE, featuring fifteen lush dark tales - ten set in her Blood Wine world, and five others of gothic weirdness.
In 2003, Simon & Schuster published The Court of the Midnight King, an alternative history/ fantasy retelling of the story of King Richard III. To celebrate all the events surrounding the discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester, The Court of the Midnight King is now available on Kindle and in paperback format. Most of her backlist titles, including the Blackbird series, Dracula the Undead, Dark Cathedral and Pagan Moon, can already be found on Kindle or will be available in the next few months.
Warrington has also seen numerous short stories published in anthologies and magazines. For further information, visit her website Freda Warrington
Born in Leicester, Warrington grew up in the Charnwood Forest area of Leicestershire. After completing high school, she trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design and worked in medical illustration and graphic design for some years. She eventually moved to full-time writing, and also still enjoys design, photography, art, jewellery-making and other crafts, travelling and conventions.
Series:
* Jewelfire
* Dark Cathedral
* Aetherial Tales
* Blackbird
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 205 reviews
May 13, 2015
ETA: Reread finished, 5/13/2015. I think this is the third time I've read it. Possibly fourth. Got something different out of it this time--much more into the realms now than the love story.
Old Review Below:
-------------------
Cross Elizabeth Hand with Fire and Hemlock, and you might end up with something like Freda Warrington's Elfland. This is the kind of big, sweeping modern faerie tale that you don't see often on the adult shelves anymore. There's been some beautiful work done in YA recently, but in the adult realm, the trend has been away from novels like this. And that's a shame. Elfland is complex, rich, sensual, beautifully written, and sometimes heartbreaking.
I devoured Elfland. I carried it with me everywhere for four days, because I never knew when I might have a spare five minutes to steal a page or two. When I was at work, I looked forward to going home so I could read more. I read late into the night, every night. I was hooked. That, to me, is the surest sign of a five-star book: the complete inability to put it down unless I absolutely have to!
Our heroine, Rosie Fox, is of Aetherial (fae) descent, living with her family just this side of the Great Gates that divide our world from the Otherworld. Rosie's haughty neighbor, Lawrence Wilder, is the Gatekeeper, and as such, is supposed to open the Gates every seven years to allow travel, and a flow of energy, between the realms. As the story opens, however, he has shut the Gates, claiming a great danger lurks on the other side. Elfland follows Rosie, her family and friends, and Lawrence's family over the course of the next fourteen years. Fourteen years: long enough for a girl to grow into a woman, for loves to be lost and found, and for family secrets to explode. Long enough for some Aetherials to decide it's better to deny their fae nature, and for others to resort to desperate measures to reopen the Gates.
At its heart, Elfland is about how denying one's true self is a sure path to disaster. It's also a love story. I usually don't go for romances in which the hero and heroine bicker, but Warrington makes the trope sing. Rosie and her eventual love interest get off on the wrong foot as kids, and the way their relationship develops seems painfully realistic to me, with the characters slipping back into snarky retorts because they're familiar, and because the retorts serve as an outlet for emotions more disturbing than anger. Both characters have a lot of growing to do before they're a good match for each other. Elfland is, in part, the story of that growth, and of the sometimes wrenching mistakes made along the way.
When the plot moves into the Otherworld, Warrington handles the journey perfectly. It would have been easy to let the story get bogged down in travelogue here, to slow the pace down by showing the reader every single strange thing that populates the Aetherial realms. Warrington doesn't fall into this trap. She gives us a glimpse of how beautiful and how terrifying Elfland can be, but leaves some things to the imagination, and keeps the focus firmly on the characters' quest. This has a dual effect: it keeps the plot moving, and it allows the Otherworld to retain some of its mystery.
If I have any quibble at all, it's that I don't think the slang needed to be "Americanized" for the US audience. It's not necessary, and it's not done consistently. Characters sometimes obtain higher education at "uni," but sometimes they go to "college" instead, and one character calls another "gay as a nine-dollar note." I wouldn't have minded British slang. The book does take place in Britain, after all.
That's a tiny gripe, though, and overall I loved Elfland. It's a sumptuous feast of a novel, filled with vivid characters, magical locales both earthly and Aetherial, and a complicated plot in which nearly every detail turns out to be significant in the end. I'll definitely be looking up Freda Warrington's backlist.
See this review in context at FantasyLiterature.net!
Old Review Below:
-------------------
Cross Elizabeth Hand with Fire and Hemlock, and you might end up with something like Freda Warrington's Elfland. This is the kind of big, sweeping modern faerie tale that you don't see often on the adult shelves anymore. There's been some beautiful work done in YA recently, but in the adult realm, the trend has been away from novels like this. And that's a shame. Elfland is complex, rich, sensual, beautifully written, and sometimes heartbreaking.
I devoured Elfland. I carried it with me everywhere for four days, because I never knew when I might have a spare five minutes to steal a page or two. When I was at work, I looked forward to going home so I could read more. I read late into the night, every night. I was hooked. That, to me, is the surest sign of a five-star book: the complete inability to put it down unless I absolutely have to!
Our heroine, Rosie Fox, is of Aetherial (fae) descent, living with her family just this side of the Great Gates that divide our world from the Otherworld. Rosie's haughty neighbor, Lawrence Wilder, is the Gatekeeper, and as such, is supposed to open the Gates every seven years to allow travel, and a flow of energy, between the realms. As the story opens, however, he has shut the Gates, claiming a great danger lurks on the other side. Elfland follows Rosie, her family and friends, and Lawrence's family over the course of the next fourteen years. Fourteen years: long enough for a girl to grow into a woman, for loves to be lost and found, and for family secrets to explode. Long enough for some Aetherials to decide it's better to deny their fae nature, and for others to resort to desperate measures to reopen the Gates.
At its heart, Elfland is about how denying one's true self is a sure path to disaster. It's also a love story. I usually don't go for romances in which the hero and heroine bicker, but Warrington makes the trope sing. Rosie and her eventual love interest get off on the wrong foot as kids, and the way their relationship develops seems painfully realistic to me, with the characters slipping back into snarky retorts because they're familiar, and because the retorts serve as an outlet for emotions more disturbing than anger. Both characters have a lot of growing to do before they're a good match for each other. Elfland is, in part, the story of that growth, and of the sometimes wrenching mistakes made along the way.
When the plot moves into the Otherworld, Warrington handles the journey perfectly. It would have been easy to let the story get bogged down in travelogue here, to slow the pace down by showing the reader every single strange thing that populates the Aetherial realms. Warrington doesn't fall into this trap. She gives us a glimpse of how beautiful and how terrifying Elfland can be, but leaves some things to the imagination, and keeps the focus firmly on the characters' quest. This has a dual effect: it keeps the plot moving, and it allows the Otherworld to retain some of its mystery.
If I have any quibble at all, it's that I don't think the slang needed to be "Americanized" for the US audience. It's not necessary, and it's not done consistently. Characters sometimes obtain higher education at "uni," but sometimes they go to "college" instead, and one character calls another "gay as a nine-dollar note." I wouldn't have minded British slang. The book does take place in Britain, after all.
That's a tiny gripe, though, and overall I loved Elfland. It's a sumptuous feast of a novel, filled with vivid characters, magical locales both earthly and Aetherial, and a complicated plot in which nearly every detail turns out to be significant in the end. I'll definitely be looking up Freda Warrington's backlist.
See this review in context at FantasyLiterature.net!
July 1, 2011
Attention anyone who attends Faeriecon, *loves* imagination, fairy tales and myth, or just wants a reminder of the wonder you felt as a child: run, don't walk, to your library or book store and pick up the novel Elfland by Freda Warrington.
I found this book on Amazon by doing a semi-regular search for Kinuko Craft. She contributed the cover art to this novel by a British author that was first released in America last year. (Warrington has written 20-some novels, but this is her first one available in the U.S. market) It sounds silly, but despite the beautiful artwork by Kinuko, I was skeptical of the story because of a) the title sounded generic b) the blurb sounded a bit strange, but strangest of all, c) the font they used for her name on the front cover was aesthetically displeasing to me, and bad covers tend to put me off. But I was curious, and any tale Kinuko illustrates is worth trying, so I got the book from the library.
Oh my gosh. It is the sort of book you pick up and think "oh, I'll just read the first page and then move in to book X that just arrived from the library from an author I like and want to read." Then next thing you know, you're 100 pages in, and sending the other book back to come for you another time. Then you find yourself neglecting other duties to keep reading it voraciously, until you look at the spine to realize that you are 4/5ths through, and you don't want it to end. You then spend the last 1/5 of the book sitting on your hands to try to stay in the world a bit longer, even though you're dying to finish it.
The last book I read that enchanted me so thoroughly was Cat Valente's The Orphan's Tales duology. And that affected me in a very different way. Valente's book is like a beautiful Matryoska doll of nested stories, whereas Elfland stirred me so thoroughly because it is utterly, unapologetically dreamy/magical. There is no restraint to the imagination in this tale. It pours magic through you in ways that other novels I have read recently only eke it out a bit at a time. Reading this book made me feel like a child again, looking out my window at the stars, dreaming of secret passageways that would lead from my bedroom closet to a secret room only I could find, and wondering if some of the people I saw every day were more than they appeared to be.
But the book saves itself from falling off the deep end of sentimentality and dreaminess by grounding its characters very fully and concretely in real world problems. Not only was this book the most fantastical and magical I've read lately, but it somehow also simultaneously had the most realistically rendered characters. Families deal with secrets and flaws, characters interact in ways that are so very real.
Tom and I recently watched a special feature on a Pixar movie where they discussed the ultimate fate of the film villain. The Pixar animators explained that they never liked a "bad guy" in a movie who was one-dimensionally bad. Because in real life, very few people wake up in the morning thinking "what evil can I do?" It is more realistic to have people who genuinely believe they are doing the right thing, and are just flawed. This book successfully incorporates that concept as well. No character is flat or one-dimensional. Everyone can be related to somehow on some level.
But ultimately, what I already mentioned loving the most about this book was how it made me remember ways I felt as a child about magic, wonder, myth, and faerie. Despite the fact that those concepts are still so precious to me as an adult, this book brought them back to me in a way I didn't even realize I had been missing.
It should, simply put, be required reading for every attendee at Faeriecon. Registration table: "have you read this book yet?" Attendee: "...no..." Table: "Come back for your badge when you finish it."
Or, as one amusing and yet entirely true review on Amazon says:
we gave this book five stars... dear lovers of faerie lore, ... but we'd like to give it seven stars. In fact, we bestow upon it the the Seven pointed Elfin star. If you took Charlotte Bronte and merged her with Jane Austin and brought her into the present writing in the Magical Realism style of Alice Hoffman about elves in modern Britain, you'd have this wonderful novel. It could be called a "tale of two families" for it tells of the relationships between the Wilders and the Fox family, who are both elven/aetherials, and upper class British citizens. There is romance here, and longing, and a beast that lurks beyond the gate to Elfin, for which reason it has been sealed and closed, creating protests among the Vaethyr, the elves on Earth/Vaeth. We could go on, but instead, simply read this book. No one's ever come closer to understanding the modern Faerie folk.
Do yourself a favor and READ THIS BOOK.
**PS: If you are sensitive to foul language or sexual situations, this book has plenty of both**
I found this book on Amazon by doing a semi-regular search for Kinuko Craft. She contributed the cover art to this novel by a British author that was first released in America last year. (Warrington has written 20-some novels, but this is her first one available in the U.S. market) It sounds silly, but despite the beautiful artwork by Kinuko, I was skeptical of the story because of a) the title sounded generic b) the blurb sounded a bit strange, but strangest of all, c) the font they used for her name on the front cover was aesthetically displeasing to me, and bad covers tend to put me off. But I was curious, and any tale Kinuko illustrates is worth trying, so I got the book from the library.
Oh my gosh. It is the sort of book you pick up and think "oh, I'll just read the first page and then move in to book X that just arrived from the library from an author I like and want to read." Then next thing you know, you're 100 pages in, and sending the other book back to come for you another time. Then you find yourself neglecting other duties to keep reading it voraciously, until you look at the spine to realize that you are 4/5ths through, and you don't want it to end. You then spend the last 1/5 of the book sitting on your hands to try to stay in the world a bit longer, even though you're dying to finish it.
The last book I read that enchanted me so thoroughly was Cat Valente's The Orphan's Tales duology. And that affected me in a very different way. Valente's book is like a beautiful Matryoska doll of nested stories, whereas Elfland stirred me so thoroughly because it is utterly, unapologetically dreamy/magical. There is no restraint to the imagination in this tale. It pours magic through you in ways that other novels I have read recently only eke it out a bit at a time. Reading this book made me feel like a child again, looking out my window at the stars, dreaming of secret passageways that would lead from my bedroom closet to a secret room only I could find, and wondering if some of the people I saw every day were more than they appeared to be.
But the book saves itself from falling off the deep end of sentimentality and dreaminess by grounding its characters very fully and concretely in real world problems. Not only was this book the most fantastical and magical I've read lately, but it somehow also simultaneously had the most realistically rendered characters. Families deal with secrets and flaws, characters interact in ways that are so very real.
Tom and I recently watched a special feature on a Pixar movie where they discussed the ultimate fate of the film villain. The Pixar animators explained that they never liked a "bad guy" in a movie who was one-dimensionally bad. Because in real life, very few people wake up in the morning thinking "what evil can I do?" It is more realistic to have people who genuinely believe they are doing the right thing, and are just flawed. This book successfully incorporates that concept as well. No character is flat or one-dimensional. Everyone can be related to somehow on some level.
But ultimately, what I already mentioned loving the most about this book was how it made me remember ways I felt as a child about magic, wonder, myth, and faerie. Despite the fact that those concepts are still so precious to me as an adult, this book brought them back to me in a way I didn't even realize I had been missing.
It should, simply put, be required reading for every attendee at Faeriecon. Registration table: "have you read this book yet?" Attendee: "...no..." Table: "Come back for your badge when you finish it."
Or, as one amusing and yet entirely true review on Amazon says:
we gave this book five stars... dear lovers of faerie lore, ... but we'd like to give it seven stars. In fact, we bestow upon it the the Seven pointed Elfin star. If you took Charlotte Bronte and merged her with Jane Austin and brought her into the present writing in the Magical Realism style of Alice Hoffman about elves in modern Britain, you'd have this wonderful novel. It could be called a "tale of two families" for it tells of the relationships between the Wilders and the Fox family, who are both elven/aetherials, and upper class British citizens. There is romance here, and longing, and a beast that lurks beyond the gate to Elfin, for which reason it has been sealed and closed, creating protests among the Vaethyr, the elves on Earth/Vaeth. We could go on, but instead, simply read this book. No one's ever come closer to understanding the modern Faerie folk.
Do yourself a favor and READ THIS BOOK.
**PS: If you are sensitive to foul language or sexual situations, this book has plenty of both**
June 23, 2016
I’m SO SO disappointed with this one! It’s not right that a book with such a gorgeous cover tells such a dull, frustrating, soap operish story. Ugh.
Things actually started out okay, I liked the beginning when the protagonists are younger, just little kids really, and they can't stand the sight of each other -- in fact the whole story is about these two families that don't get along. They are not human, but some kind of fairy species, and they hate each other because one family is responsible for opening the 'Gates', which is the entrance to this otherworld, but they refuse to do it, while the other family wants to get in there.
This story is also contemporary, meaning, this was supposed to be some kind of epic contemporary fantasy, and I was so excited for it, but turns out it's more like a lame romantic drama where people sometimes speak of these things called 'Gates' and the 'Dusklands' (the otherworld).
Like I said, the beginning is quite interesting, but at some point the whole thing becomes this really bad soap opera episode, you know, when the girl likes the wrong guy, and for some stupid reason gets married with this other dude, just so a few days later she can cheat on him with yet another guy, but that's okay because her husband only married her for the family money, and OMG WHAT'S HAPPENING??? Seriously!? I kept looking at the cover just to make sure I was reading this same book I bought a long time ago because it had such a pretty Kinuko Y. Craft cover -- I WAS TRICKED! This is not at all what I was expecting!
And I kid you not, all I said before does happen in Elfland -- the female lead, Rose, falls for one of the boys from the other family when she's a little kid, and turns out he's gay, but she refuses to deal with it so she spends years of her life trying to make him to notice her, all the while sleeping with guys that remind her of him -- when she does get tired of chasing a gay guy, she decides to marry this other dude who she does not love whatsoever, but she says she wants a normal, quiet life, which I could understand if her life wasn't normal already. Okay, yes, her family is different and they aren't human, but THAT IS normal for her, so I don't get it. Anyway, she marries this douche and HAS SEX WITH THE BROTHER OF THE GAY GUY DURING HER WEDDING RECEPTION, WHILE WEARING HER WEDDING DRESS, AGAINST A TREE, and keeps having sex encounters with him when her husband is away, until the day he finds them on the bed and ends up crashing a car against a tree, leaving her a widow. And I didn't even mention her mother, who got pregnant from her husband's nemesis. Should I go on? Yeah, I don't think so.
I... I don't even know how I finished this book. And it's not that there's something wrong with the writing, no, but the concept of the story is just... so not what I was expecting. This soap opera, Fantasy? Please...
*PT* Cuidado com o Dálmata -- Elfland
Things actually started out okay, I liked the beginning when the protagonists are younger, just little kids really, and they can't stand the sight of each other -- in fact the whole story is about these two families that don't get along. They are not human, but some kind of fairy species, and they hate each other because one family is responsible for opening the 'Gates', which is the entrance to this otherworld, but they refuse to do it, while the other family wants to get in there.
This story is also contemporary, meaning, this was supposed to be some kind of epic contemporary fantasy, and I was so excited for it, but turns out it's more like a lame romantic drama where people sometimes speak of these things called 'Gates' and the 'Dusklands' (the otherworld).
Like I said, the beginning is quite interesting, but at some point the whole thing becomes this really bad soap opera episode, you know, when the girl likes the wrong guy, and for some stupid reason gets married with this other dude, just so a few days later she can cheat on him with yet another guy, but that's okay because her husband only married her for the family money, and OMG WHAT'S HAPPENING??? Seriously!? I kept looking at the cover just to make sure I was reading this same book I bought a long time ago because it had such a pretty Kinuko Y. Craft cover -- I WAS TRICKED! This is not at all what I was expecting!
And I kid you not, all I said before does happen in Elfland -- the female lead, Rose, falls for one of the boys from the other family when she's a little kid, and turns out he's gay, but she refuses to deal with it so she spends years of her life trying to make him to notice her, all the while sleeping with guys that remind her of him -- when she does get tired of chasing a gay guy, she decides to marry this other dude who she does not love whatsoever, but she says she wants a normal, quiet life, which I could understand if her life wasn't normal already. Okay, yes, her family is different and they aren't human, but THAT IS normal for her, so I don't get it. Anyway, she marries this douche and HAS SEX WITH THE BROTHER OF THE GAY GUY DURING HER WEDDING RECEPTION, WHILE WEARING HER WEDDING DRESS, AGAINST A TREE, and keeps having sex encounters with him when her husband is away, until the day he finds them on the bed and ends up crashing a car against a tree, leaving her a widow. And I didn't even mention her mother, who got pregnant from her husband's nemesis. Should I go on? Yeah, I don't think so.
I... I don't even know how I finished this book. And it's not that there's something wrong with the writing, no, but the concept of the story is just... so not what I was expecting. This soap opera, Fantasy? Please...
*PT* Cuidado com o Dálmata -- Elfland
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2011
(originally reviewed on starmetal oak book blog)
The novel starts off interestingly enough: we're introduced to Rosie Fox as a young girl whose family is from the fairy realm, accessed through the Gates. These Gates are closed to them by Lawrence, another Aetherial, due to his belief of evil lurking on the other side, ready to escape.
Through the next 200 pages or so, we grow up with Rosie and her family and all the drama that goes with it. It reminded me of a soap opera, where all the characters are fae, yet they merely only talk about it. It's rare we get to see any Aetherial action. Enormous amount of time is spent on love affairs, adultery, and drugs. I felt this annoyance in the plot events was doubled by the fact that I never really liked Rosie. Everyone would say how nice and good a person she is, but she's rather selfish, passive and abrasive. I never understood why she made certain desicions such as those relating to her romantic life. I felt like drama was created for the sake of drama. I also didn't care for Sam very much: the stereotypical bad boy the main female character can't help fall in love (or lust) with.
For 200-something pages we are given all this backstory and I ultimately stopped reading for lack of movement of the main plot: getting the Gates open or defeating the evil presence beyond them. I wasn't interested in the family saga.
The novel starts off interestingly enough: we're introduced to Rosie Fox as a young girl whose family is from the fairy realm, accessed through the Gates. These Gates are closed to them by Lawrence, another Aetherial, due to his belief of evil lurking on the other side, ready to escape.
Through the next 200 pages or so, we grow up with Rosie and her family and all the drama that goes with it. It reminded me of a soap opera, where all the characters are fae, yet they merely only talk about it. It's rare we get to see any Aetherial action. Enormous amount of time is spent on love affairs, adultery, and drugs. I felt this annoyance in the plot events was doubled by the fact that I never really liked Rosie. Everyone would say how nice and good a person she is, but she's rather selfish, passive and abrasive. I never understood why she made certain desicions such as those relating to her romantic life. I felt like drama was created for the sake of drama. I also didn't care for Sam very much: the stereotypical bad boy the main female character can't help fall in love (or lust) with.
For 200-something pages we are given all this backstory and I ultimately stopped reading for lack of movement of the main plot: getting the Gates open or defeating the evil presence beyond them. I wasn't interested in the family saga.
May 12, 2011
Someone characterized this as more of a 'family drama,' and I'd have to agree. What made it the most interesting is that it's about elves (in colloquial), and I can't say I've read a book before that was from a high faerie perspective in urban fantasy. That in itself kept me going, along with the love story and the mystery of the Gates, and why they can't be opened.
I struggled at times, especially in the beginning, when we are hopping around the timeline, from the Rosie-now to scenes from her childhood. I kept wanting it to build into something, to throw light on the closing of the Gates and to give us more insight into her particular heritage, but mostly they are just character-building pieces. Then I struggled in the middle with the Rosie being so dense about her own feelings and forcing a relationship with ordinary "the boy next door." I felt like the shift from accepting who she was to wanting to just "fit in" was believable, but a thematic cop-out. I had a hard time equating the heroine in the beginning and end with the one in the middle; it could be that I skimmed past a crucial five years in her development.
The secondary romantic plotline was mildly interesting, but went from dislike to fire rather fast once Sam was out of jail. Overall, I'm just not that interested in family drama, and the angle of the family being fae didn't significantly impact the development of the plot until the last third or so. The last third started to read more like high fantasy, as Rosie and Sam go through the Gate. Overall it felt like an uneven book. Elfland was almost the opposite of the "magical realism" genre; instead of showing us the magic, it showed fae as quite ordinary and mundane.
I struggled at times, especially in the beginning, when we are hopping around the timeline, from the Rosie-now to scenes from her childhood. I kept wanting it to build into something, to throw light on the closing of the Gates and to give us more insight into her particular heritage, but mostly they are just character-building pieces. Then I struggled in the middle with the Rosie being so dense about her own feelings and forcing a relationship with ordinary "the boy next door." I felt like the shift from accepting who she was to wanting to just "fit in" was believable, but a thematic cop-out. I had a hard time equating the heroine in the beginning and end with the one in the middle; it could be that I skimmed past a crucial five years in her development.
The secondary romantic plotline was mildly interesting, but went from dislike to fire rather fast once Sam was out of jail. Overall, I'm just not that interested in family drama, and the angle of the family being fae didn't significantly impact the development of the plot until the last third or so. The last third started to read more like high fantasy, as Rosie and Sam go through the Gate. Overall it felt like an uneven book. Elfland was almost the opposite of the "magical realism" genre; instead of showing us the magic, it showed fae as quite ordinary and mundane.
February 16, 2011
The Foxes and the Wilders are prestigious Aetherial (faerie) families living as humans in England. Lawrence Wilder is the Gatekeeper, who opens the Gates to Otherworld every seven years for necessary magical renewal, and Auberon Fox is the Aetherial leader. The community is thrown when Lawrence refuses to open the Gates, citing unspeakable danger in Otherworld that no one else believes in. As long as the Gates are closed, the Aetherials slowly lose the magic that make up a huge part of their secret lives, becoming more human. Desperate with the waning of their magic, the community plots to overthrow Lawrence. As the years pass, the Fox and Wilder children become irrevocably entwined, and their relationships eventually lead them to the Gates, where they discover the danger Lawrence claims will destroy them all.
The best part of this book is the dysfunctional, intricate relationships between the two families, especially the children (who grow up from middle grade kids to early/mid twenties through the course of the book). Sam Wilder, violent and mocking, but with a hidden good heart, falls for outspoken, earthy Rosie Fox, who has loathed him since he stole her necklace as a child and beat up her older brother. For years, Rosie wants only to capture the heart of Sam's younger brother, Jon, who inspires messiah-like devotion in everyone he meets. Underneath, however, he is a self-involved drug addict who has led Lucas, Rosie's beloved younger brother, down a dark path. Matthew Fox, the eldest, hates his Aetherial side and pressures his siblings to embrace being human and non-magical, but he is forced to confront his own true nature when his supposedly human wife turns out to have a secret life, too.
But really, Rosie and Sam's relationship is what I truly enjoyed -- their love/hate relationship grows believably (and slowly) into just love, and their bitter, mocking, flirty interactions start out hot and get even hotter (with some sensual sex scenes of the not-too-explicit kind). The only character who doesn’t develop much, and who I pretty much hated the entire book, is Jon – he’s a whiny, self-absorbed, manipulative user, and he doesn’t have his epiphany until the very end. By then it’s difficult to feel sympathy for him or care at all. The relationships among the adult characters are also messy and loving and hurtful, as well, providing a nice counterpoint to their kids, and are as integral to the story.
The Otherworld, behind the Gates, is appropriately dangerous, fanciful, and mysterious, and works well as a place for all of the young adults to gather and search for their identities, for what’s important to them as individuals and as part of the Aetherial community. The way magic intersects with the real world, available and seen only by Aetherials, is something standard for these kind of “secret fantasy world” stories but feels different here, maybe because of the more close-knit, rural setting (there’s no vampires and werewolves running amok in city streets, for example), but maybe also because of the tone of the book.
It’s a beautiful, romantic book, not a gritty one, with a huge, sweeping story about people you come to care about. It's a book you want to linger with but devour as fast as you can, too. I think this is the first of a series, which is both wonderful and disappointing -- it works great as a standalone story and I have no idea what will follow, but I would love to see the characters again.
The best part of this book is the dysfunctional, intricate relationships between the two families, especially the children (who grow up from middle grade kids to early/mid twenties through the course of the book). Sam Wilder, violent and mocking, but with a hidden good heart, falls for outspoken, earthy Rosie Fox, who has loathed him since he stole her necklace as a child and beat up her older brother. For years, Rosie wants only to capture the heart of Sam's younger brother, Jon, who inspires messiah-like devotion in everyone he meets. Underneath, however, he is a self-involved drug addict who has led Lucas, Rosie's beloved younger brother, down a dark path. Matthew Fox, the eldest, hates his Aetherial side and pressures his siblings to embrace being human and non-magical, but he is forced to confront his own true nature when his supposedly human wife turns out to have a secret life, too.
But really, Rosie and Sam's relationship is what I truly enjoyed -- their love/hate relationship grows believably (and slowly) into just love, and their bitter, mocking, flirty interactions start out hot and get even hotter (with some sensual sex scenes of the not-too-explicit kind). The only character who doesn’t develop much, and who I pretty much hated the entire book, is Jon – he’s a whiny, self-absorbed, manipulative user, and he doesn’t have his epiphany until the very end. By then it’s difficult to feel sympathy for him or care at all. The relationships among the adult characters are also messy and loving and hurtful, as well, providing a nice counterpoint to their kids, and are as integral to the story.
The Otherworld, behind the Gates, is appropriately dangerous, fanciful, and mysterious, and works well as a place for all of the young adults to gather and search for their identities, for what’s important to them as individuals and as part of the Aetherial community. The way magic intersects with the real world, available and seen only by Aetherials, is something standard for these kind of “secret fantasy world” stories but feels different here, maybe because of the more close-knit, rural setting (there’s no vampires and werewolves running amok in city streets, for example), but maybe also because of the tone of the book.
It’s a beautiful, romantic book, not a gritty one, with a huge, sweeping story about people you come to care about. It's a book you want to linger with but devour as fast as you can, too. I think this is the first of a series, which is both wonderful and disappointing -- it works great as a standalone story and I have no idea what will follow, but I would love to see the characters again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2009
I liked Elfland a lot! It is a complex, emotional story full of beautiful descriptions and memorable characters. This fantasy is set in the modern day in the romantically ancient Charnwood Forest region of England, but although it is contemporary, its tone is very different from a lot of urban fantasy.
The primary characters in the book are Aetherials, beings of an ancient race that live among humans on Earth. They are normally able to travel into another world, the Spiral, and reconnect with their spiritual Otherworld essence. The characters really came to life because they are mystical and wonderous, as Otherworld beings should be, but also quite realistic and humanlike in their feelings, actions, and follies.
However, in the beginning of the book, the Gates between Earth and the Spiral are closed by Gatekeeper Lawrence Wilder. Deprived of the opportunity for Initiation into the Spiral, their birthright, Lawrence's children and the children of the neighboring Fox family are left to make their way through the everyday world. Although the viewpoint shifts among various characters, the main character is Rosie Fox. As Rosie grows up, attends college, gets a job, and so forth, she and her brother keep getting drawn into attempts to gain access to the Spiral.
As the teens/young adults try to figure out why the Gates must remain closed and what that would mean for their lives, they develop complicated, sometimes strange relationships with each other. Family plays an important role in everyone's life, and characters have to choose what to hold onto and what to reject. Eventually, events come to a head and Rosie has to delve deep into the mysteries of the Aetherials. I don't want to give anything away, but Jon and Sam Wilder, Rosie and Lucas Fox, and the other characters are all thoroughly compelling and will make the reader care what happens to them. They are put to the test and although they make some big mistakes, the story has a truly romantic heart and the ending was good.
People who like Juliet Marillier might like this book. It is set in the modern age but is otherwise rather similar. A great book by all counts!
The primary characters in the book are Aetherials, beings of an ancient race that live among humans on Earth. They are normally able to travel into another world, the Spiral, and reconnect with their spiritual Otherworld essence. The characters really came to life because they are mystical and wonderous, as Otherworld beings should be, but also quite realistic and humanlike in their feelings, actions, and follies.
However, in the beginning of the book, the Gates between Earth and the Spiral are closed by Gatekeeper Lawrence Wilder. Deprived of the opportunity for Initiation into the Spiral, their birthright, Lawrence's children and the children of the neighboring Fox family are left to make their way through the everyday world. Although the viewpoint shifts among various characters, the main character is Rosie Fox. As Rosie grows up, attends college, gets a job, and so forth, she and her brother keep getting drawn into attempts to gain access to the Spiral.
As the teens/young adults try to figure out why the Gates must remain closed and what that would mean for their lives, they develop complicated, sometimes strange relationships with each other. Family plays an important role in everyone's life, and characters have to choose what to hold onto and what to reject. Eventually, events come to a head and Rosie has to delve deep into the mysteries of the Aetherials. I don't want to give anything away, but Jon and Sam Wilder, Rosie and Lucas Fox, and the other characters are all thoroughly compelling and will make the reader care what happens to them. They are put to the test and although they make some big mistakes, the story has a truly romantic heart and the ending was good.
People who like Juliet Marillier might like this book. It is set in the modern age but is otherwise rather similar. A great book by all counts!
June 25, 2026
I put up with merely alright books, so I’ll better appreciate books like Elfland, ones I read as slowly as possible so they don’t end. It’s about what happens when the fair folk are locked out of Faerie and made to live as exiles on Earth. All that happens to you when your true nature is increasingly beyond your reach, and how you cope with it.
The relationships between the characters, Jon and Rosie, Rosie and Sam, Jon and Lucas are fascinatingly complex, and this is just the younger generation. I found Sam and Lawrence the most intriguing. Sam’s this unpredictable figure who has a weirdly accurate ability to read people. Lawrence seems to be the one major exception to this. The man’s an enigma to everyone, not least of all to himself, he’s described as a madman with alarming frequency.
I felt the closest to Rosie’s veering between her Aetherial identity and the mundane surface world. She desperately reaches for the fleeting Otherworld and its reflection in the Dusklands. This striving is the heart of the novel, the yearning for the Spiral that is the hidden realms. Batter yourself against the Gates, or settle into a mundane life. Suffer in unrequited love, or choose stability. Or get off the well-defined paths, into the unknown.
This is probably an imperfect book, but I can't honestly tell. It's such a fantastic feeling to love a book so much, it temporarily shuts down your natural tendency to critique. It helps that the central themes are ones I've been interested in for as long as I can remember. I love it when romance novels aspire to be more than mere diversion. Freda Warrington is criminally underrated.
The moment stretched on, like a path into a realm of incomprehensible madness.The narrative begins with the children of two prominent Aetherial families meeting. Mostly we follow Rosie Fox, a middle child, as she falls quite desperately in love with one son of the Wilders and becomes bitter enemies with the other. What kickstarts this enmity is Sam's theft of a crystal heart from Rosie, and a cool coincidence is that I have such a crystal heart given to me when I was a teen. The Gates that allow passage to the deeper Aetherial realms slam closed, and they grow up trying to forget about the Otherworld. Trying to be human. The characters struggle with each other as much as with their nature; the older Wilder boy Sam becomes something of a violent, abrasive troublemaker and eventually leaves the darkness of Stonegate Manor to travel, the younger Jon, angelically beautiful and irresistible, grows close to Rosie’s younger brother Lucas. Unsavoury family secrets soon come to light, the tension between the Foxes and the Wilders grows. I’m making this sound like a drama between two clans in conflict, and that’s what Elfland is partly about. And then something horrible happens, altering everything.
The relationships between the characters, Jon and Rosie, Rosie and Sam, Jon and Lucas are fascinatingly complex, and this is just the younger generation. I found Sam and Lawrence the most intriguing. Sam’s this unpredictable figure who has a weirdly accurate ability to read people. Lawrence seems to be the one major exception to this. The man’s an enigma to everyone, not least of all to himself, he’s described as a madman with alarming frequency.
I felt the closest to Rosie’s veering between her Aetherial identity and the mundane surface world. She desperately reaches for the fleeting Otherworld and its reflection in the Dusklands. This striving is the heart of the novel, the yearning for the Spiral that is the hidden realms. Batter yourself against the Gates, or settle into a mundane life. Suffer in unrequited love, or choose stability. Or get off the well-defined paths, into the unknown.
This was Dumannios, she realized. It was the writhing horror that lay under the skin of reality, in the subconscious.It can’t hurt me, she thought, but couldn’t convince herself. Reality and the gentle Dusklands had been flayed off, leaving the raw ugliness of nightmares to break through, there inside Oakholme, which had always been safe.Warrington’s cosmology is initially confusing and slightly messy, she gives the impression that she’s figuring it out as she writes. Not a bad thing, since when is Faerie supposed to be neat or fully explainable? She captures the sense of the surreal, the inherent instability, a feeling of hanging between dreams and nightmare visions. Her characters are just as messy and many layered, they exist not as archetypes, but well-realised people with contradictions and inner conflict. Rosie is frequently tripped up by this and for a time she actively tries to stuff herself in a neat box. In Elfland this never works, not for the reader and certainly not for the characters. Someone you’ve been led to believe is sinister will have a sympathetic side. Someone you’d least expect will become a sort of chosen one. The guy you’ve finally figured out is the villain will make a conscious decision to change. And one whom you’ve thought to be harmless will be anything but, while the seeming psycho will prove himself to be strong in character and in spirit. Everyone can grow, in whichever small way, if only they make the choice to be more, to take a leap of faith. The mere notion of reaching for the unseen and the transcendent redeems.
This is probably an imperfect book, but I can't honestly tell. It's such a fantastic feeling to love a book so much, it temporarily shuts down your natural tendency to critique. It helps that the central themes are ones I've been interested in for as long as I can remember. I love it when romance novels aspire to be more than mere diversion. Freda Warrington is criminally underrated.
"You have so many masks; an ordinary one, a glamorous one, an animal one… one mask under another, but who knows what’s really underneath?"
March 30, 2016
Atherials (elves/faeries/gods, what have you) have been living among us as humans for a long long time. They are beautiful and mysterious creatures. Rosie Fox, along with her two brothers and parents are one such family. On a special night every seven years the Night of thr Summer Stars takes place, and Aetherials can pass through the Gates and travel to the Other world. But the Gatekeeper, Laurence Wilder, has been keeping the Gate sealed shut, determined that there is an evil being in the Otherworld waiting to destroy them all. But without their trips to that magical Other realm, their powers and life force will wither and die. Rosie and her brothers have always been drawn to that special place, and when they team up with Laurence Wilder's two sons they discover that there are more secrets than anyone has previously told them, and they have to discover for themselves whether the Gate should be kept shut, or if the danger is worth it.
This is my first Freda Warrington novel and I am happy to say that it will not be my last! I have to admit that the reason I picked it up was because of complete cover lust that swept over me. (I will pretty much buy any novel that features artwork by Kinuko Y. Craft, just sayin...) In any case, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It was truly a sensational read! The writing style reminded me of Tanith Lee, very lyrical and descriptive. Haunting and sensual. Aside from the great urban fantasy story that was set up there was also SO much character development and emotional growth, which was great. I kept reading and reading, and even when I knew I should put it down to read some of the other books I have in queue, I literally could not put this down. If you enjoy very well written fantasy stories, I would highly recommend this book!
This is my first Freda Warrington novel and I am happy to say that it will not be my last! I have to admit that the reason I picked it up was because of complete cover lust that swept over me. (I will pretty much buy any novel that features artwork by Kinuko Y. Craft, just sayin...) In any case, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It was truly a sensational read! The writing style reminded me of Tanith Lee, very lyrical and descriptive. Haunting and sensual. Aside from the great urban fantasy story that was set up there was also SO much character development and emotional growth, which was great. I kept reading and reading, and even when I knew I should put it down to read some of the other books I have in queue, I literally could not put this down. If you enjoy very well written fantasy stories, I would highly recommend this book!
May 25, 2010
Any words would be inadequate to describe how much I enjoyed this gorgeous, amazing book. This author keeps reminding me of why I got into British fantasy and sci-fi at an early age.
I don't know if that unique tradition that evolved from Spenser's Faerie Queen volumes is here or not. But for darn sure, the magic, the mysticism, the beauty, and the innovation is there. All the characters are amazing.
This is a book about the elves living in OUR world and what they become by adapting to human reality. Or do they? With ties to their true realm, what would happen if they are cut off from their heritage?
If you are a lover of fantasy, then you must read this novel. If you adore elves, magic, Tolkien, then this is your thing. If you need to try something on different for size, then check it out.
I don't know if that unique tradition that evolved from Spenser's Faerie Queen volumes is here or not. But for darn sure, the magic, the mysticism, the beauty, and the innovation is there. All the characters are amazing.
This is a book about the elves living in OUR world and what they become by adapting to human reality. Or do they? With ties to their true realm, what would happen if they are cut off from their heritage?
If you are a lover of fantasy, then you must read this novel. If you adore elves, magic, Tolkien, then this is your thing. If you need to try something on different for size, then check it out.
January 2, 2024
4-4.5 ✨
Oh my god the DRAMA
p.s ily Sam
Oh my god the DRAMA
p.s ily Sam
September 9, 2013
It’s hard not to judge a book by its cover when the cover is as beautiful as this. Especially when, as you read along, you discover that the imagery isn’t just there merely for aesthetic value, but actually does reflect the story itself.
For me, slipping into Elfland was like overhearing bits of an intriguing conversation. I sort of knew what the conversation was about, and was enticed to learn more as Warrington allowed me into this secret world of Aetherials – fae creatures living along side us in the human world.
The story centres around the Fox family whose lives are intertwined with the cold, sometimes violent members of the Wilder family. Every seven years, the Aetherials gather at Freya’s Crown to re-enter and reconnect with the Spiral on the other side of the Great Gates, but Lawrence Wilder refuses them entry this time, warning them of a great and deadly foe from whom he, as the chosen Gatekeeper, must protect them. Sealing the gates serves as the underlying conflict of the story, with the adult Aetherials angry at Lawrence’s decision, while the younger ones lose their opportunity to truly understand their heritage since they are not allowed to participate in the ritual until they are sixteen. The broken connection to the Spiral also means that the Aetherials will eventually lose their powers and even their memories of being Aetherials at all.
Warrington takes the reader through the lives of these families, mainly seen through Rosie Fox, the main character, but with occasional points of view from others, including her younger brother Lucas and the troubled Wilder boys, Jon and Sam. I really liked the smooth transition through time, beginning with the children at a young age, travelling through to adulthood and all the strange and very human issues they all deal with along the way. Their Aetherial natures play a part through the story, but it is almost secondary. I became so wrapped up in their lives that when the Gates were inevitably opened three quarters of the way in and we get to see the other side, I was a bit upset because I wanted their normal human lives back, crazy emotional conflicts and dysfunctions and all! I managed to get over this and was then swept away in the beauty and magic of Elfland and may have shed a few tears over the wonderful, not quite fairytale ending.
My only disappointment is a minor one over all. It involves the human characters whose depiction and motivations are a bit shallow. One human in particular serves merely as a plot device with obvious outcomes and the character becomes somewhat unjustifiably vilified because of it. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the second, which I already own because… just look at that pretty cover…
See more reviews at
The BiblioSanctum
For me, slipping into Elfland was like overhearing bits of an intriguing conversation. I sort of knew what the conversation was about, and was enticed to learn more as Warrington allowed me into this secret world of Aetherials – fae creatures living along side us in the human world.
The story centres around the Fox family whose lives are intertwined with the cold, sometimes violent members of the Wilder family. Every seven years, the Aetherials gather at Freya’s Crown to re-enter and reconnect with the Spiral on the other side of the Great Gates, but Lawrence Wilder refuses them entry this time, warning them of a great and deadly foe from whom he, as the chosen Gatekeeper, must protect them. Sealing the gates serves as the underlying conflict of the story, with the adult Aetherials angry at Lawrence’s decision, while the younger ones lose their opportunity to truly understand their heritage since they are not allowed to participate in the ritual until they are sixteen. The broken connection to the Spiral also means that the Aetherials will eventually lose their powers and even their memories of being Aetherials at all.
Warrington takes the reader through the lives of these families, mainly seen through Rosie Fox, the main character, but with occasional points of view from others, including her younger brother Lucas and the troubled Wilder boys, Jon and Sam. I really liked the smooth transition through time, beginning with the children at a young age, travelling through to adulthood and all the strange and very human issues they all deal with along the way. Their Aetherial natures play a part through the story, but it is almost secondary. I became so wrapped up in their lives that when the Gates were inevitably opened three quarters of the way in and we get to see the other side, I was a bit upset because I wanted their normal human lives back, crazy emotional conflicts and dysfunctions and all! I managed to get over this and was then swept away in the beauty and magic of Elfland and may have shed a few tears over the wonderful, not quite fairytale ending.
My only disappointment is a minor one over all. It involves the human characters whose depiction and motivations are a bit shallow. One human in particular serves merely as a plot device with obvious outcomes and the character becomes somewhat unjustifiably vilified because of it. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the second, which I already own because… just look at that pretty cover…
See more reviews at
The BiblioSanctum
November 2, 2010
Elfland had compelling characters, some beautiful prose and a fascinating world. The fantasy aspect of the story does mostly take a backseat to the characters and their dramas, but their story made this book nearly impossible to put down – even if it did sometimes verge toward a little too much melodrama. It was one of those books that immediately gripped me and never let go until it was finished. It kept me up reading later than I should be and kept returning to my thoughts when I wasn’t reading it, and I will definitely be reading more by Freda Warrington.
Full Review
Full Review
June 30, 2009
I was lucky enough to read an early version of this, and I was blown away. It's a genuinely unique mixture of genres - a richly detailed and convincing family novel, a truly magical fantasy novel set in contemporary England, and a really breathtaking romance novel with incredible chemistry between the heroine and the bad-boy hero. I've never read another novel quite like it, and I LOVED it. I can't wait to buy a paper copy as soon as the book is officially published, and I REALLY can't wait for the next book in the series!
September 6, 2010
This book surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. Good urban fantasy with some unique ideas. Read my full review here:
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...
Did Not Finish
May 12, 2018DNF 25% - Not into the soap opera that is Rosie Fox's life, and I don't see much else going on here, either.
September 29, 2011
How did I never write a review for this?
Once upon a time urban fantasy meant books about struggling artists (usually musicians) living normal lives in the Real World who suddenly have surprising magical things happen to them and end up involved with faerie courts and saving the world (or at least their city) from evil. If one starts from that definition of urban fantasy -- well, this is not urban fantasy. This is a novel English middle-class village life a la Angela Thirkell (or Miss Read), except written now instead of fifty years ago, so the scandals are adultery and drugs and domestic violence and hot hot guys...
Except they're elves. Secret hidden elves who pretend to be human.
This is the sort of premise that could just go so hideously wrong, but Warrington makes it work. I have NO IDEA if most of the people who see these reviews would like this book; I am a huge fan of the Thirkell etc. crowd so the starting point here is exactly my thing. But there's more than that -- it isn't just that it hits my cozy Aga Saga buttons and then twists them around.
Warrington's elves used to be able to go back and forth between their homeland, so while they lived in human society and had full human lives, they were always in touch with their elven nature. Now a crisis has occured, decisions have been made, and the elves are struck in the human world, at least for a little while. How do they cope? Do they give up on elven life and try to assimilate as humans? Do they cling to their traditions, even as those traditions seem less and less relevant to their children and grandchildren? The book spans enough time for Warrington to explore a lot of angles on these questions, and in doing so she does one of the things that speculative fiction is *for* in my opinion -- she looks at the experiences of immigration & exile through a new lens, one that has enough distance from the issues to examine a wide range of responses sympathetically, but avoids any hint of cultural appropriation or falsified experience. The predicament of these characters can be in some ways mapped onto any numbers of real-world peoples, and I can't help but think Warrington must be quite aware of the difficulties of contemporary Islamic immigrants in Britain -- but that's not what the book is about, it's about elves with their own elven culture and homeland and magic.
Finally, the people in this book act like people actually do in my experience. They try to talk about things and don't always succeed, they make *incredibly stupid* mistakes and then own up to them and talk about them and try to understand both why they made them & how they hurt other people. It's slow and painful, but they grow & they learn. When they screw up they apologise, and their friends and family listen to them, because underneath all the stupidity and adolesence and sex and drugs are the real feelings other human beings have for each other. This is a life-affirming book, in my opinion, and those are few & far between. It has plenty of flaws; it's not terrifically written, some parts do drag on, and sometimes one really wants to shake some of the characters and so "No no no you are following cultural scripts which are ALL WRONG for you!". But in the end people _do better_ and that's what I want out of my fiction.
Once upon a time urban fantasy meant books about struggling artists (usually musicians) living normal lives in the Real World who suddenly have surprising magical things happen to them and end up involved with faerie courts and saving the world (or at least their city) from evil. If one starts from that definition of urban fantasy -- well, this is not urban fantasy. This is a novel English middle-class village life a la Angela Thirkell (or Miss Read), except written now instead of fifty years ago, so the scandals are adultery and drugs and domestic violence and hot hot guys...
Except they're elves. Secret hidden elves who pretend to be human.
This is the sort of premise that could just go so hideously wrong, but Warrington makes it work. I have NO IDEA if most of the people who see these reviews would like this book; I am a huge fan of the Thirkell etc. crowd so the starting point here is exactly my thing. But there's more than that -- it isn't just that it hits my cozy Aga Saga buttons and then twists them around.
Warrington's elves used to be able to go back and forth between their homeland, so while they lived in human society and had full human lives, they were always in touch with their elven nature. Now a crisis has occured, decisions have been made, and the elves are struck in the human world, at least for a little while. How do they cope? Do they give up on elven life and try to assimilate as humans? Do they cling to their traditions, even as those traditions seem less and less relevant to their children and grandchildren? The book spans enough time for Warrington to explore a lot of angles on these questions, and in doing so she does one of the things that speculative fiction is *for* in my opinion -- she looks at the experiences of immigration & exile through a new lens, one that has enough distance from the issues to examine a wide range of responses sympathetically, but avoids any hint of cultural appropriation or falsified experience. The predicament of these characters can be in some ways mapped onto any numbers of real-world peoples, and I can't help but think Warrington must be quite aware of the difficulties of contemporary Islamic immigrants in Britain -- but that's not what the book is about, it's about elves with their own elven culture and homeland and magic.
Finally, the people in this book act like people actually do in my experience. They try to talk about things and don't always succeed, they make *incredibly stupid* mistakes and then own up to them and talk about them and try to understand both why they made them & how they hurt other people. It's slow and painful, but they grow & they learn. When they screw up they apologise, and their friends and family listen to them, because underneath all the stupidity and adolesence and sex and drugs are the real feelings other human beings have for each other. This is a life-affirming book, in my opinion, and those are few & far between. It has plenty of flaws; it's not terrifically written, some parts do drag on, and sometimes one really wants to shake some of the characters and so "No no no you are following cultural scripts which are ALL WRONG for you!". But in the end people _do better_ and that's what I want out of my fiction.
May 11, 2019
DNF, because I don't GAF.
In summary: a dialogue-happy parade of woes from cardboard standups who do nothing but sit around moaning about their difficult, entitled lives while having pointless sex with each other (or whoever happens to wander into their sphere of influence). Certainly there's a time & brainspace for the OTT soap of uber-rich yahoos & their self-inflicted crapola -- but those sorts of books require Things Happening(tm) with moderately enjoyable characters, or at least a cast that entertains while flapping & flailing through their lolzy rich-people-problems.
This 'urban fantasy' doorstopper? Nope.
You'd think a novel about disenchanted elves/fey/faeries hiding amongst contemporary humans would be chock full of interest, but nope. Nevermind that there's very little otherworldliness about them *or* their universe; indeed, their lives are so bland that they have to periodically remind each other of their elvish heritage ("yes, well, we're AETHERIALS, so blah blah blah..."). Even on a human level, these malcontent knuckleheads kill all happiness in a 20-mile radius simply by virtue of being SO BORING & WHINY. D:
2 stars because Warrington's prose is decent. I still hold out hope for her Blood Wine vampire novels, which are held in high regard -- but return to the Aetherial universe, I will not.
In summary: a dialogue-happy parade of woes from cardboard standups who do nothing but sit around moaning about their difficult, entitled lives while having pointless sex with each other (or whoever happens to wander into their sphere of influence). Certainly there's a time & brainspace for the OTT soap of uber-rich yahoos & their self-inflicted crapola -- but those sorts of books require Things Happening(tm) with moderately enjoyable characters, or at least a cast that entertains while flapping & flailing through their lolzy rich-people-problems.
This 'urban fantasy' doorstopper? Nope.
You'd think a novel about disenchanted elves/fey/faeries hiding amongst contemporary humans would be chock full of interest, but nope. Nevermind that there's very little otherworldliness about them *or* their universe; indeed, their lives are so bland that they have to periodically remind each other of their elvish heritage ("yes, well, we're AETHERIALS, so blah blah blah..."). Even on a human level, these malcontent knuckleheads kill all happiness in a 20-mile radius simply by virtue of being SO BORING & WHINY. D:
2 stars because Warrington's prose is decent. I still hold out hope for her Blood Wine vampire novels, which are held in high regard -- but return to the Aetherial universe, I will not.
March 22, 2011
Still working on catching up on the “Women of…” challenges! This (last) month’s “Women of Fantasy” book was Elfland by Freda Warrington. Take a moment to consider the cover of the book, if you will. More dedicated readers of fantasy will recognize this as the artwork of Kinyuko Y. Craft, whose work is perhaps most easily recognized on the covers of many of the novels of Patricia McKillip, and now the Wildwood books of Juliet Marillier as well.
The reason I feel the need to explain this to you, dear reader, (beyond using it as an excuse to point out awesome artwork and mention two other authors I love,) is because it goes to explain why I came into this book with such particular expectations. I am, I admit, a very visual person, and I love a book with a pretty cover, but usually the pretty cover just gets me to pick the book up and then I proceed to read the book for the book it is. In this case, though, I started reading Elfland with all the expectations I normally have when I pick up a McKillip book, ie otherworldly, lyrical, high fantasy faerie tale prose.
Which is why I was a bit disconcerted to get 100 pages in and suddenly realize that I was reading something more along the lines of “Days of Our Faerie Lives.” I’m pretty sure I had read a description of the book before, back when I was trying to decide how many challenge books I wanted to try to read, and I did actually know, somewhere in the back of my mind, that this book actually took place at least partly in the modern world. And that’s fine! I like urban fantasy too! It’s actually what I’ve been reading the most of lately. But I was so trained to respond to that cover art in a certain way that I kept expecting the story to switch over the the fae realm any minute now… and it kept not doing that.
So here’s what the story is actually about. There is this race of beings, the Aetherials, who decided they actually liked living on Earth most of the time, so they crossed over out of Faerie (or Elfland, or any of a number of other things they call it) and blended in with humans. Mostly, they stayed on Earth in human society, but there was still a small door left open that they could cross back through if they wanted once in a while. Plus, every seven years, they have a big ceremony where they all cross back over through the big gates en masse and there’s a big party with all their Aetherial cousins who stay in Faerie all the time. Fun!
But then, just as all the people were gathering for the big crossover one year, the Gatekeeper suddenly closes all the gates, large and small, completely. He says there is a big danger on the other side, and in order to keep everyone safe on both sides of the gates, he can’t open them. Possibly ever. This is unheard of! But the Gatekeeper is a very important person, and surely he wouldn’t do such a thing if it wasn’t warranted. So everyone goes home and waits another seven years to see if it will be safe enough then. But it’s not.
By the time the main part of the story starts, the gates have been closed for something close to 14 years. The story focuses on the children of two neighboring families: the Gatekeeper’s sons, Sam and Jon Wilder; and their next-door neighbors, Matt, Rosie, and Lucas Wilder. They, like all the Aetherial children who came of age (16) during the time the gates have been closed, have never journeyed to the other side and in many ways have no real understanding of their own natures. They know they’re different, and have a few extra abilities, but for the most part, their concerns are very much like the concerns of strictly human teenagers and young adults, (by which I mean in people in their early 20s, not the target demographic of YA lit.)
My overwhelming impression of the story as a whole was that I was reading a soap opera (though nicely minus the soft-focus lens and ridiculous melodramatic acting) that had some aside references to faerie. We get wild-child sons from a broken home acting out; an evil stepmother; unrequited love; explorations of drugs (from the faerie realm, though, so they’re totally not illegal, he swears); marriages between inappropriate partners; torrid affairs; and elite group political machinations! And, as flip as that description may sound, none of these are bad things to have in this book. It all works. The reader cares about all the characters, even the ones who end up being sort of evil. They’re all very fully formed, and it’s really hard to look away from their lives, even when it’s clear everything is about to collapse. You have to know what happens next. I stayed up way too late one night just because I could tell I was close to the end and I couldn’t stop reading.
So. Take this review for what you will. I did enjoy the book. It just wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
The reason I feel the need to explain this to you, dear reader, (beyond using it as an excuse to point out awesome artwork and mention two other authors I love,) is because it goes to explain why I came into this book with such particular expectations. I am, I admit, a very visual person, and I love a book with a pretty cover, but usually the pretty cover just gets me to pick the book up and then I proceed to read the book for the book it is. In this case, though, I started reading Elfland with all the expectations I normally have when I pick up a McKillip book, ie otherworldly, lyrical, high fantasy faerie tale prose.
Which is why I was a bit disconcerted to get 100 pages in and suddenly realize that I was reading something more along the lines of “Days of Our Faerie Lives.” I’m pretty sure I had read a description of the book before, back when I was trying to decide how many challenge books I wanted to try to read, and I did actually know, somewhere in the back of my mind, that this book actually took place at least partly in the modern world. And that’s fine! I like urban fantasy too! It’s actually what I’ve been reading the most of lately. But I was so trained to respond to that cover art in a certain way that I kept expecting the story to switch over the the fae realm any minute now… and it kept not doing that.
So here’s what the story is actually about. There is this race of beings, the Aetherials, who decided they actually liked living on Earth most of the time, so they crossed over out of Faerie (or Elfland, or any of a number of other things they call it) and blended in with humans. Mostly, they stayed on Earth in human society, but there was still a small door left open that they could cross back through if they wanted once in a while. Plus, every seven years, they have a big ceremony where they all cross back over through the big gates en masse and there’s a big party with all their Aetherial cousins who stay in Faerie all the time. Fun!
But then, just as all the people were gathering for the big crossover one year, the Gatekeeper suddenly closes all the gates, large and small, completely. He says there is a big danger on the other side, and in order to keep everyone safe on both sides of the gates, he can’t open them. Possibly ever. This is unheard of! But the Gatekeeper is a very important person, and surely he wouldn’t do such a thing if it wasn’t warranted. So everyone goes home and waits another seven years to see if it will be safe enough then. But it’s not.
By the time the main part of the story starts, the gates have been closed for something close to 14 years. The story focuses on the children of two neighboring families: the Gatekeeper’s sons, Sam and Jon Wilder; and their next-door neighbors, Matt, Rosie, and Lucas Wilder. They, like all the Aetherial children who came of age (16) during the time the gates have been closed, have never journeyed to the other side and in many ways have no real understanding of their own natures. They know they’re different, and have a few extra abilities, but for the most part, their concerns are very much like the concerns of strictly human teenagers and young adults, (by which I mean in people in their early 20s, not the target demographic of YA lit.)
My overwhelming impression of the story as a whole was that I was reading a soap opera (though nicely minus the soft-focus lens and ridiculous melodramatic acting) that had some aside references to faerie. We get wild-child sons from a broken home acting out; an evil stepmother; unrequited love; explorations of drugs (from the faerie realm, though, so they’re totally not illegal, he swears); marriages between inappropriate partners; torrid affairs; and elite group political machinations! And, as flip as that description may sound, none of these are bad things to have in this book. It all works. The reader cares about all the characters, even the ones who end up being sort of evil. They’re all very fully formed, and it’s really hard to look away from their lives, even when it’s clear everything is about to collapse. You have to know what happens next. I stayed up way too late one night just because I could tell I was close to the end and I couldn’t stop reading.
So. Take this review for what you will. I did enjoy the book. It just wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
January 11, 2013
Technically, Elfland is urban fantasy, but forget everything you normally associate with that phrase; this is a family drama with a fairy tale or two in its ancestry. A bit like a contemporary Juliet Marillier.
The book centers on two families in small-town England: both have children, who begin the book as teenagers but quickly grow into young adults. Both families are “Aetherial,” meaning they have otherworldly origins, but have chosen to live on Earth--and now find themselves stuck there. But while there’s enough magic in the book to keep it from becoming too mundane, the fantasy elements play a relatively minor role. Very little time is spent in the Otherworld, despite what the title and cover might have you believe; Warrington evokes a sense of wonder about it, undiluted by a drawn-out quest or travelogue. Elfland is, first, a family drama, and second, a romance. It’s also a melodrama, but while that normally means “cue detached eye-rolling,” this one completely worked for me, probably because it’s so easy to believe in the characters and get caught up in their stories.
I had a fantastic time with this book, finding it more enjoyable and immersive than anything I’d read for awhile. The characters are real and complicated people who are easy to sympathize with. Rosie, who is probably the protagonist (though the book is told in third-person and often shifts to other POVs) makes an excellent heroine: she’s nice, but in a way that feels genuine and realistic--not at all one of those too-good-to-be-true types that authors create when they’re afraid of giving their leads flaws. And she’s reasonable, which makes her easy to relate to. The same goes for her family: the characters and the way they communicate with each other are positive, making them easy to like, but always feel real and never contrived or saccharine.
And the romance is a lovely slow burn that I did not expect to like (based on the identity of the love interest), but did. The book is very positive about women and sexuality: Rosie goes to college, dates, has some sex, and this is treated as perfectly normal and healthy and not something that need be dealt with in great detail (although there are some explicit scenes later in the book).
The writing itself is nothing to write home about, but there is some great imagery, and Warrington does a good job with the modern (and very British) dialogue. At times the plot felt like a bit much (there’s perhaps one murderous rage too many), and occasionally a male character would seem a tad too sensitive, but by the time I’d gotten a couple of chapters in, I was thoroughly enjoying the book and was not put off by its imperfections. So, while not great literature, Elfland is still a lovely work, and one I’d recommend to those who like their fantasy firmly grounded in the real world.
The book centers on two families in small-town England: both have children, who begin the book as teenagers but quickly grow into young adults. Both families are “Aetherial,” meaning they have otherworldly origins, but have chosen to live on Earth--and now find themselves stuck there. But while there’s enough magic in the book to keep it from becoming too mundane, the fantasy elements play a relatively minor role. Very little time is spent in the Otherworld, despite what the title and cover might have you believe; Warrington evokes a sense of wonder about it, undiluted by a drawn-out quest or travelogue. Elfland is, first, a family drama, and second, a romance. It’s also a melodrama, but while that normally means “cue detached eye-rolling,” this one completely worked for me, probably because it’s so easy to believe in the characters and get caught up in their stories.
I had a fantastic time with this book, finding it more enjoyable and immersive than anything I’d read for awhile. The characters are real and complicated people who are easy to sympathize with. Rosie, who is probably the protagonist (though the book is told in third-person and often shifts to other POVs) makes an excellent heroine: she’s nice, but in a way that feels genuine and realistic--not at all one of those too-good-to-be-true types that authors create when they’re afraid of giving their leads flaws. And she’s reasonable, which makes her easy to relate to. The same goes for her family: the characters and the way they communicate with each other are positive, making them easy to like, but always feel real and never contrived or saccharine.
And the romance is a lovely slow burn that I did not expect to like (based on the identity of the love interest), but did. The book is very positive about women and sexuality: Rosie goes to college, dates, has some sex, and this is treated as perfectly normal and healthy and not something that need be dealt with in great detail (although there are some explicit scenes later in the book).
The writing itself is nothing to write home about, but there is some great imagery, and Warrington does a good job with the modern (and very British) dialogue. At times the plot felt like a bit much (there’s perhaps one murderous rage too many), and occasionally a male character would seem a tad too sensitive, but by the time I’d gotten a couple of chapters in, I was thoroughly enjoying the book and was not put off by its imperfections. So, while not great literature, Elfland is still a lovely work, and one I’d recommend to those who like their fantasy firmly grounded in the real world.
September 15, 2023
The only thing i would point out in distaste about the book was the incest.
Come now, was that REALLY necessary. Is it really impossible for pretty boys to you know just STAY brothers.
The rest was Fantastic.I loved the mystical atmosphere and the originality. The author really did us dirty with Sam,making him out to be someone else entirely by the end of the book-I'm not completely sold on that narrative of someone completely switching personalities.Sam wasn't just depicted as a troublemaker as a child but a paticularly cruel child with cruel eyes - somehow I find that description hard to sm shake even after the changes his character goes through at the end.
Come now, was that REALLY necessary. Is it really impossible for pretty boys to you know just STAY brothers.
The rest was Fantastic.I loved the mystical atmosphere and the originality. The author really did us dirty with Sam,making him out to be someone else entirely by the end of the book-I'm not completely sold on that narrative of someone completely switching personalities.Sam wasn't just depicted as a troublemaker as a child but a paticularly cruel child with cruel eyes - somehow I find that description hard to sm shake even after the changes his character goes through at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2011
LOVED this book--it is so my cup of tea! The novel is definitely fantasy, but it is also very largely a family saga type novel and most of the story takes place the modern world. I loved the realistic characters, the love stories, the secrets and complications of their personal relationships and the challenges they faced being Aetherial, which is a sort of fae race of people. There is romance, family drama and Aetherial-human politics between peoples and worlds. I enjoyed Elfland so much that it landed itself on my all time favorite lists.
March 22, 2018
Mesmerising fantasy with many feature references to current fantasy like twilight. Perhaps a fanfic of Elfland?
Here's my full review:
http://www.sholee.net/2018/03/mpov-el...
Here's my full review:
http://www.sholee.net/2018/03/mpov-el...
November 23, 2020
I tend to enjoy novels about the folk between human and fae, which this is. I have a limited tolerance for novels that feature world-shattering sex, which this novel also features. So, not a give star rating. I will go looking for other books by this author.
Rosie lives in a town next to one of the Gateways to Fae. The Gates have been locked for decades; the Gatekeeper says there is terrible danger he is protecting them from. However, he is also somewhat crazy. There are several interactions between the Gatekeeper’s family and Rosie’s family, most of which are not friendly. Then the Gatekeeper marries a human woman, who decides to host a party—-and things get complicated and confrontational.
Rosie lives in a town next to one of the Gateways to Fae. The Gates have been locked for decades; the Gatekeeper says there is terrible danger he is protecting them from. However, he is also somewhat crazy. There are several interactions between the Gatekeeper’s family and Rosie’s family, most of which are not friendly. Then the Gatekeeper marries a human woman, who decides to host a party—-and things get complicated and confrontational.
December 27, 2020
This lush urban fantasy, where descendants of elves slip between layers of reality in our world and theirs, is like a sugar-coating for core values that can make anyone's life better: being true to yourself, taking emotional risks, honesty, change, forgiveness, self-forgiveness, second chances and redemption.
February 24, 2012
Mt full review: http://coffeecookiesandchilipeppers.b...
I have read quite a lot of fantasy, and would count myself as a fan of the genre, so I was looking forward to this unusual version of the fairy / elf world. The Aetherials’ Spiral, their history and culture are fascinating, as are the parallel versions of Earth that they can access. However, I felt that we spent far too little time exploring that aspect of the story. Instead, most of the book is given over to the family dramas that surround the main characters, which I found a little disappointing. The first half to two-thirds of the book was slow and got bogged down in exploring the family relationships and dynamics, with the fantasy elements really pushed to the background. However, once the transition to the Otherworld occurred, and the fantasy aspects came to the fore, the pace increased and the book became much more successful. Unfortunately, even here the world building could have been far more detailed, and I hope that the second book in the series spends much more time exploring this fascinating world.
The main characters are very three dimensional, though not necessarily very likeable. Many of the characters have secrets and do not behave honestly with their friends and family, which leads to a great deal of drama and tension, but makes it difficult to sympathize with them. This becomes a major problem when they are placed in danger and we need to care about them and their survival. Not that the human characters are any less dysfunctional. In fact, the two most destructive characters in the book are humans, bringing abusive incest and homicidal psychopathy to the party, so in some regards the Aetherials are far more sympathetic. However, infidelity is a recurring motif, as is self-deception, so it seems the author has a fascination with the lies we tell one-another and ourselves. Although there are a lot of clichéd Romantic Fiction aspects here, the more melodramatic romantic plot points did not have me rolling my eyes and reaching for my sick bucket. The characters are so well drawn that their actions are totally believable, in a “Oh no! Don’t do that!” kind of way.
One aspect of this book that I really loved was the way in which the various houses and buildings have their own life force and presence. The Foxes’ home is warm and inviting, which seems to reflect the family’s connection to the earth magic of their particular Otherworld realm. The fact that the house can change and shift to provide what the characters need is almost more fantastical than the whole ‘alien elves living amongst us’ idea. We see this to much greater effect in the Wilder house. Being of the air realm, these characters are much colder and cerebral, with Lawrence, in particular, having a kind of obsessional self-containment that borders on madness. His house has a cold menace that is truly chilling and makes the unpleasant secrets that are revealed there even more unbearable. The disturbing images that surround the characters in prison reminded me of Hieronymus Bosch’s depictions of Hell, making me wonder how any Aetherial could survive an extended time in such an environment without losing their mind.
I really wanted to love this book, and I did appreciate the wonderful writing and characterization, but I wanted more fantasy and less family angst in this ‘Fantasy’ title.
I have read quite a lot of fantasy, and would count myself as a fan of the genre, so I was looking forward to this unusual version of the fairy / elf world. The Aetherials’ Spiral, their history and culture are fascinating, as are the parallel versions of Earth that they can access. However, I felt that we spent far too little time exploring that aspect of the story. Instead, most of the book is given over to the family dramas that surround the main characters, which I found a little disappointing. The first half to two-thirds of the book was slow and got bogged down in exploring the family relationships and dynamics, with the fantasy elements really pushed to the background. However, once the transition to the Otherworld occurred, and the fantasy aspects came to the fore, the pace increased and the book became much more successful. Unfortunately, even here the world building could have been far more detailed, and I hope that the second book in the series spends much more time exploring this fascinating world.
The main characters are very three dimensional, though not necessarily very likeable. Many of the characters have secrets and do not behave honestly with their friends and family, which leads to a great deal of drama and tension, but makes it difficult to sympathize with them. This becomes a major problem when they are placed in danger and we need to care about them and their survival. Not that the human characters are any less dysfunctional. In fact, the two most destructive characters in the book are humans, bringing abusive incest and homicidal psychopathy to the party, so in some regards the Aetherials are far more sympathetic. However, infidelity is a recurring motif, as is self-deception, so it seems the author has a fascination with the lies we tell one-another and ourselves. Although there are a lot of clichéd Romantic Fiction aspects here, the more melodramatic romantic plot points did not have me rolling my eyes and reaching for my sick bucket. The characters are so well drawn that their actions are totally believable, in a “Oh no! Don’t do that!” kind of way.
One aspect of this book that I really loved was the way in which the various houses and buildings have their own life force and presence. The Foxes’ home is warm and inviting, which seems to reflect the family’s connection to the earth magic of their particular Otherworld realm. The fact that the house can change and shift to provide what the characters need is almost more fantastical than the whole ‘alien elves living amongst us’ idea. We see this to much greater effect in the Wilder house. Being of the air realm, these characters are much colder and cerebral, with Lawrence, in particular, having a kind of obsessional self-containment that borders on madness. His house has a cold menace that is truly chilling and makes the unpleasant secrets that are revealed there even more unbearable. The disturbing images that surround the characters in prison reminded me of Hieronymus Bosch’s depictions of Hell, making me wonder how any Aetherial could survive an extended time in such an environment without losing their mind.
I really wanted to love this book, and I did appreciate the wonderful writing and characterization, but I wanted more fantasy and less family angst in this ‘Fantasy’ title.
March 11, 2011
very seven years, the Aetherials say goodbye to their human lives, and cross over into the Other World for a night. That is until the Gatekeeper, Lawrence Wilder, refuses to open the doors again. He claims that this must be done for safety's sake but refuses to fully explain why, leaving many feeling frustrated and angry. Years past, and Lawrence leaves the gates closed shut. This decision impacts everyone, including young Rosie Fox, who struggles to find a balance between a human and Aetherial existence.
Elfland is the February selection for the Women of Fantasy Book club hosted by jawasreadtoo. It's a unique fantasy read that will thrill some readers, completely dissatisfy others, and leave the rest in between. Although Elfland is a fantasy title, the first two-thirds of the book push the magical elements to the background, and focus on the every day lives, romantic and family struggles of the main cast.. The last section of the book dives more deeply into the fantasy aspects.
My experience with Elfland was mostly positive. Because the story takes place over a lengthy period of time (well over ten years), we get to witness a lot of long-term character development, which I really liked. As someone that tends to shy away from books with a heavy romantic emphasis, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the main love story. I think what made this romance work well for me is that I've become frustrated with “love at first sight” type stories. It was nice to see Rosie slowly develop feelings for the romantic interest as she got to know him for the person he was, instead of basing the relationship so much on initial physical attraction. I also enjoyed the concepts of faeries cut off from their mystical homeland. It resulted in a lot of interesting questions from the characters. Do they continue to be Aetherial if they cannot visit the Other World? It is worth it to completely embrace a “normal human” life? What are the consequences of acting human?
I did have some issues with the novel that are worth mentioning. Although I enjoyed Warrington's writing style, her misuse of commas distracted me. As someone that's far from a grammar freak, that's probably not a good sign. For the most part, I was satisfied with the pacing of Elfland, although I noticed it dragged a bit in the beginning and end. The only real issue I had with the story itself was the ending. I don't want to give too much away (and you can stop reading here if you are sensitive to vague spoilers), but the “big moment” that triggered all the chaos in the end felt forced, as if it happened not because it was the decision that character would have made, but because it had to happen to progress the story towards it's end. I was also disappointed at how a novel that had so far been so good at acknowledging that all actions had permanent consequences, chose to resolve a few storylines.
Despite my issues with the ending, I enjoyed the vast majority of Elfland, and am glad that I picked it up. I suspect the sequel, Midsummer Night, will be worth checking out too.
Elfland is the February selection for the Women of Fantasy Book club hosted by jawasreadtoo. It's a unique fantasy read that will thrill some readers, completely dissatisfy others, and leave the rest in between. Although Elfland is a fantasy title, the first two-thirds of the book push the magical elements to the background, and focus on the every day lives, romantic and family struggles of the main cast.. The last section of the book dives more deeply into the fantasy aspects.
My experience with Elfland was mostly positive. Because the story takes place over a lengthy period of time (well over ten years), we get to witness a lot of long-term character development, which I really liked. As someone that tends to shy away from books with a heavy romantic emphasis, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the main love story. I think what made this romance work well for me is that I've become frustrated with “love at first sight” type stories. It was nice to see Rosie slowly develop feelings for the romantic interest as she got to know him for the person he was, instead of basing the relationship so much on initial physical attraction. I also enjoyed the concepts of faeries cut off from their mystical homeland. It resulted in a lot of interesting questions from the characters. Do they continue to be Aetherial if they cannot visit the Other World? It is worth it to completely embrace a “normal human” life? What are the consequences of acting human?
I did have some issues with the novel that are worth mentioning. Although I enjoyed Warrington's writing style, her misuse of commas distracted me. As someone that's far from a grammar freak, that's probably not a good sign. For the most part, I was satisfied with the pacing of Elfland, although I noticed it dragged a bit in the beginning and end. The only real issue I had with the story itself was the ending. I don't want to give too much away (and you can stop reading here if you are sensitive to vague spoilers), but the “big moment” that triggered all the chaos in the end felt forced, as if it happened not because it was the decision that character would have made, but because it had to happen to progress the story towards it's end. I was also disappointed at how a novel that had so far been so good at acknowledging that all actions had permanent consequences, chose to resolve a few storylines.
Despite my issues with the ending, I enjoyed the vast majority of Elfland, and am glad that I picked it up. I suspect the sequel, Midsummer Night, will be worth checking out too.
January 13, 2010
Frieda Warrington's Elfland draws the reader into an English landscape full of ancient mysticism, hidden magic, the Aetherials, who appear human but whose blood comes from Elfland. Rosie Fox, who is just beginning to respond to her Aetherial heritage in the beginning of the book, draws the reader into the corners to peer in wonder at the creatures revealed. It is this heavy and slantwise view of the Elfland of the Aetherials that first catches the attention. As Rosie shifts in age and perception, however, the secrets become less marvelous as they are revealed.
It's the beginning of the second introductory piece in which I found the heart of the narrative. Rosie Fox is rejecting fantasy--in this case the fantasy of unconditional love--but within this rejection is also that of the fairyland that has proved a cheat for the characters who have lost it or never knew it. While Rosie and her younger brother Lucas grow into their heritage without understanding it, the author takes some of the wonder that would normally have been given to the Aetherial world and gives it generously back to the human one.
In fact, it is Rosie's fascination with love that sets the tone for the tale. Is love the final revelation of who you are? The reward for bravely accepting yourself, despite your heritage, your fears, or your desire to fit in? Is it, in fact, sanity in the abode of madness? As I was trying to puzzle out what I could take from a story that was well-told but left me empty--one that took my expectations and shook them out, one that seemed to be laughing behind its hand at my looking for a fairy story in this day and age, it seemed that love and its betrayals were the only path through the narrative.
Although the prose is a delight, the multiple beginnings didn't serve to ground me in the narrative so much as to make me look for were they belonged within the larger story. Readers should be prepared for a story limned from Gothic tales by way of Peyton Place. There is wonder to be found here, but it is found in sharing a good cappuccino and gossiping about familial escapades rather than in the shimmering forests and arching bridges of Elfland. Between the chained angels, family secrets, and dark otherworlds overwriting the human one, Elfland itself embodied the idea of multiple worlds (or in this case narratives) existing and intertwining. As the story came to a sudden stop, I found myself in the sympathy with the characters: dazed and bereft.
It's the beginning of the second introductory piece in which I found the heart of the narrative. Rosie Fox is rejecting fantasy--in this case the fantasy of unconditional love--but within this rejection is also that of the fairyland that has proved a cheat for the characters who have lost it or never knew it. While Rosie and her younger brother Lucas grow into their heritage without understanding it, the author takes some of the wonder that would normally have been given to the Aetherial world and gives it generously back to the human one.
In fact, it is Rosie's fascination with love that sets the tone for the tale. Is love the final revelation of who you are? The reward for bravely accepting yourself, despite your heritage, your fears, or your desire to fit in? Is it, in fact, sanity in the abode of madness? As I was trying to puzzle out what I could take from a story that was well-told but left me empty--one that took my expectations and shook them out, one that seemed to be laughing behind its hand at my looking for a fairy story in this day and age, it seemed that love and its betrayals were the only path through the narrative.
Although the prose is a delight, the multiple beginnings didn't serve to ground me in the narrative so much as to make me look for were they belonged within the larger story. Readers should be prepared for a story limned from Gothic tales by way of Peyton Place. There is wonder to be found here, but it is found in sharing a good cappuccino and gossiping about familial escapades rather than in the shimmering forests and arching bridges of Elfland. Between the chained angels, family secrets, and dark otherworlds overwriting the human one, Elfland itself embodied the idea of multiple worlds (or in this case narratives) existing and intertwining. As the story came to a sudden stop, I found myself in the sympathy with the characters: dazed and bereft.
June 21, 2011
The premise of the book is that the Aetherials live on Earth but periodically need access to the Otherworld through the Gates to rejuvenate. Lawrence Wilder (Jon and Sam's father) is terrified of some Otherworld monster who he feels will kill him and his sons if released so he closes the Gates and refuses to reopen them. Years and years pass with sporadic complaints from the Aetherials who don't understand why Lawrence has closed the Gates. Yet no one's dying though some of the Otherworld animals did. Jon and Lucas try repeatedly to break through the Gate with limited success but still the Gates stay closed. I'm a little more than halfway through the book and still nothing in or out of the Gate and life plods on and on. It's more a story of day to day life for the Aetherials pretending to be human but it doesn't really address the issues of the premise.
Rosie is center stage and she's made a total muck of her life - pining after Jon, marrying the wrong man, having an affair etc. I never understood her attraction to Jon. He smiled at her once when his brother Sam ripped her necklace from her neck and instantly she's in love. WTH! She didn't even know him and never got to know him but she's enthralled and he is totally oblivious. Her best friend Faith has married her brother and is a loving doormat absolutely terrified of telling her husband the truth about herself and their daughter. Oh yeah, love is in the air.
Regardless, it is an interesting story. We have infidelity, incest, betrayal, murder, possible homosexuality just to name a few. The story should be captivating but I have to force myself to continue on. I do this for many reasons: I want to know who finally settles Rosie down; if Jon cleans himself up; if Lucas finds a girl (or a boy who knows); if Matthew wises up; if Lawrence finally losses his mind; if Sapphire gets what she's looking for or what she deserves; if Faith finally stops being a doormat, etc. There is so much going on but definitely not what I expected.
The writing is so description that you are actually there living the action. Unfortunately it makes for slow and tedious reading. A definite catch-22. I wasn't aware that this was a series starter but now I understand why it was so descriptive. I'm hoping that future installments don't have as much to wade through to get to the actual story.
Rosie is center stage and she's made a total muck of her life - pining after Jon, marrying the wrong man, having an affair etc. I never understood her attraction to Jon. He smiled at her once when his brother Sam ripped her necklace from her neck and instantly she's in love. WTH! She didn't even know him and never got to know him but she's enthralled and he is totally oblivious. Her best friend Faith has married her brother and is a loving doormat absolutely terrified of telling her husband the truth about herself and their daughter. Oh yeah, love is in the air.
Regardless, it is an interesting story. We have infidelity, incest, betrayal, murder, possible homosexuality just to name a few. The story should be captivating but I have to force myself to continue on. I do this for many reasons: I want to know who finally settles Rosie down; if Jon cleans himself up; if Lucas finds a girl (or a boy who knows); if Matthew wises up; if Lawrence finally losses his mind; if Sapphire gets what she's looking for or what she deserves; if Faith finally stops being a doormat, etc. There is so much going on but definitely not what I expected.
The writing is so description that you are actually there living the action. Unfortunately it makes for slow and tedious reading. A definite catch-22. I wasn't aware that this was a series starter but now I understand why it was so descriptive. I'm hoping that future installments don't have as much to wade through to get to the actual story.
February 5, 2011
I was swaying a little more towards a 3 star rating because I made the huge mistake of checking the back page to see if it was actually the end of the book or the end of an excerpt from an upcoming book, trying to determine how much I had left to read. In doing so I read something that kind of killed the ending for me. Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhh! So therefore I'm going with the 4 it would have gotten had I not been a dumbass. I liked this book a lot!
This was a family drama based on the lives of two neighboring families. Both Aetherials or earth dwelling fae, and the trials and tribulations their families face due to deceit, insanity, drugs and hidden desires. All the good soap operaish stuff. Much of the story is based on the 'closing' of The Gates that separate 'earth' from 'elfland' and the effects it has on the Aetherials and their lack of access to 'The Spiral' and Elysion, the kingdom located immediately beyond the gates.
Many of the characters find out what their heritage means to them. Some try to ignore it and live as regular humans, some are curious about what they do not know and some are suffering from what they are being deprived of. Besides for the human tragedy element, this is also a love story and I loved Sam!!!
My only annoyance is that one of the characters made some stupid decisions and horrible comments all of which had miserable consequences that I felt he was never held accountable for.
I will definitely read the second book!
This was a family drama based on the lives of two neighboring families. Both Aetherials or earth dwelling fae, and the trials and tribulations their families face due to deceit, insanity, drugs and hidden desires. All the good soap operaish stuff. Much of the story is based on the 'closing' of The Gates that separate 'earth' from 'elfland' and the effects it has on the Aetherials and their lack of access to 'The Spiral' and Elysion, the kingdom located immediately beyond the gates.
Many of the characters find out what their heritage means to them. Some try to ignore it and live as regular humans, some are curious about what they do not know and some are suffering from what they are being deprived of. Besides for the human tragedy element, this is also a love story and I loved Sam!!!
My only annoyance is that one of the characters made some stupid decisions and horrible comments all of which had miserable consequences that I felt he was never held accountable for.
I will definitely read the second book!
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