2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, the first book in the Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente.

Pages: 247 pages

Length: 1 month (July)

Participants: SarahKat, Elaine, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

I am starting this today, and I already love the book just based on the list of characters!

I hope to start over the weekend.

About halfway through, just finished chapter 10. I love the names of the characters and places. It's reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland or Phantom Tollbooth.

(view spoiler)[I understand she's on a quest for this spoon but other than that I'm not sure how much of a "point" to her journey there is. I did love the part where the ferryman wanted to charge for baggage for A through L, hehe (hide spoiler)]

Finished!

(view spoiler)[I wish I had read this in one or two sittings instead of stretching it while reading other books. Dipping in and out of this made it a little harder to follow an already nonsensical plot. Parts of it were actually kind of creepy. The section where she's turning into a tree paired with the illustration was disturbing.

I loved A through L and I'm glad she freed his wings at the end! (hide spoiler)]

I've also finished the book! I have to admit—I’ve never read Alice in Wonderland. I’m almost ashamed to say it, and I really need to fix that soon. 😮

I enjoyed the story and thought it made for a solid fairytale. It had everything you’d hope to find in that kind of tale. A-through-L is such a charming character!

I'm not sure yet if I’ll continue the series, but I’m glad I read this one. And I completely agree with you, SarahKat—this is definitely a book best read in just a few sittings.

I just downloaded my copy today from the library so hope to get to is soon-ish. Glad to know it has been a winner so far!

This one is very much not for me…DNF. Glad you all liked it, though!