The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making By Cat Valente - Review

Here's Sarah's review of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cat Valente. Oh, it looks good. Looks like this will be next on my reading list.

I've been meaning to read Catherynne Valente for some time and it is only through great restraint that, after finishing Girl, I have not rushed off to buy everything she's ever written. Girl is quite simply stunning. Girl is - to shamelessly steal a quote from another of my favourite books - terrible and beautiful at the same time. While the genesis of the tale is simple: a girl goes on a quest for a magic item in Fairyland, the execution is mind-bogglingly good. September's adventures through Fairyland offer Valente a place to meditate on childhood, growing up, friendship, love, laughter, and sadness. It is a book that children will enjoy - there is plenty of adventure and danger to be had - but that will grow with the reader. It reminded me of my all-time favourite novel, The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle, in that there are layers upon layers of meaning to be read and pondered over.

It's difficult, as a bookseller, to come up with new ways to describe a book we love. In the case of a book that captures one's heart this way, old adjectives like brilliant seem useless and tawdry. It makes me wish I were a writer of Valente's capability in order to do justice to this little miracle of a book - alas, I am reduced to saying you MUST read it. You must, and you must give it to every child you know, because you will be giving them a gift that will speak something new to them at every stage of their life; and that is a gift beyond measure.