Serena’s Review: “The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home”

Book: “The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home” by Catherynne M. Valente

Publishing Info: Feiwell and Friends, March 2016

Where Did I Get this Book: the library!

Book Description: Quite by accident, September has been crowned as Queen of Fairyland – but she inherits a Kingdom in chaos. The magic of a Dodo’s egg has brought every King, Queen, or Marquess of Fairyland back to life, each with a fair and good claim on the throne, each with their own schemes and plots and horrible, hilarious, hungry histories. In order to make sense of it all, and to save their friend from a job she doesn’t want, A-Through-L and Saturday devise a Royal Race, a Monarckical Marathon, in which every outlandish would-be ruler of Fairyland will chase the Stoat of Arms across the whole of the nation – and the first to seize the poor beast will seize the crown. Caught up in the madness are the changelings Hawthorn and Tamburlaine, the combat wombat Blunderbuss, the gramophone Scratch, the Green Wind, and September’s parents, who have crossed the universe to find their daughter…

Review: I delayed it for a few months, but here we are at last, woefully at the last book in the “Fairyland” series. But there are two things bolstering my spirits after finishing this series. 1.) It ended on such a great note! Always a concern that somehow something so good will be bungled and tarnished forever by a whiff on the ending. And 2.) now that it has been finished, and finished so well, I can happily go out and purchase the entire series and re-read them to my heart’s content!

Per my usual review method for this series, I’m going to include some of my favorite quotes from the book. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: the writing in this series is so beautiful and has to be its biggest selling point.

“One of the awful secrets of seventeen is that it still has seven hiding inside it. Sometimes seven comes tumbling out, even when seventeen wants to be Grown-Up and proud. This is also one of the awful secrets of seventy.”

We’ve watched September grow up throughout these books. If the theme of the entire series could be summed up, it would be: growing up is a terrible, onerous process and then once you get there, you realize it was all kind of a hoax to begin with. Throughout all of the books, I very much enjoyed Valente’s razor sharp views on childhood. It’s all too easy to let childhood morph into a time and place of wildflowers and carefree days, and as adults forget the truly awful parts about it. The helplessness, the lack of freedom, the unassuredness, the constant changes both in yourself and in how the world see/treats you.

“We have all of us got it jumbled up. You never feel so grown up as when you are eleven, and never so young and unsure as when you are forty. That is why time is a rotten jokester and no one ought to let him in to dinner.”

New to this book, we meet Septemeber’s parents and her Aunt more fully! The interlude chapters document their journey. It was particularly enjoyable reading about their experiences, both in Fairyland and as the ones who were left behind by a wandering September. We always hear about the kids who get swept off to magical lands, but nothing about the poor parents who are left missing their children. Further, the reminder that these same parents and adults were once children and had adventures of their own.

“The Land of Parents is strange and full of peril.”

While Hawthorne and Tamburlaine do play a role in this story, it was again September’s story and her friends that we follow throughout the book. However, Blunderbuss, the combat wombat, plays a much larger role than I had expected and it was awesome. She is by far the best new addition to group from the last few books. Her acerbic wit and blunt way of speaking often provided the most hilarious bits of the story. And her contribution to the ending was as surprising as it was welcome.

“You gotta be nice to strangers even when they are the worst, because they don’t know you well enough to understand how shut your big face can mean I’ve missed you more than the whole world can know.”

And, finally, I cannot end this review without talking a bit about my darling pairing of September and Saturday. I have to say, this was my biggest concern about the story and one of the reasons I held off reading this book for so long. How could this be resolved in a way that wasn’t going to be heart breaking somehow? And, while the ending wasn’t anything like I could have expected, it was so, so satisfactory. So, go forth dear readers without fear on this account!

“The tales lovers tell each other about how they met are hushed and secret things. They change year by year, for we all meet many times as we grow up and become different and new and exciting people–and this never stops, even for a minute, even when we are ninety.”

I really can’t rave enough about this book. While “The Boy Who Lost Fairyland” was very good, it did feel like a step away from the Fairyland books that I had come to love. So I was a bit concerned when starting this one that maybe the magic had worn off just a little. But this book comes roaring back, and I would say it most closely rivals my love of the first book in the series. When/if I have children, this series will definitely be making an appearance on the must-read-aloud list. If you like fantasy, especially of the sweet and nonsensical kind, ala “Alice in Wonderland,” don’t miss out on this series!

And with that…

“Endings are rubbish. No such thing. Never has been, never will be. There is only the place where you choose to stop talking. Everything else goes on forever.”

Rating 9: An amazing story on its own, but also an unexpected and poignant ending to the series as a whole.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home” is included on this Goodreads list: “own the Rabbit Hole in Children’s Fantasy” and Best Chapter Books for Young Girls

Find “The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home” at your library using Worldcat!

Previous Reviews: “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making” and “The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There,” and “The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two” and “The Boy Who Lost Fairyland”