"One of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century."--Time magazine, on the Fairyland series
September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows--and their magic--to the world of Fairyland Below. This underworld has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September's shadow. And Halloween does not want to give Fairyland's shadows back.
Fans of Valente's bestselling, first Fairyland book will revel in the lush setting, characters, and language of September's journey, all brought to life by fine artist Ana Juan. Readers will also welcome back good friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. But in Fairyland Below, even the best of friends aren't always what they seem. . . .
Customer Reviews
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
September Grows a Heart
By Chapati
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There is the second book in Catherynne Valente's trilogy about a girl named September who visits Fairyland and has a great impact each time she goes there. I loved the first book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, and was looking forward to reading this one. I've loved every book I've read by Valente - she really steeps herself in her settings and the language and everything, and tells a seriously good story.We pick up this book a year after the last one ended. September is living in Nebraska with her mother. Her father is still off fighting in a war. September loves her mother and the time they spend together, but she dreams of returning to Fairyland. And so she does by catching a boat going over the amber waves of grain and falls into Fairyland, expecting to see her friends and have a jolly good time.But all is not well in Fairyland. In the last book, September lost her shadow, and now many others are suffering the same fate. The magic is seeping out of Fairyland and, parallel to life in Nebraska, everyone must make do with ration cards. (I loved the way Valente mirrored September's world in Fairyland and Fairyland-Below, making the story so much richer and meaningful to read!) September knows instantly that this is all her fault, that it's her shadow in Fairyland-Below causing so much trouble. Being the intrepid young woman she is, September sets off to right this wrong.I wish I had re-read the first book in this series before starting the second because there were many allusions to the events and characters in the first. I was very fuzzy on the details - I don't remember the events of the first book so much as I remember my delight in reading it. This left me at a disadvantage, especially because most of the characters who populated the first book were not present in this book, so the references to events in the past were brief and not enough for me to remember what went on.This book is more about September herself than the previous one was. She has companions in this book, too, but they are only with her for brief periods of time before she sets off without them again. And none of them is quite so nice or charming as her companions from before. I missed her friend Ell the wyverary and Wednesday the marid, but September herself is just as wonderful as she was in the last book. She is brave and smart and a little abrupt and impatient. She does things that frighten her and forgives people who have wronged her and helps those who need her. We can see her heart growing, her brain beginning to grasp just how complicated life can be, and the way people's pasts can haunt them.For example, September's shadow who is pulling all the magic down into the underworld has all sorts of nuances to her. I fully believed in the reasons behind her actions, and the justification she had for them. So many well-meaning people can create havoc in the world, and Valente acknowledges that here. I also really appreciated that September and her shadow respected and trusted each other, even when their views differed. They were rivals, yes, but there was so much between them that you never really thought of September being "right" and her shadow being "wrong." You just understood that they were on different sides of a very important debate. Another character who was fleshed out even more in this story is the villain from the previous one, the Marquess. She, too, became three-dimensional, and we learn more about what drove her to act the way she did. I am so looking forward to seeing how the Marquess evolves in the next book.The structure of this book is very similar to the last one, and again, I was strongly reminded of The Phanton Tollbooth with all the wordplay and characters that had such specific and fascinating occupations, and the obvious fun that Valente had in coming up with characters an settings. There is another book expected in this series, and I greatly look forward to it. While I didn't love this book as much as I did the first - mostly because none of the secondary characters caught my heart the way those in the first did - I did love September and look forward to seeing her grow even stronger. She's a fantastic character with a lot of heart and soul.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Beautiful, creative, and wondrous
By Karissa Eckert
This is a sequel to the book The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. It is a wonderful book just as beautifully written as the first, if aimed at a slightly older age group. You never know what wonderful things you are going to run in to from one page to the next.September is eager to journey back to Fairyland and leave her mundane life of school behind. When she finally does though, she finds out things are very wrong. Magic is being rationed in Fairyland and shadows are constantly going missing. September must journey deep into the Fairyland-Below if she is to save the shadows and return magic to Fairyland.Incredibly creative, beautifully written, and full of beautiful sparkling images both light and dark that will really make your imagination sore. You can absolutely not predict what wonder the next page will hold. Valente has such a creative and wondrous mind that she thinks up things and ideas I can only begin to comprehend.September is slightly older in this book and has more mature worries than in the first book. Her mother isn't around much because she has to support them and her father is still at war.This book has a darker tone to it than the first. When September journeys to Fairyland-Below she finds the shadows of her friends who accompany on her journey. This is interesting because the shadows of her friends are similar to her friends but different, they are a little darker and a little wilder. Valente did an excellent job making the shadow versions of all the characters we know and love the same, but different.September is forced to confront her Shadow-self who has become the Queen of Fairyland-Below. It is an interesting battle and there are some fun and creative twists and turns to the story that are very well done and unpredictable.You definitely need to read the first book to understand what's going on in this book; you run into a number of characters that played a major role in the last book and continue to have some influence on the story in this book.The book ends well and is fairly well tied up. I am hoping we see future adventures with September, but the story is happily complete at the end of this book. Valente's writing style is just absolutely spectacular; her writing is lush and sparkling, dripping with wondrous description, and full of magical creatures and settings. If you loved the first book, you will adore this one as well. Both of these books are much less ambiguous than some of Valente's other books and should be more accessible to a wider range of readers.Overall an absolutely spectacular read. I love Valente's creativity, beautiful writing, and unpredictable twists and turns. You never know what spectacular new thing each page will hold. This book builds on the story started in the first The Girl Who book and ties up all of the loose ends in a wonderful way. Highly recommended to those who love fantasies written in a beautiful and lyrical way. The stories have a very fairy tale feel to them.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful."So much light, sweet girl, begins in the dark."
By Julee Rudolf
In this second installment about September, the now 13-year-old girl arrives in Fairyland nearly a year after her return to Nebraska and learns that a terrible thing has been happening: its creatures' shadows have been disappearing as has their magic. "Teenage hearts are raw and new, fast and fierce, and they do not know their own strength," claims the tale's author, which is fortunate for Fairyland, as September decides to try to restore order, seeing as how her own shadow, the Hollow Queen aka Halloween is somehow involved in the existence of the imbalance.Ms. Valente employs a similar recipe the second time around in producing a whimsical, cleverly-plotted story filled with fantastic descriptions, (p 27), "This flavor was even better: like a pumpkin but a very soft and wistful sort of pumpkin who had become good friends with fresh green apples and cold winter pears;" superb similes, (p 35) "It was a strange feeling, like suddenly becoming aware of gravity in a social way, sitting down to tea with it and learning its family history;" and well-developed characters (42 all told) both familiar and new, in which she turns the tables on the standard sleeping beauty story (and adds a touch of the The Subtle Knife).Anyone who enjoys fairy tales with an Alice in Wonderland tone will love traveling along with September, a girl with, "thirty-seven percent Gumption by volume" through the dark side of fairyland. Best of the book: Valente's storytelling skills shine (how does she think this stuff up?), worst: so complicated you might need to shut yourself in sound proof room to keep track of it all. Also good: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, and, of course, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. My hope for this series: they give someone like Katherine Kellgren a shot at performing future audio versions.
