heathercide's review against another edition
4.0
I finished a book series and I am sad.
What an absolutely lovely and delightfully imaginative series. Valente’s prose is like nothing else I’ve read before, and somehow her world managed to encompass everything magical and mythic yet stand on its own as a unique and unforgettable place. September and Saturday forever. But also Bamblebuss, the giant, animated stuffed wombat, and A-through-L, the half Wyvern/Library, forever, because that is the kind of series this was.
What an absolutely lovely and delightfully imaginative series. Valente’s prose is like nothing else I’ve read before, and somehow her world managed to encompass everything magical and mythic yet stand on its own as a unique and unforgettable place. September and Saturday forever. But also Bamblebuss, the giant, animated stuffed wombat, and A-through-L, the half Wyvern/Library, forever, because that is the kind of series this was.
davidscrimshaw's review against another edition
5.0
A satisfying wrap-up to the series. And if it's not the wrap-up, I'm okay with that.
pickett22's review against another edition
5.0
This is so sweet, all these beautiful moments...
What is even happening now? This is the most bizarre-WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?!
This is fine. Everyone is going to be fine. I'm just gonna hold the narrator's hand and uhhhhhhh.....
uuuuuuhhhh...
SATURDAY! YOU LITTLE SHIT, ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? ARE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO KILL ME?
I just...
wait...
what is that?
is that the end coming up?
no, it can't be, there is stuff EVERYWHERE, there is NO way it's going to get cleaned up in time!
I have never been so happy.
What is even happening now? This is the most bizarre-WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?!
This is fine. Everyone is going to be fine. I'm just gonna hold the narrator's hand and uhhhhhhh.....
uuuuuuhhhh...
SATURDAY! YOU LITTLE SHIT, ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? ARE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO KILL ME?
I just...
wait...
what is that?
is that the end coming up?
no, it can't be, there is stuff EVERYWHERE, there is NO way it's going to get cleaned up in time!
I have never been so happy.
dandelionsteph's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Blood
Some of the competitors are killed.futurememory's review against another edition
5.0
Well, that was just magical and beautiful and wonderful, and by far, a perfect conclusion to a series that has been near and dear to my heart for several years.
Here is Fairyland in all of her glory, and all of our favorite characters gathered to send the series off. This last book is beautifully written, witty and glorious - as if we'd expect anything less from Cat Valente? Her prose is grandiose, for sure, but it's completely, bewitchingly gorgeous for someone like me, who loves the lyrical, old-school-charm, tongue in cheek approach it has. The Fairyland books are just so SMART. They burn me up with envy of how intelligent they are. This one, in particular, is masterfully plotted, threads from the previous novels coming together seamlessly, flawlessly.
If I had a single criticism, it'd be that things wrap up perhaps a bit TOO neatly, but this is a fairy tale, after all, and I'm a sucker for happily ever afters.
My heart just feels full, and there's a large part of me that's satisfied. The other part is incredibly, deeply upset that there won't be another Fairyland book waiting for me next year. I love this series so, so much.
Here is Fairyland in all of her glory, and all of our favorite characters gathered to send the series off. This last book is beautifully written, witty and glorious - as if we'd expect anything less from Cat Valente? Her prose is grandiose, for sure, but it's completely, bewitchingly gorgeous for someone like me, who loves the lyrical, old-school-charm, tongue in cheek approach it has. The Fairyland books are just so SMART. They burn me up with envy of how intelligent they are. This one, in particular, is masterfully plotted, threads from the previous novels coming together seamlessly, flawlessly.
If I had a single criticism, it'd be that things wrap up perhaps a bit TOO neatly, but this is a fairy tale, after all, and I'm a sucker for happily ever afters.
My heart just feels full, and there's a large part of me that's satisfied. The other part is incredibly, deeply upset that there won't be another Fairyland book waiting for me next year. I love this series so, so much.
blawson06's review against another edition
5.0
"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."
settingshadow's review against another edition
4.0
It's tricky to say what I thought of the denouement of the Fairyland series. Indubitably, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is one of the best books ever written and it sets a standard by which nothing can compare, if purely because the novelty was part of the charm. Still, Valente is probably the most inventive, logophillic writer in the current generation. And she loves her characters with a deep intensity. But, The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home feels more like a museum of Fairyland than an actual story. We go on adventures so that Valente can show off her cleverest, most beautiful creations one last time and love her most favorite characters again, but it feels distant. The stakes, which should feel serious, feel terribly shallow (and they are -- the worst that will happen is that September will go home, which in theory will happen eventually anyway. Even when Saturday starts losing his memory, the story is so busy skipping around to Pandemonium and Maude and Lye and September's Shadow and Death and...that it never really focuses on the tension that something bad is happening.
So yes, it's lovely, and yes I will finish the series (I skipped book 4 -- the Only Buying Books in Proper Bookstores and Not the Internet thing has fulfilled its deep nostalgic purpose -- in my ongoing search for the 4th book, I stumbled on this one instead (in Kramerbooks when I should have been catching the metro to NIH for a very boring symposium) and since the whole point is to restore the deep appreciation for books because they're hard to come by from my youth (and, yes, supporting locally owned bookstores), reading series out of order seemed apropos.) but it's not the paragon of speculative fiction that its predecessors were.
So yes, it's lovely, and yes I will finish the series (I skipped book 4 -- the Only Buying Books in Proper Bookstores and Not the Internet thing has fulfilled its deep nostalgic purpose -- in my ongoing search for the 4th book, I stumbled on this one instead (in Kramerbooks when I should have been catching the metro to NIH for a very boring symposium) and since the whole point is to restore the deep appreciation for books because they're hard to come by from my youth (and, yes, supporting locally owned bookstores), reading series out of order seemed apropos.) but it's not the paragon of speculative fiction that its predecessors were.
raypuffle's review against another edition
5.0
This book is such a treasure. A perfect ending to a wonderful series. I'm so glad I finally read this.
suannelaqueur's review against another edition
5.0
I'll never be able to convey what this series, and Valente herselfÑmeans to me.