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54th out of 616 books
—
1,335 voters
Bones of Faerie (Bones of Faerie #1)
by
Janni Lee Simner (Goodreads Author)
The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Then Liza discovers sh...more
Hardcover, 247 pages
Published
January 27th 2009
by Random House Books for Young Readers
(first published December 29th 2008)
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Is it really possible for the gateway to Faerie to be something built by humans? Isn't that antithetical to the tradition of the paths to Faerie being under hills and through the trees in magical forests, and into caves and burrows? Can it really be through the Arch in St. Louis? I am both pleased and troubled by this question. I'm pleased because I like anything that can challenge to norms of this genre in a meaningful way and troubled because it distracted me while I was reading the book. How...more
I almost gave this book two stars. Unfortunately, Bones of Faerie was so boring I ended up absolutely disliking it. Absolutely. The premise of this book is great, but several things are missing that make a book a good read:
1. World building.
Okay, so I figured after a while that this faerie tale takes place in a post-apocalyptic american colonial society. Which is fine. But make it clear and tangible. Faerie and Post-Apocalyptic U.S.A are two totally different things.
2. Characters - Stock and bo...more
1. World building.
Okay, so I figured after a while that this faerie tale takes place in a post-apocalyptic american colonial society. Which is fine. But make it clear and tangible. Faerie and Post-Apocalyptic U.S.A are two totally different things.
2. Characters - Stock and bo...more
Though I read this book two weeks ago and have been meaning to write a review ever since, I haven't managed to really rally my thoughts about it until now. BONES OF FAERIE is a fascinating and welcome addition to the YA faerie world by virtue of combining faerie lore with a post-apocalyptic world for a haunting and eerie effect.
I should preface this entire review by saying that this book is for young adults. I know that will sound weird as most of the books on my Goodreads page are for YA, but m...more
I should preface this entire review by saying that this book is for young adults. I know that will sound weird as most of the books on my Goodreads page are for YA, but m...more
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Lyrical, as sharp as the thorns in the dandelions, and shattered shards of broken trust that get carefully gathered together. The first two pages set the whole tone and followed through in spades. It's a beautifully written book, the first I've really enjoyed reading in the last year.
The hardships are really hard, and I loved the implicit rules behind the magic... and how consistent it was across the board. And all the reasons for the protagonist to not trust magic were hard and real, so it was...more
The hardships are really hard, and I loved the implicit rules behind the magic... and how consistent it was across the board. And all the reasons for the protagonist to not trust magic were hard and real, so it was...more
15-year-old Liza lives in a world that recently survived a war between the human world and the world of Faerie. Now the things in the human world have become strange, vines and trees have a taste for blood, corn and potatoes fight back when harvested. Liza's father has kept the entire village safe after the war, stamping out any sign of magic in the people who live there. When Liza's baby sister is born with the clear hair that is a sign of magic, her father takes the baby into the wild and leav...more
The joy of Bones of Faerie includes a deeply engaging post disaster world. It is as much a character as the living, breathing human and fae ones. Even as I hated this world in the beginning and its seemingly hatred gone wrong against the human inhabitants, nothing gave me more joy than to see a hint that the world, fae and human, might be healed.
"I had a sister once." begins the front and back frame. The characters are three dimensional, and easy to become invested in their plight. Their trek t...more
"I had a sister once." begins the front and back frame. The characters are three dimensional, and easy to become invested in their plight. Their trek t...more
This is quite possibly the most captivating first chapter of a book that I can ever remember reading. It is only eight short paragraphs long, but Simner manages to get her hook so deep into you that the thought of putting the book down is impossible. It made me catch my breath. It made me go back and reread those two simple pages to see if the text was as fabulous as I thought it was (it was.) It made me say "there's no way the rest of this book can be THIS amazing (it was.)
The premise of this...more
The premise of this...more
This young adult novel was just released.
Bones is a great and original story which looks at choices and consequences in an apocalypse setting. This story has the same intensity, the same page turning pace, and the same thoughtful examination of a theme as Janni's short stories for young adults and adults. Janni crafts realistic characters in this fantasy novel, which is a great book for those who want to study characterization. The world feels as real as our own and brings up great questions tha...more
Bones is a great and original story which looks at choices and consequences in an apocalypse setting. This story has the same intensity, the same page turning pace, and the same thoughtful examination of a theme as Janni's short stories for young adults and adults. Janni crafts realistic characters in this fantasy novel, which is a great book for those who want to study characterization. The world feels as real as our own and brings up great questions tha...more
There's so much to love about this book--the inventiveness, the characters, the way it feels like a small piece of a much larger story. I'm so tickled to read a story--a fantasty--that takes place in the middle of the U.S. (having been to St. Louis and environs a number of times, I could picture it all so clearly), and that does one of my favorite writing tricks--makes the setting a part of the story. Liza's visions of The War took me right back to other, real disasters, and were all the more di...more
1 like · like · see review
I didn’t understand the world of this book at first. The usual Faerie books I’ve read would be in a world either during the late centuries of the past or within the present state, since the fair folk are told to be really old. I didn’t expect a post-apocalyptic era so I had a bit of a hard time grasping what kind of environment this was.
When I finally understood the setting, I was able to relish the adventure that Liza was undertaking with Matthew.
I really appreciated Liza and Matthew’s journey...more
When I finally understood the setting, I was able to relish the adventure that Liza was undertaking with Matthew.
I really appreciated Liza and Matthew’s journey...more
This is a wonderfully written book. As dark and mysterious as shadows, and as sharp as the thorns of the very plants that hunt our heroes.
It's a story about Magic and how the war with Faerie left the human world fearing everything connected to it. There is no more Good and Evil, everything is dipped in gray. Children are taught fear before they're taught to speak. They are taught to turn away from magic and cast it away lest it hurt them or their families.
Liza is a smart and tough girl. I admir...more
It's a story about Magic and how the war with Faerie left the human world fearing everything connected to it. There is no more Good and Evil, everything is dipped in gray. Children are taught fear before they're taught to speak. They are taught to turn away from magic and cast it away lest it hurt them or their families.
Liza is a smart and tough girl. I admir...more
What would you do if the word as you know it took one giant step backwards?
That's what happened in Bones of Faerie. The war between humans and Faerie devastated both sides. Remains from 'before' are small trinkets that contain names like Disney World—things that no longer exist.
Survivors, trinkets and of course Faerie magic are all that remain on the earth. Magic is seen as a horrible burden and in Liza's village everyone who is believed to have magic is killed—to keep the others in the village...more
That's what happened in Bones of Faerie. The war between humans and Faerie devastated both sides. Remains from 'before' are small trinkets that contain names like Disney World—things that no longer exist.
Survivors, trinkets and of course Faerie magic are all that remain on the earth. Magic is seen as a horrible burden and in Liza's village everyone who is believed to have magic is killed—to keep the others in the village...more
Liza didn’t witness the war between the humans and the Faeries, but she lives with the after effects.
In Franklin Falls, a town devastated like all the others during the war, the townspeople are fearful of magic. Since the war and all the death caused by the Faeries, they fell nothing good can come from it.
When Liza’s baby sister was born with eyes as silver as moonlight and faerie-pale hair as clear as glass, her father did what was expected. He took her up on a hillside and abandoned her. He s...more
In Franklin Falls, a town devastated like all the others during the war, the townspeople are fearful of magic. Since the war and all the death caused by the Faeries, they fell nothing good can come from it.
When Liza’s baby sister was born with eyes as silver as moonlight and faerie-pale hair as clear as glass, her father did what was expected. He took her up on a hillside and abandoned her. He s...more
Liza has grown up in the aftermath of the War between humans and Faerie. It was the greatest conflict in human memory, she was told—and it left its mark in the way that the world has changed. Trees reach out their branches with sinister intent, and the forest surrounding Liza’s town is full of deadly shadows that can kill with a touch. Liza has grown up knowing the rules: any trace of magic must be cast out immediately, before it turns on the town and brings destruction on their heads.
Liza knows...more
Liza knows...more
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I loved this book, it was amazing. It was so real and magical. As you read, your views on the world they're in change along with the main character's, because you never really know what to think or believe. It was not a happy faerie story, but I wasn't looking for one.
post-apocalyptic magic. almost brutal, but beautifully told story.
1 like · like · see review
Liza is such a strong character, so kind and caring and passionate.But above all else she is majorly self-sacrificing, which is a wonderful point for young girls to take away from the book. Allie, the young, sweet healer, is a reliable friend and a deeply caring individual filled with unconditional love. Yet, she's smart and knows her limits. Matt's character is much in the same way very protective and strong and throughout the book the reader really gets a clear glimpse into his maturing and ev...more
Reviewed by Julie M. Prince for TeensReadToo.com
Liza knows the rules. After all, it is only the strict rules of her small town that keep everyone safe now that the War with the faeries has ended. No strangers are allowed in town. All signs of magic must be destroyed. But since some of those signs showed up in her baby sister and their father abandoned the baby to a horrific fate...and since Liza's mother left...things have been different.
For one thing, Liza has just found a sign of magic in her...more
Liza knows the rules. After all, it is only the strict rules of her small town that keep everyone safe now that the War with the faeries has ended. No strangers are allowed in town. All signs of magic must be destroyed. But since some of those signs showed up in her baby sister and their father abandoned the baby to a horrific fate...and since Liza's mother left...things have been different.
For one thing, Liza has just found a sign of magic in her...more
3.5 stars. I LOVED the premise of this book: a post-apocalptic world where the apocalpyse has been brought on by a war between the human world and Faerie. Awesome!
I thought the plot fizzled a just little bit. I often feel that when teen authors don't know what to do with their characters, they send them on a quest, and I'm kind of sick of quests. In this case, the main character, Liza, leaves her home village because she realizes that she has magic, and if her father finds out he will kill her....more
I thought the plot fizzled a just little bit. I often feel that when teen authors don't know what to do with their characters, they send them on a quest, and I'm kind of sick of quests. In this case, the main character, Liza, leaves her home village because she realizes that she has magic, and if her father finds out he will kill her....more
Some years after a war between humans and faeries devastated both worlds and left ours infected by strange and dangerous magics, Liza discovers that she's developing magic of her own. Bones of Faerie's triumph is its surreal post-apocalyptic landscape, a creative and evocative world where violent plants teem over the crumbling remains of modern civilization. Unfortunately, Simner's voice has a repetitive, staccato pacing which sunders this atmosphere just as it begins to build. The book's emotio...more
Sep 18, 2012
Beverly
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
11-14 year olds
Recommended to Beverly by:
Best Books for Young Adults/ala.org
Bones of Faerie is a hauntingly, beautifully written book that combines dystopian and fantasy genres in a gripping, spooky, good vs. evil story. The war between humans and faeries is over, but the world has changed dramatically and negatively. Technology is gone. Trees and flowers can have deadly powers. Sinister shadows lurk, ready to strike. Fear and distrust of magic and faeries remain as legacies of the deadly battles. Any human suspected of having even slight faerie qualities, like clear ha...more
Bones of Faerie is a story about a girl named Liza. After a great war between Faerie and humans, earth is out of control. Magic comes and goes. It grows in rocks, water and most of all it is born in other humans.
Some humans were afraid of the magic, afraid of it turning on them and killing them. So when Liza's sister Rebecca was born with silver eyes and hair, Liza father took her away from her mother and put her outside to die. Soon Liza's mother disappears one night, leaving Liza alone with h...more
Some humans were afraid of the magic, afraid of it turning on them and killing them. So when Liza's sister Rebecca was born with silver eyes and hair, Liza father took her away from her mother and put her outside to die. Soon Liza's mother disappears one night, leaving Liza alone with h...more
This is one of those book which you can finish in one sitting . The world of faeries has been interpreted by various authors and each of these interpretations has been unique with some making the faeries ultra nice and some of them have made us fear faeries like never before. This was somewhere in between. It put the human - faerie interaction in a post apocalyptic world. A world which was destroyed by an unwanted war. Effects of the war have taken the shape humans couldn't even dare to imagine....more
Even though the war between the faeries and humans ended 20 years ago, there is still evidence all around of its effects...murderous trees for example. Between that and Liza's mother leaving, Liza's father Ian has become positively terrifying in his efforts to keep any aspects of magic out of their town. Even though Liza knows magic is dangerous, she can't shake the memory her little sister's cracked, bloody bones-the only remains after her father sent the baby away fearing it's ties to magic. S...more
This book had no heart and no soul, no flavor but nice color--which is to say that the setting is interesting--a post-apocalyptic US, where war between humans and faeries has devastated the world and corrupted nature to the point that tree shadows can slice and dice you, and even seeds are dangerous lest they take root in your skin--but the characters? They are boring, flat and wooden, with no depth. The protagonist Liza is a ho-hum-de-dum teenage girl abused and repressed by her tyrannical fath...more
Aug 03, 2011
Melanie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
YA readers, and lovers of faerie novels
This was not how I thought it would be.
to be honest I was dreading the teen love angst problamo going on all through this book....does not come up even once! (sure there is an awkward naked seen but no " he loves me" " i hate him" "I love him" and so forth going on)
I really liked the concept of our world, the faerie world, the war and how it changed the two worlds.
so much so I would have given it four stars if only Simner had gone into the war a bit more (hopefuly in the next books she might?)
On...more
to be honest I was dreading the teen love angst problamo going on all through this book....does not come up even once! (sure there is an awkward naked seen but no " he loves me" " i hate him" "I love him" and so forth going on)
I really liked the concept of our world, the faerie world, the war and how it changed the two worlds.
so much so I would have given it four stars if only Simner had gone into the war a bit more (hopefuly in the next books she might?)
On...more
Jul 28, 2011
Steve Cran
added it
The setting of the story is a post apocalyptic world twenty five years after the Faeries and Humans and have gone to war. Modern appliances no longer work. People have returned to old farming and hunting techniques. The nature of the world has changed since the faeries released magic into the world. Tree attack people and animals with their roots. Some people are cursed with magic ability. Those who do have magic ability have clear hair and clear eyes. The main character had a sister named Rebbe...more
This book drew me in with an original premise and beautiful writing style. The story begins in an isolated little village following a devastating war between humanity and Faerie, where plastic containers and flashlights are a few of the only remaining traces of modern human society. Magic or any appearance of it is outlawed by the main character's tyrannical father, even when magic comes in the form of a baby sister with silver Fae eyes. When Liza starts seeing manifestations of her own magic sh...more
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I'm struggling with how to review this one, because I feel like some of my criticisms ultimately stem from the fact that this is a kid's book and I'm an adult.
I really like the premise of the book; a modern-day war between humans and fairies is an interesting twist on post-apocalypse fiction. Liza is a fairly well-drawn protagonist who is perhaps a little wise beyond her years, but not to the extent that she is wholly unbelievable.
The plot is where things sort of fall down for me. It's fairly s...more
I really like the premise of the book; a modern-day war between humans and fairies is an interesting twist on post-apocalypse fiction. Liza is a fairly well-drawn protagonist who is perhaps a little wise beyond her years, but not to the extent that she is wholly unbelievable.
The plot is where things sort of fall down for me. It's fairly s...more
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| Faerie After comes out in 2013. Excited? | 4 | 12 | Jul 24, 2012 10:13pm |
From the author: I use Goodreads to keep track of books I've read. I don't use it to troll reviews of books I've written. Know that you can talk about my books safely here. Love them or hate them, I won't show up in comments to take issue or take offense. I'm honored you're engaging with my work (thank you!) and believe the best way I can express my gratitude is by staying out of the way so that y...more
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