Sign in with FacebookThe Holy Terror's Reviews > The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1)
by Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author), Ana Juan
by Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author), Ana Juan
The Holy Terror's review
bookshelves: color-red, fantasy, borrowed, fairies, fairy-tales, young-adult, favorite-books, 2011, cover-love
Feb 19, 12
bookshelves: color-red, fantasy, borrowed, fairies, fairy-tales, young-adult, favorite-books, 2011, cover-love
Recommended for:
Wendy Darling, fans of Liesl & Po and children's books with deeper meanings
Read from July 05 to 12, 2011
It's hard to express in words just how lovely this book is, well, in my words that is; Valente's words are beyond magical.
Reading the last pages gave me the immense pleasure of shivers and goosebumps. This is a truly special book and I hope the majority of my friends read it.
The book trailer is also a wonderful thing to check out before and after you finish reading, and it successfully portrays the dark beauty of this book more so than I ever could with just a review.
She certainly did not see Death stand on her tip-toes and blow a kiss after her, a kiss that rushed through all the frosted leaves of the autumnal forest but could not quite catch a child running as fast as she could. As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children has no limits.If you love fantasy or fairy tales, you will fall head-over-heels in love with this book.
Reading the last pages gave me the immense pleasure of shivers and goosebumps. This is a truly special book and I hope the majority of my friends read it.
The book trailer is also a wonderful thing to check out before and after you finish reading, and it successfully portrays the dark beauty of this book more so than I ever could with just a review.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.
sign in »
Reading Progress
| 07/05/2011 | page 0 |
|
0.0% | |
| 07/05/2011 | page 3 |
|
1.0% | ""Now, there are important rules in Fairyland. I am afraid that if you trample upon the rules, I cannot help you. You may be ticketed or executed, depending on the mood of the Marquess." "Is she very terrible?" The Green Wind frowned into his brambly beard. "All little girls are terrible," he admitted finally, "but the Marquess, at least, has a very fine hat."" 1 comment |
| 07/06/2011 | page 4 |
|
2.0% | "One ought not to judge her: All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. September stood very generally in the middle on the day the Green Wind took her, Somewhat Heartless, and Somewhat Grown." |
| 07/06/2011 | page 6 |
|
2.0% | "She liked anything orange. Orange is bright and demanding. You can't ignore orange things. She once saw an orange parrot in the pet store and had never wanted anything so much in her life. She would have named it Halloween and fed it butterscotch. Her mother said butterscotch would make a bird sick and, besides, the dog would certainly eat it up. September never spoke to the dog again - on principle." |
| 07/08/2011 | page 26 |
|
10.0% | "Any child knows what a witch looks like. The warts are important, yes, the hooked nose, the cruel smile. But it's the hat that cinches it: pointy and black with a wide rim. Hats change everything. For one day, her father had put on a hat with golden things on it and suddenly he hadn't been her father anymore, he had been a soldier, and he had left. Hats have power. Hats can change you into someone else." 5 comments |
| 07/08/2011 | page 36 |
|
14.0% | "There must be blood, the girl thought. There must always be blood. The Green Wind said that, so it must be true. It will all be hard and bloody, but there will be wonders, too, or else why bring me here at all? And it's the wonders I'm after, even if I have to bleed for them." |
| 07/09/2011 | page 43 |
|
17.0% | ""September, really. Which do you think is more likely? That some brute bull left my mother with egg and went off to sell lonemozers? Or that she mated with a Library and had many loved and loving children? I mean, let us be realistic! Besides, everyone says I look just like my father. Can't you see my wings? Are they not made of fluttering vellum pages?"" |
| 07/09/2011 | page 44 |
|
17.0% | ""But surely you're bigger than the Marquess. Couldn't you say no? Squash her or roast her or something?" A-Through-L marveled. His mouth dropped a little. "What a violent little thing you are! Of course, I'm bigger, and, of course, I could say no, and, of course, in the days of Good Queen Mallow, this would never have happened and we're all very upset about it, but she's the Marquess. She has a hat."" |
| 07/09/2011 | page 50 |
|
20.0% | "When one is traveling, everything looks brighter and lovelier. That does not mean it is brighter and lovelier; it just means that sweet, kindly home suffers in comparison to tarted-up foreign places with all their jewels on." 10 comments |
| 07/09/2011 | page 51 |
|
20.0% | "In September's world, many things began with pan. Pandemic, Pangaea, Panacea, Panoply. Those were all big words, to be sure, but as has been said, September read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying." |
| 07/09/2011 | page 60 |
|
23.0% | ""When you are born, your courage is new and clean. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you're half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it's so grunged up with living. So every once in a while, you have to scrub it up and get the works going or else you'll never be brave again."" |
| 07/09/2011 | page 61 |
|
24.0% | ""This is for washing your wishes, September, for the wishes of one's old life wither and shrivel like old leaves if they are not replaced with new wishes when the world changes. And the world always changes. Wishes get slimy, and their colors fade, and soon they are just mud, like all the rest of the mud, and not wishes at all, but regrets."" |
| 07/12/2011 | page 156 |
|
61.0% | "She certainly did not see Death stand on her tip-toes and blow a kiss after her, a kiss that rushed through all the frosted leaves of the autumnal forest but could not quite catch a child running as fast as she could. As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children has no limits." 3 comments |
| 07/12/2011 | page 169 |
|
66.0% | ""Leef taught me to copy out my own memories onto parchment, to paint a perfect path ... a path back to the things I loved, the things I knew when I was young. That's what a map is, you know. Just a memory. Just a wish to go back home - someday, somehow."" |
| 07/12/2011 | page 187 |
|
73.0% | ""Shoes are funny beasts. You think they're just clothes, but really, they're alive. They want things. Fancy ones with gems want to go to balls, big boots want to go to work, slippers want to dance. Or sleep. Shoes make the path you're on. Change your shoes, change the path."" |
| 07/12/2011 | page 245 |
|
99.0% |
"Oh. OH. That just gave me goosebumps. Reads it again >GOOSEBUMPS< " |
| 07/12/2011 | page 247 |
|
100.0% | "Oh, what a wicked ending. Such a fantastically clever and heartwarming tale. I loved loved loved this book." |
Comments (showing 1-13 of 13) (13 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Wicked Incognito Now
(new)
-
added it
Jul 13, 2011 01:25am
Wow. A five-starrer huh?
reply
|
flag
*
Yes, it's a wonderful story. If you love fairy tales, Alice in Wonderland, Narnia, Wizard of Oz, any of those types, you'll love this one too.
After seeing your status updates/good rating, I've decided to read this after the Succubus books :D I'm excited.
I just finished and then reading all of your review and quotes just made me teary. I LOVED the language of this book. Unlike all of the crap out there for kids to read, this is a descriptive work of art. Love love loved this. I can't wait to read something else by her!
