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Haffling, by Caleb James
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By Caleb James
Dreamspinner Press, 2016
Cover by Alan Clark and Paul Richmond
ISBN: 978-1-63476-796-5
5 stars
“Ask no questions.”
“Haffling” is a brilliant YA novel, and special to me because Caleb James (the YA alias for author Charles Atkins) gives us a gay teenager, Alex Nevus, for whom being gay is the only thing in his life that’s NOT a problem. The dark setting for this book (the first of a series, I was glad to see) offers echoes of Suzanne Collins’ amazing “Gregor the Overlander” series. Alex and his sister Alice, and their schizophrenic mother Marilyn live in the un-trendy (i.e. poor) part of the East Village. Alex manages, through his own wit and calculation, to keep hearth and home together—just barely. Until one day he doesn’t.
Just as the whole world begins to tumble down around him two things happen to Alex: he realizes that his secret high-school crush, Jerod Haynes, actually knows who he is; and he falls down a rabbit hole into the world of Fae during a desperate search for his mother. Jerod, whose life is apparently the opposite of Alex’s in every way, is unwittingly drawn into the Nevus family’s nightmare. What is so remarkable about the book, among other things, is the way James takes the typical high YA school trope of the quiet gay loner and the popular jock and turns it on its head.
The action is fast, and Alex’s agile mind has to race to keep up with the shifting realities around him. Few adults can be trusted, but not because they are evil. Adults are part of the system, and are just as trapped in that system as the supposedly helpless children are. In parallel counterpoint, the Fae of the unseen world are beautiful but vicious, particularly Queen May, who looks like Glinda but has the heart of Emperor Palpatine. The loose cannon in all this the handsome Jerod, who finds himself dropped into a world he’s never even imagines, and yet understands in a way that Alex himself would never have expected.
Of course, for all the bravery and heroics that surprise and inspire us as this sometimes harrowing story unfolds, it is ultimately love that is the true magic in the tale. Just as in J.K. Rowland’s Harry Potter books, the love we feel for those around us is not to be dismissed.
This book ends solidly and neatly; but there is an open door for a sequel that, if it lives up to the expectations given by this book, should be memorable.