This is more of a warning than a review, which is: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. Don't even pick it up. Because I didn't read fantasy on principle for years (I thought it was all trashy and terrible), I'm now trying to catch up and find good fantasy books to read, and as this novel won best novel of the year from the British Fantasy Society (yet another institution not to trust, apparently), I thought I would try it. I only managed to get through the first 50 pages before I was forced to throw it aside in utter disgust. The writing is beyond terrible. Even though the subtitle is 'a tale of enchantment', the writing has nothing enchanting about it at all. It's about a girl who gets stolen by fairies twenty years previously, and then returns to her trashy family and failed musician boyfriend. The plot sounded somewhat promising (because 'stolen by fairies' is always a good plot), but was profoundly disappointing. Incidentally, the disappointment I felt is the only profound thing about it. The writing is so bad that Joyce literally just gives us character summaries such as 'Tara was very smart, pretty, intriguing and she left a lot of people her own age - and older - way behind. She had a cool look about her: an unsettling calm, and nut-brown eyes that blinked with intense appraisal. She had her own effortless style and she was genuinely interested in other people... Boys and girls were draw to her, but she didn't need them. She was a natural leader, but one who didn't want any followers'. Oh, and 'She used no cosmetics at all and her complexion was flawless.' Do I even need to add anything else? It's all like that, punctuated by horribly written dialogue. Just to add to the catalogue of atrocities, here's a bit that was really too much: 'He was earthy; she was aerial. He was made of clay and iron; she was made of fire and dreaming.' Unless you're looking to find examples of the most terrible writing being produced, have nothing to do with this book.
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