The war between human and faerie devastated both sides. Or so fifteen-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. Corn resists being harvested; dandelions have thorns. 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. Still, Liza feels safe. Her father is strong and has protected their town by laying down strict rules. Among them: any trace of magic must be destroyed, no matter where it is found.
Then Liza's sister is born with faerie-pale hair, clear as glass, and Liza's father leaves her on a hillside to die. When her mother disappears into the forest and Liza herself discovers she has the faerie ability to see she has no choice but to flee. Liza's quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds may be the key to healing both worlds.
This book has a lot of promise - the beginning starts off very strong, as we're introduced to this sort of post-apocalyptic world in which humans must protect themselves from magic, from the trees, which are apparently carnivorous, and from walking out at night. It's an interesting idea, and well-thought out, but it falls apart somewhat as the story progresses. Things happen very quickly in the beginning, without enough explanation (at least, without enough explanation for me, although in the interest of full disclosure, I have never guessed the correct killer in an Agatha Christie novel, so I'm certainly not going to be winning any prizes for connecting narrative dots). Because Simner's world is so unique, the reader can't fill in the gaps by falling back on their own familiarity with this "type" of world, if that makes sense. The key events in the book take place over a month long period, and the speed with which things begin to happen (Liza's sister's birth, Liza's discovery of her 'magical me') seems too close to be coincidental, but, unless I missed something, we're never given any explanation which would make it not all some huge coincidence. That oddness, taken in conjunction with the slightly one-dimensional characterizations, leaves the story a little flat. Also, Allie really annoyed me - maybe I'm too far removed from my own childhood, but why are children so freaking dumb? If I knew that the trees could eat me and that some shadow creature was following me, I sure as heck wouldn't be ignoring my parent's strictures not to go beyond the safety hedge out of some crazy idea that these two teenagers - one of whom is a werewolf - need my help. This might make me a bad person, but I couldn't help hoping that her father would get seriously injured while out looking for her, and then she'd be sorry.
Okay, back on track. I did appreciate that this was set in St. Louis, although naturally I-44 was not really recognizable anymore. I was sad about the parts which described the buildings being destroyed in the war - the riverfront is so picturesque it'd be a black day indeed if the faeries ever bombed it for real. However, living so close to the Arch has perhaps made it less mystical to me. Speaking as someone who has a small wire model of the Arch in her kitchen, the whole idea that the Arch is the gateway to Faerie is kinda laughable - ain't nothing on the other side of that but East St. Louis, yo. Or St. Louis, if you come at it from the other direction. But I digress, yet again.
So many things were never explained in the book (why are there no more mirrors, why did Liza's mother just up and leave, just how many magic traits can people get, why did Liza's mother assume she was -mysteriously- the only kid in town who wasn't magical?) and so much backstory was left unsaid that I'm sort of hoping there will be a second book to explain it all. The book is limited by whatever Liza knows, which, let's be honest, isn't much. This could easily be twice as long, with a lot more detail and build-up. But not a bad start, though not my favorite either.
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