I liked the second volume of Fairyland better than the first and I liked that one a lot.
In Book 2, our main hero September has to clean up the mess that she was accidental catalyst to. She goes through a labyrinth of adventures and meets an absurd cadre of characters and creatures, but the star of the book is Valente’s writing.
The wordsmithing is marvelous. It’s creative, playful, and many times beautiful. What makes this book better than the first (in my opinion) is that the narrative flow is much improved. The story is rarely burdened by Valente’s vast imagination and inventiveness. She’s still playing with language and writing prose poetry, but unlike the first…. few of these bits of wordplay jut out and threaten to toss you out of the book.
