Colleen Mondor Reviews The Fair Folk by Su Bristow and The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert
The Fair Folk, Su Bristow (Europa Editions 979-8-889-66012-5, $18.00, tpb, 464pp) January 2024.
In her gorgeous new historical fantasy, The Fair Folk, author Su Bristow crafts the story of a particularly complex interaction between mortals and faeries. Opening in 1959, the novel follows the shifting relationship between then-eight-year-old Felicity and Elfrida, the apparent queen of a long-established fairy group ensconced in the woods near her home. At first, the fairies offer the girl a welcome that is sadly lacking from her overworked parents and snobbish relatives. (‘‘You have no choice as child,’’ thinks Felicity early on, ‘‘you’re born into a family and there you must stay until you’re old enough to run.’’) But then a nighttime adventure takes a disastrous turn, and the young girl sees her companions in a much less flattering light. Forced into an agreement that propels her association with Elfrida into a long-term attachment, Felicity grows up and goes off to college, sometimes enjoying the unlikely friendship while other times questioning its true cost. Eventually, she comes to see just what Elfrida has wanted all along and comes to an unexpected decision about what she must do.
There are several unusual aspects to Bristow’s faerie world, including the complex backstories that the author provides for her characters. One aspect of the plot, involving a changeling, is particularly compelling, as this somewhat familiar storyline goes much deeper into the motivations of the faerie involved. Felicity and Elfrida’s friendship, which ebbs and flows as the girl ages into adulthood, is also unique as Felicity moves into a world that is modernizing in leaps and bounds (especially for women) while Elfrida retains a dated view of the world which she clings to with increasing desperation. The depth of the toxicity that lies between them is not revealed until Felicity comes under the tutelage of Professor Ederley, a folklorist who treats the myths and legends surrounding faerie interactions as historical in nature. His admonishment that Felicity learn from those tales, while facing her own faerie past, is thrilling for the student and paves the way for confrontations with both her father and Elfrida that change everything.
I felt like I was sinking into a big college novel with The Fair Folk, which sports a dark academia-esque narrative that brings readers along into the classroom challenges, complicated friendships, and perilous romances of college. (I haven’t even told you about Felicity’s boyfriend! Talk about the unexpected outcomes of faery bargains!) The sweeping nature of the story, which delicately walks through more than a dozen years of Felicity’s life, artfully illustrates how a child’s desire for friendship changes a great deal, and yet hardly at all, as she ages into adulthood. The plot’s tense collegiate atmosphere, which perpetually fosters competition, is right out of The Secret History, but Felicity’s desire to both help the faerie, and free herself from all commitments to them, makes The Fair Folk far more poignant than any standard college-based thriller. Bristow has written a grand novel here, and readers will fall into it for days. If you loved Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, The Fair Folk is for you, and should serve as a swift reminder to return to that masterpiece as well.
The Bad Ones, Melissa Albert (Flatiron Books 978-1-250-89489-2, $19.99, hc, 400pp) February 2024.
Melissa Albert has been on quite the roll in the past few years, (The Hazel Wood, The Night Country, Our Crooked Hearts), and with The Bad Ones she continues to hit home runs for YA readers. The suspense starts with one single night in a typical town that becomes notable for the disappearance of four seemingly unrelated residents: a young teen at a slumber party she did not want to attend, a high school boy losing his best friend to her big college plans, a man whose habit of horrible acts is catching up to him, and Becca, Nora’s estranged best friend. It is Becca who matters most because Nora does not stop looking for her, even as everyone around her conjures stories of running away, or warped complicity in a series of suspected crimes, or simply shrugs their shoulders and carries on. Nora is convinced that Becca, who texted her the night she vanished, must have known what was going on and tried to stop it (whatever ‘‘it’’ might be), and her diligence is paid off when she begins to find a series of clues Becca left behind. The problem is that while she is certain there is more to the night’s events than anyone else is willing to believe, Nora is struggling with her own set of disturbing issues. ‘‘There is something haunting me,’’ she realizes finally. And whatever it is, it’s determined to keep her.
First, the obvious: The Bad Ones is all kinds of creepy fun! There are twists and turns to this plot which only escalate when Albert introduces a few scenes from months earlier that shed light on Becca’s life before she disappeared. Nora’s dogged mission to solve the mystery herself is eventually derailed by the sheer cascade of events hitting her town. Fortunately, some classmates step up to help her and they bring their own set of talents (and some humorous moments) to the detecting. Things are never what they seem in Albert’s novels and The Bad Ones is no different, as she forces Nora and her friends to look back at their town’s history of disappearances and especially a local myth concerning the ‘‘goddess.’’ Practically every town has some scary story that lingers in the high school hallways (mine was about a local girl who drowned and was subsequently buried standing up in her parents’ front yard; for decades teenagers have looked for that house and her mausoleum). In Albert’s hands a childish legend fuels the stuff of nightmares and leads to….well, whatever happened that first night.
Right now, Melissa Albert is one of the most consistently entertaining authors in YA. Her novels are fantastic enough to walk outside realistic fare, but she nails the nuances of teen friendships (especially among young women), in a way that authors of more traditional dramas would envy. In The Bad Ones there are all kinds of relationship complexities to ponder, and so many shades of grey among the characters that it is hard to know who to really hate. (Well, there are a couple that are easy to hate, but for most of the cast… it’s complicated.) If you want to stay up all night with a book tightly gripped in your hands, then Melissa Albert is the author you need to be reading and The Bad Ones will simply be the latest in a literary addiction you won’t want to beat.
This review and more like it in the March 2024 issue of Locus.
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