The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Catherynne M. Valente is a name it's hard to miss in the SFF community. She's been twice nominated for a Hugo, won both the Tiptree and the Andre Norton Award and has won or been nominated for numerous other awards. She's also one of the SF Squeecast regulars, a podcast I listen to with pleasure every month. I follow several bloggers who adore her writing, such as The Booksmugglers and The Little Red Reviewer. Still, despite reading rave reviews and having my interest peaked every time I did so, I never got around to reading any of Valente's work. Until now that is. And after having finished The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, all I can say is "WOW!" and "Now I get it." I was blown away by this book and Valente's writing and story-telling.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - hereafter referred to as The Girl Who... - is gorgeously written. Its prose is stunning and was made for reading aloud, chock-full of alliterations, rhyming and just generally beautiful passages. And that is just the words on the page; the text is heavily layered with different meanings. Plus there are lovely allusions to other classical works such as The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I had a lot of fun spotting these and making the connections. The Girl Who... would probably be a very rewarding book to reread, as I'd guess you'll find new things in it every time. The narrative is also quite self aware, with a narrator that addresses the reader directly and talks about the conventions of story-telling and warns the reader when he is about to break them. I really liked this aspect and the narrative voice, which was warm and at time gently mocking the goings-on in the book.

September is a great character. She is not such a saccharine-sweet girl as one often saw in more classic children's novel, but one with a bit of bite to her or as the Green Wind put it, 'an ill-tempered and irascible enough child.' I loved that September is described as Somewhat Heartless, and Somewhat Grown and the book's explanation of how all children start out heartless and only because of this can they act like children. And her voyage through Fairyland seems to have grown her heart as well, as she never once considers abandoning her friends--well, not for very long anyway. She's a girl that takes matters into her own hands and she'll be the hero of her own tale, thank you very much, though she is glad for the help of the friends she makes along the way. Her friends are delightful. A-Through-L, the wyverary completely stole my heart and I loved his dual nature, how could I not love the child of a wyvern and a library! Saturday, the Marid, was interesting and another creature that has two sides to him. Mostly he is a sweet, shy creature, but when he is challenged for a wish he becomes scary and ferocious. Unlike in Alice in Wonderland, where all grown-ups are either bad guys or mad, in The Girl Who... grown-ups aren't made into the bad guys. No, the villain in this plot, The Marquess, is a little girl too. This a tale of growing up and finding independence without having to vilify all adults, even if they leave you alone to go to war, like September's father, or are at work all the time, like her mother. In The Girl Who... the adults are normal people - relatively though, I mean, how normal is a witch? - who can be good or bad, kind or unkind.

The Girl Who... is a story for all ages. Younger children will just see the exciting story, the quest September undertakes, while teens will perhaps see a little deeper into the story and see its wisdom about growing up. And for adults there are different layers again: the impact of the loss of a parent, how destructive our modern-day corporate and bureaucratic world is to a free spirit and that in the end life is all about losing and finding your way again, sometimes with the help of (unexpected) friends.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a fantastic story and one anyone who loves fairytales and classical children's books such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Wizard of Oz shouldn't miss. I can't wait till the girls are old enough to read it with them - or until the book, hopefully, is translated into Dutch, which means we'll get to read it sooner - as September is a heroine they could do worse than emulate. This one of the best books I've read so far this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see it show up in my year's end list. It also means I've found yet another writer whose backlist I need to read! The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is out in paperback in the UK from Corsair on June 7th.

This book was provided for review by the publisher.

Very occasionally, a book comes along which grabs you from title to blurb and this was one of them.
I am a sucker for a twisted fairytale, and in a sense I suppose this qualifies as that. It's narrated in an utterly delightful and direct fashion and is much more realistic (if that's possible) than most fairy stories.

I adored every second of it, and highly recommend it.

Every child wants to be whisked away to a magical land, have adventures, and set out on a fantastical quest against a tyrant.

It's a pretty typical fantasy storyline as well, and it takes something special to make such stories stand out. Catherynne Valente's "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" is an enchanting example, filled with delightful nonsense, wryly witty prose, and a wonderfully oddball world that reminds me of a more lyrical Lewis Carroll.

A young girl named September is whisked away from her boring Nebraska home by the Green Wind, who takes her to Fairyland. But September soon finds herself traveling through Fairyland herself, encountering a soap golem, a half-library wyvern named A-Through-L, a wairwulf, the Perverse and Perilous Sea with its golden beaches, The House Without Warning, gnomish customs agents, a jeweled key, a migration of bicycles.

She also is given a quest by a pair of witches -- find the magical spoon that the cruel Marquess stole from their dead brothers. So she and the Wyverary set out to the city of Pandemonium, but soon find themselves (and a flying leopard named Saturday) on a new quest, with overwhelming results for all the people of Fairyland.

Normally, Catherynne Valente has a lush, lyrical, sensual writing style, and there's a fair amount of that in this book ("... the moon slowly fall down into the horizon and all the dark morning stars turn in the sky like a silver carousel"). Her Fairyland is a weird, sometimes dangerous place filled with countless oddball creatures (migrating bicycles!), making her story feel like a more plotcentric "Alice in Wonderland."

But since this book is meant for children, she also weaves in a wry, arch style that reminds me of some classic British prose ('As you might expect, the geographical location of the capital of Fairyland is fickle and has a rather short temper"). This gets a little twee sometimes, but Valente also weaves in a bittersweet thread as the story goes on, as well as some dark, delicately heartrending moments.

It takes a little while to warm up to September, since she is initially Heartless (like many children), and doesn't care much about what worry she might cause her parents. Then again, it's pleasant to have a heroine who goes happily into another world without moping about going home -- and despite being Heartless, September proves herself to be a sweet, compassionate girl who is just childlike enough to accept the weirdness.

Catherynne Valente blends her velvety prose with a quirky magical twist in"The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making." And she leaves the door to Fairyland open... just in case.