Have I mentioned my newfound love for Graham Joyce? Where has he been all my life?
Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a story about Tara, a daughter and a sister who went missing twenty years ago. Then one day, she shows up looking like she hasn't aged a single day. She says she was kidnapped by the fairies--what's the real story?
Joyce has a marvelously deft hand at blending fantasy and reality. He creates wonderfully vivid characters, from Tara's brother's 13-year-old son to the semi-retired (and pretty eccentric) psychiatrist Vivian Underwood. Plus, the POV beautifully shifts among characters telling each story perfectly and with so much character that you always know who's speaking.
Also, as a longtime fairy tale devotee, I LOVED all of the epigraphs that started each chapter from such excellent sources as Bruno Bettelheim, Charles DeLint and Terri Windling. And bonus, each epigraph actually relates to the chapter's contents. (It's amazing how often they don't in fiction.) I loved all of the talk of fairy tales, and all of the common threads that connect fairy tales, and how they are still so very relevant to our lives. Just lovely and now on my list of very favorite fairy tale retellings.