Bones of Faerie

by Janni Lee Simner

“The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15 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. 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. Then Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see—into the past, into the future—and she has no choice but to flee her town. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.” (-from the publisher)

I really liked this book. The story was well told, the plot line was interesting and suspenseful, and it never became a paranormal romance, for which I was grateful. (I was not in the mood for a paranormal romance story!) Liza grew up in a semi-abusive household. Her father was overly harsh, would beat her for the slightest reasons, but her mother was loving. Then, Liza’s mother gave birth to another child, a little girl, who was born with white/silver hair- a sure sign that she had Fey abilities. That night, Liza’s father took the baby to a hillside to die. Liza was so distraught, that she ran out of the house to try to save her little sister, but it was too late. Something had already gotten the baby. Both Liza and her mother were never the same after that- Liza’s mother fell into a decline and Liza blamed herself for not being able to save her sister. One day, Liza’s mother just left and Liza had no idea why or where her mother would have gone- but she was left to the mercy of her already cruel and harsh father. One day, after a particularly bad beating, Liza had a vision- and she realized that she too had faerie abilities and would have to leave the town before her father found out and killed her. Liza’s only hope was to try to find her mother by traveling through the forest. Along the way, Liza has a couple of close calls, before she is saved by citizens of another town. Here, in this new town, Liza finds out that not every town is like hers, were any indication of faerie abilities equals death. Instead, this new town strives to educate and foster the abilities so they will harm no one. And the truth about the war between the Fey and the humans may not have been as Liza thought as well. But Liza stills needs to find her mother, which involves Liza to learn to control her gift and entering the Fey realm. More than just saving her mother and herself is at stake, and Liza has to discover if she is up to the task.

One thing that I really enjoyed about this story was that St. Louis was actually the gateway between the Fey realm and the human realm. And the town that Liza grew up in was actually a suburb of St. Louis, but the wild forest had taken over much of the United States after the devastation of the War. I highly recommend this book to any fantasy fan- the fact that there is no overt romantic subplot was fantastic and a plus because the title can be recommended to boys as well as girls.