Bones of Faerie (Bones of Faerie, #1) in Apocalypse Whenever

Aug 22, 2008 Lucy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: teen, post-apocalyptic, 2009

Liza has grown up in the aftermath of the War between humans and Faerie. It was the greatest conflict in human memory, she was told—and it left its mark in the way that the world has changed. Trees reach out their branches with sinister intent, and the forest surrounding Liza’s town is full of deadly shadows that can kill with a touch. Liza has grown up knowing the rules: any trace of magic must be cast out immediately, before it turns on the town and brings destruction on their heads.

Liza knows Liza has grown up in the aftermath of the War between humans and Faerie. It was the greatest conflict in human memory, she was told—and it left its mark in the way that the world has changed. Trees reach out their branches with sinister intent, and the forest surrounding Liza’s town is full of deadly shadows that can kill with a touch. Liza has grown up knowing the rules: any trace of magic must be cast out immediately, before it turns on the town and brings destruction on their heads.

Liza knows that they have rules for a reason, and without them, their town would have been destroyed by magic long ago. But when her little sister is born with hair clear as glass—a sure sign of magic—her father leaves her to die on a hilltop. After that, everything changes. Liza’s mother leaves in the middle of the night. And Liza starts having visions—of the past and the future. She knows that she has to flee her town lest she bring danger down on the people she loves. But what starts out as a desperate escape from what she has left behind becomes a journey that may lead to hope—a hope for the future of both worlds.

What I love about this book is that an apocalypse is a large-scale thing. It affects everybody, all over the place, and a really good post-apocalyptic book makes the massive overarching aftereffects known—the way the apocalypse has really devastated humanity. And Bones of Faerie definitely accomplishes that.

But Bones of Faerie is also an intensely personal story. Taking place as it does twenty years after the War, after the devastation, it’s not just a story about global disaster—it’s Liza’s story. It’s Liza’s journey—and even as the trees rise up to kill people and shadows can detach themselves from their caster with deadly intent—even with all the dangers and perils of a post-apocalyptic world, the most terrifying villain of them all is, in the end, only human.

This is post-apocalyptic in all the best ways. The dangers of a world where vegetation is deadly and corn moans and bruises you when you harvest it are terrifying, and even more chilling is the way Liza just accepts all of this as commonplace and wonders at how the tress could ever have been tame and safe to be near. The world feels real. It feels possible.

The only complaint I have is one I have with all of the best stories: I want more. I closed the last page of the book with a faint ache in my heart. I want to explore this apocalypse a little bit further. I want to understand the connections between Faerie and the human world a little bit more. I want to spend more time with these characters I’ve grown to love and respect. (Especially Allie, who stole my heart from the moment she showed up on the page.) I didn’t want to leave this book behind me.
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Mar 11, 2009 Jennifer Wardrip rated it really liked it

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Julie M. Prince for TeensReadToo.com

Liza knows the rules. After all, it is only the strict rules of her small town that keep everyone safe now that the War with the faeries has ended. No strangers are allowed in town. All signs of magic must be destroyed. But since some of those signs showed up in her baby sister and their father abandoned the baby to a horrific fate...and since Liza's mother left...things have been different.

For one thing, Liza has just found a sign of magic in her ...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Wyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012, during-pregnancy

In spite of the slow-ish start and minor drag in the middle, I came to very much enjoy this book. I'll go into detail with my thoughts and put spoiler tags around anything that might be too specific.

1.) Strong female lead.

Liza--whose name I pronounced as 'lie-zah' in my head...yet, inexplicably found her being called 'Lizzy' for no discernible reason unless her name is pronounced as 'lee-zah'--is very strong. Despite all the hardships she's faced in her life, including seeing and experiencing ho

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Oct 18, 2011 Kaye rated it it was ok

Shelves: youngadult, fantasy, apocalypse_dystopia, read_in_2011, ebooks

This is a post-apocalyptic book in which the world of faerie and the human world have intersected, largely to the detriment of humans. The trees have a major creepy factor and get a thirst for human blood, and our protagonist's village kills those that show any hint of magic, innocent or not. The setting was interesting, but for me, the main character really wasn't. There were too many themes, not enough depth, and weak character development. The world that the story was built in though was very ...more

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Jun 19, 2010 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult

I thought this book started stronger than it finished. A long quest for a girl who is searching for her mother who ran away in the aftermath of the war between humans and fairies. She realizes during the journey that she also has magic, a thing that would get her killed in her human village. The quest takes a long time and the book seems a bit rushed afterwards and I never got a real clear sense of how the magic worked and everyone's history or motivations but it was well-written and kept one's ...more

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Nov 22, 2009 Girly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrens-books

Like I mentioned before, this is a little darker than your normal up-beat Tinkerbell faerie book. Although for young adults, I really loved this book. I loved the writing style but it was a little difficult to read aloud to my daughter. The main character goes through several dream-like sequences that come abruptly and are written in italics so if read straight through without explaining the difference it would have made no sense to her. But, of course, if you're not reading it aloud it makes pe ...more

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