3 out of 4 stars
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It is common practice for mothers to tell their children fairytales before tucking them in for the night — to finish the tale with a happily ever after and whisper to the child to have sweet dreams. But what if the one telling the fairytale is an old man who whisks the child away in the middle of the night and makes that child sit in a chair in a pitch black room while he weaves tales of vampires, sinister dolls that come alive, and missing children? These are the fairytales that nightmares are made of.
The Lost Fairytales of the Dewdrop Forest by Bianca Scharff is the enchanting story of Lucy, whose earliest memory is of being a six-year-old misfit and living with her grandmother. For as long as she can recall, Lucy has been different. She frightens other children with the strange stories she tells and the warnings she offers. Worse still, each night she dreams that an old man steals her away to narrate frightening tales. But is she really dreaming? “She waited with her eyes closed, for no matter how hard she tried, she could not move, speak or open her eyes — only able to sit, breathing in the heavy, stagnant air, her body a small tomb.” As the time draws near to what Lucy thinks will be her eighteenth birthday, strange incidents begin to occur. There are smudged fingerprints on the face of a clock in her home that has just been cleaned. Her closet doors begin to shake at exactly midnight, and there is a haunting image of her reflection trapped in a mirror.
Deciding that the time has come to venture out and look deeper into the mysteries that plague her life, Lucy sets off to explore the city of Graywater, a place she believes the old man had told her about in a story — a place where no plants grow and no animals go near. After a twisted series of events that cannot all be recounted here, Lucy passes through a hidden, enchanted door and enters into the ominous Dewdrop Forest. With her satchel packed with quills, paper, and ink, she begins to collect stories from the forest by placing the materials on the ground and waiting for whatever mysterious force lingers there to reveal the tales on paper — long forgotten stories that only the trees remember. As she stumbles through the overgrown forest and wanders into decrepit homes with dark secrets, two individuals hunt Lucy. One is a wolf who is seeking revenge, and the other is a prince who has been waiting for his beloved Lavinia to return — yearning for decades.
This book has an ethereal quality that is stunning, and the author has an exceptional way of painting pictures with words. There was not an abundance of adjectives, but I could still picture myself as Lucy in the Dewdrop Forest or as Lucy wandering around eerie old houses in the woods. As adults, the magic tends to vanish, and I appreciate this author bringing the magic back in such a mesmerizing, yet frightening, way. When I say this story is an adult fairytale, what I mean is that it includes those mystical, fun qualities that are common in stories for children along with a lingering darkness. This is life as you get older — longing for the magic of childhood but weighed down by the complications that come with age.
Punctuation is somewhat of an issue in this book with misplaced quotation marks and commas, but the spelling is on point. Some of the word choices are questionable such as the following: “ ‘Could this be caused by my aging?’ Lucy thought.” It would make more sense to use a word like questioned or wondered rather than thought in this instance. The writing style can at times be confusing with sentences that do not always make complete sense and explanations of events that are rather hard to follow. I think professional editing could pick up on areas that need improvement and help to create a better flow for readers to follow. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because the writing still needs a bit of work although the story is wonderful.
The Lost Fairytales of the Dewdrop Forest is not a book that I would recommend for young children due to some frightening and mature descriptions, especially not right before bedtime. It is a fairytale for older readers. For those who do not like stories with fairytale, magical essences, this would not be the best pick. But if you are like me, and you enjoy being swept away into impossible realms that are built with magic at the core, this is probably a story you will enjoy.
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The Lost Fairytales of the Dewdrop Forest
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