I like fairy tales, who doesn’t? They’re with us from childhood. Stories of magic and heroes, monsters and princesses. Often quite sinister (the best ones). But when we’re adults, where do they go? No one wants fairy tales once they’re grown up. No one wants to hang on to childish things. They read books about adults doing adult things, like pay the rent and moaning about politics.
This book is very definitely a fairy tale for grown ups. It has all the ingredients: an isolated cottage deep in the Welsh countryside, malevolent fairies, oblivious humans, a changeling child, a white horse – etc. Eloise and Simon have moved to the country to live a simpler life. She wants a baby; he’s not so sure. When Clare and Miriam, Eloise’s mother and her friend, come to stay, they notice Eloise’s behaviour change – and then she comes back from the woods with a baby…
A lot isn’t actually explained until the last few pages. Which is fine, as you kind of guess what’s happening the rest of the time. There’s a cast of creepy ‘local’ people, some casual cannibalism, infanticide, and a lurking dread offset nicely by the pedestrian observations of the city dwellers.
The whole point, I guess, is to place this ancient notion of fairy tale into a modern context – how would it work now? Our twenty-first century brains would try hard to rationalise it without leaping immediately to the supernatural. Because, ofc, those things aren’t real.
In short…
An odd book, effective in some ways but lacking in others. I enjoyed it more towards the end, so a 7/10
Books Fran Has Read 