The Faerie Door (edició 2008)

Posted to my Livejournal in October 2008:

Sometimes I feel like I read too much juvenile and young adult fantasy, and books that feel clich̩d or generic to me are ones others (and I'm always trying to think of the target audience) will enjoy. This is one of those books. Parts of it were decent. Parts of it were vague. And parts of it didn't make sense once you thought about it too much (which is another part of my job as a reviewer, to think about it too much). Victoria, in 1890s England, and Elliott, in 1966 America, both find magic rings made by faeries to open portals between the worlds in times of need. Obviously it's one of those times, and the two kids escape danger to Faerieland (no, really), where they are sent on a long quest to find magic orbs in order to defeat the Shadow Knight (no, really). And they do, and somehow the evil Shadow Knight is erased in, like, two pages at the very end. I liked Victoria a lot (she has attitude), and Elliott as well (he's very sensible and a little timid), and some of the stuff they encounter on their journeys is imaginative, but the rest of it just wasn't put together well. ( )

The settings in this book are described beautifully. There is such care to the details that it's not overwhelming but just right. Victoria and Elliot, characters who wouldn't normally meet, but under the circumstances do, go well together. They have fun, and you have fun reading about them. I thought the story might be loosely based on a ballet which is mentioned in it, but after researching that, I believe this is the author's own creation, which leaves me liking it all the more.

I find the story original even while, yes, it starts as a quest with rings. It is unlike the Lord of the rings trilogy and stands on it's own. Only thing I didn't like was there were times when I had to put the book down. For a children's book, I thought it got a little dark, but that could be me mirroring my own dark times in it. I was frustrated in a good way, because the reason I put it down was that the book would get so dark and end a chapter where I did not know how it was going to end. I worried whether I would get a nice ending or a sad ending. Overall, I would say that makes it a great book, and I think kids will love it. ( )

Reviewed by Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen for TeensReadToo.com

Victoria Deveny is a young girl living in England in 1890. Elliot Good is a boy living in New Hampshire in 1966. Even though this pair is living decades apart, they share a love for all things faerie. The two read faerie stories and each one wishes to someday visit the faerie queen.

When Victoria discovers a secret passageway, she stumbles upon a magical ring and a portal into another time. At the same time, Elliot Good is finding another ring just like Victoria's. The two meet when Victoria crosses time and ends up near Elliot's house. The pair discover that although they have uncovered magic, there is something dark after them. They are soon being perused by the Shadow Knight and, in order to escape, they unlock another portal, this time into the land of faerie.

The Faerie Queen tells Victoria and Elliot that they are to embark on quests in order to stop the Shadow Knight and the evil queen he works for from gaining power. Both children must each retrieve a powerful magical orb; Elliot the orb of fire and Victoria the orb of ice. Each child must travel alone to various worlds and face dangers of all sorts.

Filled with wicked queens, good and evil magic, dragons, werewolf knights and, of course, faeries, THE FAERIE DOOR is a fantasy novel for all ages. Each chapter in told in an alternating view which helps keep the story moving. There are also plenty of scary moments that will have readers quickly turning pages. The author is very descriptive and the various worlds that Elliot and Victoria encounter are imaginative and full of magic.

Although the novel is fairly long, with over 400 pages, readers who stick with it will be rewarded. ( )

Victoria Deveny is transported from her Northumberland, England, home in 1890 to 1964 Alton Bay, New Hampshire, where she meets Elliot Good and they agree to help the Faerie Queen defeat the Shadow Knight, who is trying to close the portals that allow fairies to help humans in time of need.

Two children embark on quests for the Faerie Queen.

This book was evidently written with love. The back cover states that Maxwell originally told the story to his daughter and niece, a la Tolkien, telling young Christopher THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. I'm sure that many of the storylines are intended specifically for them. Apparently the book also sprung from Maxwell's love of nineteenth century fantasy, and it does indeed owe a fair bit to authors like E. Nesbit.

The trouble is, it's not as well-executed as any of its nineteenth century antecedents. It's a fairly straightforward, linear story; this happens, then that happens, then something else happens. There's a lot of telling and little showing. It seems to me that Maxwell has given his target audience very little credit. I believe that stories like this can work, but they need either a stellar cast of characters or great atmosphere. Challenging situations that test the characters and invite the reader to place herself in their shoes don't hurt, either. Unfortunately, THE FAERIE DOOR comes up wanting in all areas.

Victoria, who has the most potential for growth, doesn't really live up to the promise she shows in the first couple of chapters. She changes, yes, but we're mostly told about it after the fact. It seems to me that her character arc was intended to be instructional. It didn't come across as such. Very few of the things that happen to her actually leave a mark.

Elliot is handled in much the same fashion. Early on, something truly terrible happens to him... and it has almost no impact on his behavior throughout the rest of the book. It's mentioned every hundred pages or so, but for the most part he just carries on as though it never happened. And unlike Victoria, he really has no potential for change or growth. He just kind of stays the same from one episode to the next.

And is the plot ever episodic! As I mentioned above, things happen one after the other throughout the whole book. Very rarely does anything impact the rest of the plot. They might almost be short stories about these characters, except that Maxwell tells us that each episode adds to the overall quest. In most cases, I just didn't see it. The book could've been a lot shorter. It's nearly five hundred pages long, and the plot just doesn't weigh enough to justify this lengthy treatment. It might have worked had I found the characters engaging, but since I didn't... well, it fell flat.

But I seem to be in the minority here; all the reviews I've read on Amazon and elsewhere have been glowing. I almost wonder if I've read the same book as everyone else. I'm tempted to think I'm too old for it.

I can't really recommend this one. I'll be passing it along to my younger relatives, though, and perhaps they'll get more out of it than I did.

(Review copy provided by the publisher. This review originally appeared in a slightly different form on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )