Phil Hastings, his wife Gloria, his daughter Gabbie and their twin boys Patrick and Sean move from Sunny California to an old farmhouse in upstate New York whose land includes virgin forest. They soon find they have more to contend with than they expected. Unexpected, and unexplainable, encounters with strange creatures, the boy’s acknowledgment of “the Bad Thing” living under a bridge and Gabbie’s almost sexual encounter with a farrier who died over a hundred years ago are only some of the strange goings on which threaten the family.
This is a book to read every year or so on Midsummer’s Eve or All Hollow’s Eve. However, this is not one's child’s faerie tale even though it involves brotherly love and courage. It is fantasy; it is horror. It is creepy, dark, at times violent, at times sexual and always a page-turner.
Those who love Celtic myth and Shakespeare will recognize magical elements of The Fool, elf-shot, Trooping Faeires, and more. It is one of those rare books that makes one feel as though it “could” be possible. It may even cause even non-Catholics to wish for a vial of holy water, a silver sword, and a true faerie stone.
One may find oneself researching the legends and faerie folk involved, looking for erl-king hills and avoiding faeire rings at midnight. It's wise to remember to start earlier in the day so one is not up until midnight finishing it. Staying out of the woods is also a good idea.
"Faerie Tale" is the perfect blending of fantasy in contemporary life which makes this book so compelling, frightening and memorable.
FAERIE TALE (Suspense/Fantasy-Hasting Family-Pennsylvania-Cont) – VG+
Feist, Raymond, E. –Standalone
Doubleday, 1988
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I'm not usually one for the mythical in my reading. But this sounds like an interesting story. And it sounds as though it goes deeper, if that's the term, than one might think. Glad you enjoyed it.
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