The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two (Catherynne M. Valente)

The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two
The Fairyland series, Book 3
Catherynne M. Valente
Square Fish
Fiction, MG/YA Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: As a girl, September rode to Fairyland aboard the Leopard of Light Breezes, had a grand and terrifying adventure, made friends and enemies, and returned home to Nebraska. A year later, she returned for another adventure, fixing a problem she inadvertently left behind. But it's been a year, and despite what she was promised, September has not seen a twitch of a leopard tale, nor the slightest hint of a strange breeze, or any sign of Fairyland at all, even though she's spent the entire time preparing herself as best she can. Perhaps she's changed too much and grown too old; after all, she's fourteen now, practically a young lady, and every storybook knows that only children get to have fairy adventures. She's even driven a car, the neighbor's run-down old Model A, which is about as grown-up as one can get. But she deeply misses her friends... and wasn't she told that, just as she could never stay forever in Fairyland, she could never truly leave it behind?
While out mending the fence, September has a peculiar encounter, leading her once more to Fairyland... but, just as before, what she finds is nothing at all like she expected. Worse, she's almost immediately designated a professional criminal for her tendency to overthrow crooked queens and marquesses. Along with the Model A Aroostook, which takes on a peculiar personality of its own (after all, in Fairyland, it's been decreed that Tools have Rights), September finds herself swept up in a new adventure, traveling all the way to Fairyland's wondrous Moon - where she faces a most dangerous foe who seems intent on destroying everything.

REVIEW: September's adventures in Fairyland (and Nebraska) continue in this third installment in Valente's delightful series. She's growing up (which is why I put this on the line with younger Young Adult), and though she was always a fairly self-reliant heroine, not so much in need of coddling and protection as many young adventurers in portal fantasies, now she's a more seasoned traveler who willingly accepts more responsibilities. As before, Fairyland reflects the dilemmas and troubles she's facing in her real-world life, facing pressure to choose a future (or have one imposed on her) and leave childhood behind... but does that mean leaving Fairyland behind? After all, the first time she was there, she glimpsed her own child... and her own future (presumed) husband, the marid Saturday. Yet Fairyland seems reluctant to take her back, and must be tricked into allowing her to cross over through a gap in the fence.
Once there, September finds trouble almost immediately, obligated to a quest before she even knows what's going on and saddled with a reputation (not entirely undeserved) for lawbreaking and troublemaking. On the Moon, things get even wilder, stranger, and more dangerous, as she finally reunites with her friends Saturday and the Wyverary A-through-L - both of whom are also growing up, one of them bound by a fresh curse - and discovers the nature of the enemy she faces. As one might expect from Fairyland (and Valente), September's adventures are full of peculiar and unexpected characters and images and ideas, wending through various triumphs and setbacks, moving at a fine pace - right up to the end, which is an unannounced cliffhanger. As a result, several threads and themes feel unresolved, leaving me hanging until I can get the next volume. The book doesn't even leave me at a resting point between adventures, but ends with September in fresh danger. This sense of being left dangling wound up shaving a half-star off the rating; just a bit too hard of a slam on the brakes at the end, a raw cut across the greater series story arc, leaving me feeling that I'd only read part of a book instead of a whole one.

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