by Sarah Zettel
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Once upon a time, I was a girl called Callie.”
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Review copy provided by my place of employment.

It’s the heart of the Great Depression, and in Slow Run, Kansas, Callie LeRoux and her mother are struggling to survive. She’s the daughter of a single mom, living in a run-down hotel, and to make things worse (considering the time period), she’s half African-American. Then, one day (Sunday, April 14, 1935, to be exact), she learns — quite by accident — that she’s not exactly who she thought she was.

She is the daughter of a human mother, yes. But her father is a faerie prince.

This knowledge doesn’t come all at once, and Callie doesn’t readily believe it. The things she does know is that the Seelie have taken her mother, and Callie wants — no, needs — to get her back. She sets off on an adventure with a hobo named Jack, determined to get her mother back.

I’ll say this up front: it’s the first in a series, and it reads like a first in a series. There’s a lot of exposition and getting things going, and the actual plot doesn’t really begin until the book is nearly done. That said, the whole world that Zettel built is excellent. It’s a unique choice to involve race in the whole faerie world: the Unseelie are black; the Seelie… well, not so much. Not only are there human vs. faerie elements, but race also comes into play. And this makes it unusual for a fantasy novel.

Callie and Jack are also, for the most part, interesting characters. I think Callie becomes more interesting as the book progresses, especially when she finally faces her father’s family. Which makes me intrigued with this story, and curious to know where Zettel plans for it to go.

It’s not brilliant, but it’s solid, and it’s definitely worth the time.