Sonny must keep the faeries confined to their own lands, and, by extension, protect this world from possible harm at their hands (and claws, hooves, etc.). As it does every year, the gate will fully open on Samhain (Halloween), nine days away. The Gate is one of the only remaining doorways into Faerie, which was sealed off by Auberon in a fit of pique a century ago. Practising her lines in Central Park, Kelley meets Sonny, an elite warrior assigned by Auberon, the faerie king, to guard the Samhain Gate. Kelley gets an understudy job with a ramshackle repertory company, but in true theatrical-fairy-tale fashion, the lead actress breaks her ankle and Kelley is called upon to play Titania in the upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Livingston draws on her lengthy experience in the theatre and her formal education in English (with specialization in Arthurian literature and Shakespeare) to create the story of Kelley Winslow, a 17-year-old girl who has moved to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Rooted not only in faerie traditions but also in previous treatments of those traditions, Wondrous Strange will serve as a perfect introduction to the unseen world for younger readers. Wondrous Strange, the debut novel (and first book in a planned trilogy) from Toronto writer Lesley Livingston, manages to stand as a powerful and largely original work in its own right.

There are still grand stories to be told, but for every Little, Big, there are a dozen slavish, self-conscious fairy tale novels quickly forgotten after reading.

The drawback to this longevity, however, is that it is ever more difficult to find an original approach to the material. The world of the faerie courts, and tales surrounding the unseen world in general, have been popular subjects for storytellers for hundreds of years, long before Shakespeare codified much of the material in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston