The Blue Girl

In author Charles de Lint’s world, fairies are not the cuddly little imps portrayed by Walt Disney. Yes, some might be cute, but our values are wholly irrelevant to them. In this novel, for example, a clique of fairies amuses itself by doing things like throwing people off buildings and conspiring to have peoples’ souls stolen. Fun, sure, but not exactly something to laugh about over a beer at the neighborhood bar. It’s not that these fairies are evil, mind, it’s just that we humans play by very different rules. Imogene, a high-school girl, finds herself dealing with these fairy games while already struggling to cope with the more mundane realities of adolescence. While most of de Lint’s novels are shelved in the adult section, this one is found in the teen room. It’s a fun read, and definitely interesting, though it does at times it does stray into the "hip to be square" preachiness that authors of young-adult books so often seem to be fond of.