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"Readers, beware: what you hold in your hands is a dreadful fairy book. I wish I were narrating almost any other fairy story, but alas, this is my lot. Whatever expectations you have of delightful and whimsical fairies are sure to be disappointed. There are certainly fairies, but most are not proper fairies. Some who are supposed to be nasty are disappointingly nice, while some who should be kind and helpful are disconcertingly surly, dishonest, and generally unpleasant company. Our heroine is, perhaps, the worst offender—a sprite more interested in books than carefree games, who insists on being called Shade even though she has the perfectly lovely fairy name of Lillyshadow Glitterdemalion. She is on a quest, albeit with rather questionable companions, to find a place she can call home. A place of companionship, comfort, and, most importantly, positively filled with books."
I was absolutely delighted when I got an email notification from NetGalley to inform me that my 'wish' had been granted - I had been randomly selected to receive an e-ARC of 'A Dreadful Fairy Book'.
The author uses 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' style narration to warn you that this is not going to be happy or fulfilling fairytale.
Our protagonist, Shade, is a bookish fairy who looks down on her neighbours for their daft/dangerous/selfish ideas, and for having no interest in learning. Shade's house is accidentally burnt down at the start of the book, leading to her setting off on a quest to discover more books. Along the way she encounters a variety of other unusual fairies, and she makes friends for the first time in her life.
All of this should make for a good book for younger readers, however, it is unfortunately tarnished by two things.
The first is the near constant faux swearing which Shade (and other characters) use throughout the book - whilst the first few instances of this can be seen as endearing, after a while it becomes increasingly ridiculous and overused.
The second is the stereotyping of accents which occurs throughout - several characters, including one of the main characters, are given stereotypical accents which are not necessarily flattering to their real-life counterparts, and also make it rather hard to read and understand some sentences.
As a teacher, adding an extra element of difficulty to a book - which children could otherwise tackle alone - would discourage me from purchasing it, as it can cause confusion for developing readers.
Similarly, I wouldn't want to encourage younger children to even faux-swear.
Overall, it wasn't an arduous read, but unfortunately there were several elements which would prevent me from recommending it to children within its intended age group.