Faery Tale by Signe Pike

I came across this book when I was browsing the Mind Body Spirit section in Foyles, a lovely giant of a bookshop that I try to visit when I'm in London, though it's dangerous territory,  purse-wise... *g*  The blurb explained that it was the story of a woman's search for the truth behind fairies - did they really exist?  I flicked through, and Pike begins by explaining that the magic had gone out of life - and I thought me too! And I thought that I'd like to know what she found when she was looking for fairies, because a little enchantment is a lovely thing.  And there was a chapter on fairies in the Isle of Man!

I really liked the idea of someone looking for fairies - not expecting them to be the real fluttery things of Victoriana, but beginning with Mexican myths about fairies, which turn out to be Los Aluxes, which I'd never heard of, but which were fascinating. I was actually peering carefully at shadows the night I read this chapter.  But...


...but Pike only ever seemed to get so far with her "quest", just skimming the surface of things.  She spoke to a few locals about Los Aluxes, half-convinced herself that she'd seen one, and... and then she made some flippant comment that felt like an attempt to convince me she really was sane and didn't really believe - and  moved on to her next location.  And that turned out to be something of a pattern in the book.  There'd be chapter that included the history of fairy research in an area, or the background of the researcher or of fairy belief in the region, then a visit to some local "expert", a possible encounter, a comedic comment, and then away again. I never quite had the impression that I'd really found out much new, or even that Pike had.

The other part of the story - and perhaps the main part, it turned out - was Pike's inner journey in coming to terms with the death of her father - and her life with him, as a child.  Which was all very well and I can see how she wanted to write about it, but... but that wasn't the book I'd wanted to read.  I wanted to read about her quest to discover the truth about fairies...

Of course that was what the book was about, it was about what that fairyland enchantment meant to her (her partner and their new house together, ultimately) and perhaps we were supposed to take away the message that fairyland was where you chose to see it, but... I had to work a little too hard for that message, to be honest.  This was very much a book about Pike rather than a book about fairies, and whilst I didn't hate it, that rather tarnished it, for me...