So as soon as the current Monday night game finishes I am going to be running Changeling, a game about people abducted by the Fae who manage to escape only to find that they have been changed and someone else is living their life.

I wanted some inspiration for this and remembered that my sister  loves Charles de Lint and he writes modern day fairy tales.  I decide to give him a go and get the audiobook of ‘The Onion Girl’ from Audible to listen to at work.  I was hoping for a dark book about the Gentry with their mean and unpredictable nature.  I was both disappointed and enthralled.

Charles de Lint’s fairies are not at all like the old stories about the Lords and Ladies – they are far more modern day versions with the glory and wonder iof creatures of pure magic. The book itself however could definitely not be described as ‘light and fluffy’.

First off I really liked the way he jumped about the timeline giving flesh and bones to the backstory of each character (I susspect that this is not the first book about Jilly but did not feel like I was missing out anythign).  As an aside here keeping track of timelines is far more difficult when listening to an audiobook than when reading as you cannot flip back to check what year something occored in.

I also liked the charactisation of serval of the cast, mainly Whisky Jack and Jolenne.  The story kept me wanting more and to keep listening.

However I do fell the end was a bit of a let down.  There was no plot twist (I was expecting one – something about the book up until then was suggesting to me that there would be one), a petty problem I accept.  Larger problems however where with the development of Raylene.  She seemed to under a really drastic and sudden change in heart and temperment that didn’t feel right to me.  Jilly was to much of the abused girl made good and and self sacrificing.  The ending itself was also too bright.  Jilly would recover mostly making her sacrifice for her sister almost pointless.

The bit that really stuck out like a sore thumb to me though was the cameo apperance of Cody at the end and his giving a key to the dreamlands and his hearthome to Wendy.  That was far to neat for my taste.  It removed the effort and perserviance from the characters struggle.  Jilly’s main motto is ‘I don’t give up’.  Towards the end I was feeling that her outlook was devalued by the fact that her and her friends were being gifted things they should of had to work for.

All in all I did really enjoy the book, though I am left with some dissatisfatcion over the ending.  How much of that is that I like a trgic ending though is up for debate (I still maintain the original ending to the Little Mermaid is far better than Disneys ve