Review of Art Fairy
Posted: 22 Aug 2021, 13:39
[Following is a volunteer review of "Art Fairy" by Floras Athena.]
Art Fairy: Flower Sea by Floras Athena is a facinating read to say the least. Confused at first, it took me a while to realize that this story is written in the "fantastical literature" style. (Think Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.) Once I got into the rhythm of the first chapter, I kind of liked it. The second chapter is written like a college thesis and I don't really understand why it was included. The rest of the book goes back into that nonsensical style of prose. Sentences like "Papa's eyes were full of magma shark elves..." began to make perfect sense. It was fun to use my imagination to try to visualize the illogical and sometimes incoherent descriptions of the people places and things in Ms. Athina's fantasy world. The characters don't really seem to be people so much as amalgamations of human, fairly, and bits and bobs of different animal parts. The storyline has some twists and turns. Mythology and philosophy become large parts of the plot.
The story is kind of all over the place, but the gist of it is that the main character, Ori White, goes through horrible trials and tribulations in his young life. All he wants is to develop his art and creativity through his music. He wants to share his talents with the world. He is struck down repeatedly from aggressive bullying by his parents, classmates, and teachers.
Eventually, the Art Fairy, Florithena, comes to rescue Ori from his dreadful existence and takes him to a happier place where "the holy pure forest is sheltered by the Art Fairy and great nature forever." She explains that she is rewarding him for his persistence and dedication to his craft and his willingness to suffer for his art in order to make other people happy. In later chapters some of the other characters back stories come to light. I couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards their hardships and heartaches as well. Although not trying to condone their treatment of others, I think the point the author seems to be making is that "you shouldn't judge a person's story by the chapter you walk in on."
In the mostly dreamlike fantasy world there are mentions of famous people, and brief mentions of a few earthly things like t.v's and cars. That works fine for me as far as the continuity of the story goes. The negative for me is that mentioned only one time each, cell phones and the internet are brought up. For some reason the inclusion of these modern technologies jars me out of my revere. I was almost annoyed, (which I realize is a strong reaction.) It took so long to get used to the rhythm of the descriptive narrative that I got sucked into this alternate reality of art and nature. The mention of technology sort of cut off my fairly wings. The characters use "dragon egg sapphires" as currency. Maybe think up something different to describe the internet?
I'm not sure what type of reader this book was written for. Historically, literary nonsense was written for children, but depending on how deeply you look into it, this book could be enjoyed by many different audiences. I began reading it as a light-hearted fantasy and ended up going down the rabbit hole into philosophical and sociological themes presented throughout the tale. Nature versus nurture weights heavily on the characters from the beginning. Different ideas of heaven and earth, good versus evil, and even the purpose of art and nature can be dug out of the sing song silliness of the story and examined. With the right group of people, this book could make for a pretty interesting bookclub discussion.
Personally I really liked this book. Because of the writing style, grammar, spelling issues and the fact that I have no idea who to recommend this book to, I can only give it 2 out of 4 stars. I suggest reading the author's description before reading the book. It is a good example of her unique writing style.
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Art Fairy
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Art Fairy: Flower Sea by Floras Athena is a facinating read to say the least. Confused at first, it took me a while to realize that this story is written in the "fantastical literature" style. (Think Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky.) Once I got into the rhythm of the first chapter, I kind of liked it. The second chapter is written like a college thesis and I don't really understand why it was included. The rest of the book goes back into that nonsensical style of prose. Sentences like "Papa's eyes were full of magma shark elves..." began to make perfect sense. It was fun to use my imagination to try to visualize the illogical and sometimes incoherent descriptions of the people places and things in Ms. Athina's fantasy world. The characters don't really seem to be people so much as amalgamations of human, fairly, and bits and bobs of different animal parts. The storyline has some twists and turns. Mythology and philosophy become large parts of the plot.
The story is kind of all over the place, but the gist of it is that the main character, Ori White, goes through horrible trials and tribulations in his young life. All he wants is to develop his art and creativity through his music. He wants to share his talents with the world. He is struck down repeatedly from aggressive bullying by his parents, classmates, and teachers.
Eventually, the Art Fairy, Florithena, comes to rescue Ori from his dreadful existence and takes him to a happier place where "the holy pure forest is sheltered by the Art Fairy and great nature forever." She explains that she is rewarding him for his persistence and dedication to his craft and his willingness to suffer for his art in order to make other people happy. In later chapters some of the other characters back stories come to light. I couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards their hardships and heartaches as well. Although not trying to condone their treatment of others, I think the point the author seems to be making is that "you shouldn't judge a person's story by the chapter you walk in on."
In the mostly dreamlike fantasy world there are mentions of famous people, and brief mentions of a few earthly things like t.v's and cars. That works fine for me as far as the continuity of the story goes. The negative for me is that mentioned only one time each, cell phones and the internet are brought up. For some reason the inclusion of these modern technologies jars me out of my revere. I was almost annoyed, (which I realize is a strong reaction.) It took so long to get used to the rhythm of the descriptive narrative that I got sucked into this alternate reality of art and nature. The mention of technology sort of cut off my fairly wings. The characters use "dragon egg sapphires" as currency. Maybe think up something different to describe the internet?
I'm not sure what type of reader this book was written for. Historically, literary nonsense was written for children, but depending on how deeply you look into it, this book could be enjoyed by many different audiences. I began reading it as a light-hearted fantasy and ended up going down the rabbit hole into philosophical and sociological themes presented throughout the tale. Nature versus nurture weights heavily on the characters from the beginning. Different ideas of heaven and earth, good versus evil, and even the purpose of art and nature can be dug out of the sing song silliness of the story and examined. With the right group of people, this book could make for a pretty interesting bookclub discussion.
Personally I really liked this book. Because of the writing style, grammar, spelling issues and the fact that I have no idea who to recommend this book to, I can only give it 2 out of 4 stars. I suggest reading the author's description before reading the book. It is a good example of her unique writing style.
******
Art Fairy
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon