Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog

I love the concept, I adore the plot, but the execution…not so much. The first person narrator in this novel suffers from the same malaise as Bella Swan in the Twilight series…a crippling lack of self-confidence and horrible self-image, cutting herself down while aggrandizing and idolizing her boyfriend in the same breath. Ick. I have worked with high school students for nine years and have never known a teenage girl to feel like she didn’t deserve her boyfriend. Poor self-image–yes. Lack of confidence–yes. Boyfriend issues–yes. But feeling undeserving–whatever! Feeling privileged just to be seen with him, in awe that he could possibly like her–only in the movies and, apparently, angst-filled novels.

But back to the part I liked…The story is basically the classic Tam Lin fairy tale, but with a twist. For those who are unfamiliar with the tale, you are really missing out on one of my favorite fairy tales. In many fairy tales, the female main character is always acted upon; she is a good girl that bad things always happen to, but eventually someone comes along to rescue her. Tam Lin turns this classic model on its head. Janet is not a “good” girl, her own actions get her in trouble, her own actions get her out of trouble, and instead of needing to be rescued herself, she is the one who rescues her “prince.” While one moral of the story is “don’t go sleeping with boys who have been raised by fairies,” the story is also one of empowerment, that a young woman can take charge of her own destiny to get what she need and wants. To read the story yourself, check out this fabulous website on Tam Lin Balladry.

While Balog’s novel does touch on this same theme towards the end, you have to get through the mush of “I can’t live without him” and “I’m only courageous when he is by my side” first in order to get to that message of empowerment. And it is that first part that grates on me like nails on a chalkboard. Sad, really, because this is otherwise a very worthwhile and entertaining novel.

Keep in mind, that it is still a fairy tale. There are fairies. There is magic. If you have objections to that sort of thing, this is not the book for you. (My own stance on magic is that it is a wonderfully creative aspect of literature that has been part of storytelling for centuries, and perfectly harmless unless you are trying to produce it in the real world. I also believe that children are capable of telling fiction from reality from a very early age, and would put a book about magical beings in a child’s hand much sooner than I’d put a book filled with violence–which they actually see in the real world.)

July 14, 2009 Tags: Tam Lin Posted in: fiction, retold fairy tale, Young Adult