I have encountered several books in the past year that I was
sure—before I read them—would become my new favorites. They
each rode in on a wave of print and internet acclaim and had titles and
concepts that seemed designed to appeal especially to me. But they all fell
flat for one reason or another. And in a book you are prepared to love, that
can be even more disappointing than when a regular book that you had no expectations
attached to turns out to not be very good. This is all to explain why I avoided
reading
Catherynn M. Valente’s
The GirlWho Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making for so long.
