An enjoyable YA fantasy novel. I loved the inclusion of a gay character who was not tortured by the fact that he is gay. We need more of those. I haven't read the sequel yet but I look forward to it.

This book starts off pretty well, with a very sympathetic main character in Alex, a gay NYC teen trying to keep his family together in the face of adversity. Alex juggles school, social services, his little sister Alice (who is plenty damaged herself), and his mother, whose apparent mental illness belies more complicated issues -- fae issues, as it turns out.

I enjoyed seeing Alex navigate a recognizable if cartoonishly outmoded version of NYC, as well as the ins and outs of his precarious family and legal situations, about which the author clearly knows something. I enjoyed his love of martial arts, drawing, and a seemingly straight classmate named Jerod. I even enjoyed his initial foray into Faerie, by way of northern Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park.

Unfortunately, this book went wildly off the rails for me the more time it spent of Fairie and fairies. This stuff was just WAY over the top, as Queen May obsessed over entering the human world through reality TV fame, her sister proved to be posing as a famous children's book author (wearing slutty clothes at an NYPL appearance, no less!), and Alex's mother's madness proved to be the result of too much time spent in the other realm with her faerie lover. Alex and Alice's home situation is ultimately solved by their mother being replaced by a "sane" changeling of sorts, while the genuine article stays in faerie. Not a very clear message about mental health in the real world, I would say, especially considering how much time the first half of the book focuses spends on that element. I also didn't appreciate how quickly Alex and Jerod's relationship went from Zero to True Love -- I just didn't buy that, and it was bothersome that we never saw Jerod's girlfriend and school friends again after their early introduction.

So, this book had a lot of good things going for it, but was ultimately scattershot and disappointing. But I'd still be interested to read the sequel, which concerns one of Haffling minor faerie characters dumped in the human world. There's a lot of potential in the world that James has created here, and a lot of potential in his writing abilities.

Book – Haffling (Haffling #1)
Author – Caleb James
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 250
Cover – Great!
POV – 1st person, one character
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **


Haffling is like nothing you have ever read before. It's fantasy, contemporary, romance and weird all rolled into one. And it's fantastic!

At first, the book starts with quite a lot of information, but trust me when I say that it's needed. There is so much we need to know before throwing ourselves headfirst into the story. We meet our MC Alex through his 1st person POV, which I normally don't really like, but this story was written so well that I barely noticed. The usual problems with 1st person – not being aware of gender, age, appearance or having an overload of explanation about all three in the first page – were absent here. The way that we were introduced to Alex felt natural, gave us the information we needed up front and allowed us to feel placed into the story without feeling like we'd entered in the middle of something we couldn't understand.

When it comes to characters, I loved how diverse and interesting they all were. Alex and Alice were the first two we got to know – showing us their small, hectic world that whittles down to having nothing but a roof over their head, welfare and charity to survive, because their mother is schizophrenic and can't take care of them. Their lives are so lacking in wealth, love and even safety that I immediately felt concerned for their futures and what they'd been through before we entered the story. Then we slowly learn about their past and all the struggles they've survived until now, as well as their current dilemma of having to deal with their mother going AWOL so often.

Their mother, Marilyn, is actually much more interesting than you'd think, because she doesn't get a lot of page time. She's got an interesting psyche and a very huge part to play in the story, despite the fact that she's not in it a lot. And I can't explain why, but I promise you that it's important and very intriguing.

Next up, we meet Jerod. He is the super cute crush that Alex has been harbouring in secret, until suddenly Jerod meets him outside Alice's school, where his own little brother Clay (also a very interesting addition!) goes to school. Jerod is the stereotypical hot, flirty, charming and popular kid. Except...there's nothing stereotypical about him. He is, in fact, so much more than what he first appears. Especially in terms of his slightly homophobic girlfriend, Ashley. (cough *beard* cough)

Things really picked up when Alex discovered the world of Fey, which kind of proved his mother wasn't schizophrenic, but in fact able to see a world that no one else knew existed. The incredible attention to detail and imaginative world building really soared here, leading us into a world that was still somewhat familiar but also incredibly new and exciting.

Here, we discovered more about Alex's fairy Nimby, who shouldn't exist where she is. And, although we don't get an obvious answer to this, Alex does figure it out in his thoughts, until it makes a whole lot of sense. There's also May, who is the biggest troublemaker in existence, who speaks in riddles and lays vocal traps for everyone she talks to. Through her, we learn about Katye, May's sister, who has a really good part in the last half of the story that impacts everything! Also in the Fey world are Liam – hottie and interestingly jealous of Alex and and Jerod – as well as the mysterious Cedric.

The entire story, while having so many characters important to the story, never feels over-stuffed or complicated. It's a whirlwind of an adventure, right from page one to the very end, and keeps that momentum to a tolerable level without leaving us readers feeling the tailspin of too much action and no time to breathe in between.

On top of all of the genius writing and characterisation, James covers some seriously heavy topics – poverty, mental health, schizophrenia, coming out, coming-of-age and the prospect of having nothing but family to begin with and risking the loss of that family. But what makes this story so incredible is that there is a whole lot of believeability, in amongst the humans scenes, plenty of fantasy in the Fey scenes and still, it manages to cover these topics frankly, with with compassion and care. There is no judgment between the characters or an imagined prejudice or judgment from the author. There is only depth, trust and truth as the worlds – both human and Fey – are explored with intricacy.

Most of all, I have to say that the very best thing about the story was the romance. Alex and Jerod together were truly something fantastic and beautiful. Their chemistry was palpable and so strong that it was amazing to see the ways that it really transcended all the struggles, craziness and chaos that they went through from beginning to end.

The ending was fantastic, though I hesitate to mention anything about the last 30% because it's a huge spoiler. But I can guarantee that it's incredible and answers all of my questions, while leaving me excited to read book 2.

~

Favourite Quote

“Today on Sadly, Alex is still gay, has never been kissed, has a crush on a straight boy, is going to get pulled into foster care, is probably going to lose limbs to a crazy fairy, and just leaned that he might not be human.”