All right, this anthology should be easy to sum up. First off, the quaint title is completely misleading. Three out of these five stories were disturbing or sad and certainly not happily-ever-after. Scott Westerfeld and Melissa Marr's stories are among the lighter of the bunch, and I get the feeling that lot of readers were more dismayed about the sad tone to the stories in this anthology than anything else. To rate each one...
Sleeping with the Spirit by Laurie Faria Stolarz: Ghost love. The writing style is reminiscent of Carrie Jones, author of Need, another supernatural YA. Like that book, Sleeping with the Spirit is written in first person, present tense and the characters are shallowly developed, but the plot moves quickly and the same themes are present, albeit even stronger here. In fact, I found the themes of grief and loss here very moving, but I would guess that would affect older readers more, or perhaps readers who have experienced a loss themselves. Too mushy?
Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld: Futuristic. A nice pick-me-up after the last story, these characters were not developed in the least, but I'll admit, it was pretty funny and imaginative. ;) Reading this, I can see Westerfeld's appeal to a YA audience.
Thinner Than Water by Justine Larbalestier: Girl with dreams bigger than her small town and a strange boy. Another moving story made the more so by the very disturbing, too-realistic themes of mob violence, ignorance, and insular societies. This reminded me of one of my favorite authors, Juliet Marillier, whose fey creatures can also be very cruel and inexorable. The first two thirds of this story read like a horror story about an actual girl in an actual isolated, xenophobic town. Even the romance was darkened by questions of self denial and destruction. Thought-provoking. The ending, while a little abrupt, indicated a strong, realistic heroine, and I couldn't shake off the feeling this wasn't fiction about fey, it was commentary. Well-written.
Fan Fictions by Gabrielle Zevin: I kept waiting for something to give this story purpose, but nothing showed. The ambiguous, very unresolved ending left me thinking that I could have skipped these pages, but horror or psychological thriller fans will probably appreciate this. It reminded me a lot of the Katie Holmes flick, Abandon.
Love Struck by Melissa Marr (yes, that Melissa Marr): Selkie meets mate, accidentally traps mate. Madness ensues. If any of these is typical, it's probably this short, but anyone with a soft spot for paranormal romance will probably enjoy this one. It's flawed, but I will give major points for the intelligent heroine (although that same intelligence makes her later Misunderstanding less plausible, LOL). I liked it overall. I really can't resist those dreamy selkies who will give up so much for their "mates," though the character of Veikko was great in that he is not the typical stuff of PNR fantasy. There are apparently loser selkies too. LOL! A nice down-to-earth warning, as most of Alanna's actions are to young readers. I give you props, Marr. I think parents would approve. :)
So there's probably something to appeal to everyone in this collection, although if you have strong feelings about your happily-ever-afters and fluffy reads, you may want to forgo this one
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