The Treachery of Beautiful Things (review)

Despite having spent the last seven years insisting that her older brother was stolen by trees, seventeen-year-old Jenny is finally ready to put the past behind her and returns to the woodsy site of Tom's disappearance to say a final goodbye. Instead, however, Jenny hears what she thinks is Tom's flute, follows the sound, and finds herself being attacked by a small group of well-armed faeries. Rescued by Jack, a guardian of the border between the faerie realm and the mortal world, Jenny demands to be taken to her brother. Jack acquiesces, but like everything in the faerie world, he has his own motivation and he's willing to put Jenny's life on the line if it means he gets what he wants. The third-person narration is primarily focalized through the steadfastly loyal and mostly boring Jenny, but the emphasis sometimes shifts to the much more interesting Jack, giving readers a broader sense of a faerie world steeped in secrets, magic, and lore. Long builds the foundation of her setting on traditional English and Celtic tales, but she also draws on elements from Nordic and German stories to create a distinct sense of place. The malice that underlies the world's beauty plays out the title to the fullest and adds a substantial bit of true gruesomeness to what is already a suspenseful story. With such a fascinating and complex build-up, the tidy ending is therefore disappointing, especially in that it takes both Jenny and Jack out of the faerie world completely. Still, readers of the genre will no doubt enjoy getting lost here and will find themselves hoping for a sequel that ensures a return trip.