The Feral Child by Che Golden (review)

The shadowy, dank ruins of Blarney Castle are the only thing thirteen-year-old Maddy finds appealing in her new environs, after the death of her parents forces her to move from the hustle and bustle of London to her grandparents’ rundown little Irish village. Despite Granda’s warnings, Maddy wanders one day among the castle’s stones and meets a strange, sharp-toothed child—a child whom she swears she sees again that night outside the window of her neighbor, the same night the boy next door goes missing. She’s relieved when Granda shares her suspicions that the creature was a faerie, but she’s horrified when he suggests that she turn a blind eye and let the neighbor boy remain missing. Arming herself with iron and some spotty internet info, Maddy prepares to enter the faerie realm and get the boy back herself. Carved out by anger and grief, Maddy’s a hardened gem of a girl, clever as heck and as resourceful as she is feisty. Good thing too, because she needs all the guts and gumption she can muster as she faces down nasty kelpies, headless horsemen, and hungry wolves. Both the Tír na nÓg setting and the figures from Celtic mythology are vibrantly evoked, luminous and alluring in their danger. As an added bonus, a wicked wit permeates the third-person narration (the description of Maddy’s overbearing aunt is particularly amusing). Readers who like both their fairy tales and their humor dark will find plenty to love here.