Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fairy Good, September 16, 2008
In a fun world where many people have fairies that grant them unusual bits of luck, Charlotte (Charlie) feels cursed by her gift: the ability to always get a good parking spot. She's not even old enough to drive yet, so others - such as her mum and a dim bully at her school - drag her into their cars to play passenger. Fed up, Charlie teams up with Fiorenze, a popular girl who has an all-the-boys-like-you fairy, and the two attempt to switch their fairies. Comedic chaos ensues.
As a lifelong fan of fairies, I was drawn to this book by its premise. I love a good dystopic novel, and this one's great. In a story that's part fantasy, part comedy, Justine Larbalestier has created a world that's part America, part Australia, mixing jargon and social aspects from both nations. High school woes such as the eternal desire to fit in and the utter need for a cute outfit are mixed in with unseen fairies, unique abilities (Charlie's best friend has a clothes shopping fairy, so she always finds brilliant clothes at amazing prices), and games galore. The characters are healthy and athletic, and their sporty school, New Avalon Sports High, is very cool.
I was also drawn to this book because of its byline. Larbalestier's Magic or Madness books were more serious, traditional fantasy novels, so I was interested to see how she'd handle comedy. She handled it quite well. In fact, this book earns one of my favorite adjectives: quirky. Charlie's antics truly cracked me up. Even the intros to the chapters, with tallies of Charlie's demerits, conversations with her crush Steffi, and number of public service hours, made me giggle.
I would love to read more books set in this world, especially if they revolve around the irrepressible Charlie. She was so completely fourteen, alternately anxious and paranoid, overly aware of herself and others around her, and totally likable.
How to Ditch Your Fairy by is utterly delightful. You won't ditch this funny fantasy -- you'll stay up to finish reading it!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Fun Read, But Missing A Few Things.., February 25, 2009
Charlie is a 14 year old girl who lives in New Avalon, a city that seems to be a mix of USA and Australia. Almost everyone has a personal fairy that allows them to be better at certain things - for example, her best friend has a "clothes shopping" fairy that helps her find the best deals. Unfortunately for Charlie, who is too young to drive and obviously doesn't own a car, she has a parking fairy! The book revolves around her attempts to lose her fairy, snag the new boy in town, and oh yes, stop getting into trouble at school.
This makes for a very quick read - I think I finished the book in 1.5 - 2 hours? I found the concept of a personal fairy really neat - in fact, I'd loved to have an "Impersonates You Perfectly at Work so You Can Loll About in Bed and Read All Day" fairy. Seriously, how wicked would that be? However, in all likelihood I would have a fairy much worse than Charlie's - mine would probably be a procrastination/lazybones fairy that would only make life more difficult! Then again, now that I've read about all the problems poor Charlie goes through over the course of this story, I wouldn't want a parking fairy either.
Charlie herself comes off as a sweet and smart girl, with the same desires as any other teenager. She wants to do well in school, would like her friendship with the new boy Stefan to develop further, and doesn't want any more demerits than she already has because who wants to get in trouble with teachers? Let's also not forget the main premise behind the tale, which is to get rid of her lame parking fairy and find a better replacement. As she tries a wide assortment of techniques, [some with more disastrous results than others], she makes the unlikeliest ally, and gains better understanding of society and herself.
Although the basic plot is pretty straightforward, there are quite a few interesting components that make this book stand out. The first one I noticed was the barrage of new lingo like "doos" for cool, "pulchritudinous" for hot/sexy, and "pox" for crap. Made me think of A Clockwork Orange, heh. Another interesting aspect was the fact that all the kids attend athletics-specific or arts-specific schools with very strict rules and tough regimens [unless they're so untalented they have to go to a "mixed" school]. Famous people originating from New Avalon are addressed as "Our ---", and any prospective Ours are given a lot of preferential treatment.
It was neat to read about a female protagonist who was not only extremely into sports, but just as good [or better] than her male counterparts. The coolest thing is that she's not the only one like that - all her friends are great at what they do as well [without coming off as a horde of "Mary Sue"s] and no one bats an eye over men's vs. women's teams - something that definitely isn't true in our world. She also mentions same sex couples with nary a thought because it's nothing outside of the norm. Seriously, no gender or sexual biases in this world - if that's not downright awesome, i dunno what is! :D
Stefan, her crush, points out how New Avaloners take their obsession with their own nation to extreme levels, how they don't exhibit any curiosity about other people and how they think that everything that comes from their country has to be the best. The steepest street in their town must be the steepest in the world, the most famous celebrity from New Avalon the most famous in the universe, and so on and so forth. This totally reminded me of my first few months in North America, where the level of ignorance about the rest of the world displayed by my peers and even teachers was nothing short of astounding. I think it's a wonderful point to be made in a YA book.
However, despite all the positive features of this story, I feel like a lot is left unfinished. We're told fairies haven't been around forever, but we don't find out anything about how they came into being. Most people have fairies but some don't, and a few don't even believe in fairies to begin with - but we don't find out if the non-believers or non-fairied folk are better/worse off than the rest of society. Some reference is made to the historical background of New Avalon, its settlers, ethnicity and the way characters look, but these points aren't fully clarified. One particular character is up to no good and uses Charlie, but we don't find out why her assistance was required. In the same vein, we're even shown how some fairies give you the ability to get away with really nefarious acts, but that's just mentioned in passing. Most importantly, the consequences of having a bad fairy or successfully ditching the one you have are never explored.
If Justine Larbalestier had further elaborated on all those points, i think we would've ended up with a really stellar story. The way it stands now, I'd say it's a book you should get from the library instead of actually purchasing.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, original, and good, July 14, 2009
I noticed this book's title, and decided I had to give it a look. I'm glad I did.
In the country of New Avalon (an imaginary composite of the U.S. and Australia) most people have fairies that help them out with things. Some people's fairies find loose change, some make cats or dogs like them, some help you find the perfect pair of boots when you go shopping. Fourteen year old sports fanatic Charlotte, who prefers to be called Charlie, has a fairy that always finds her or whomever she's riding with a great parking space. This leaves Charlie really ticked off -- she always smells faintly of gasoline, she's too young to drive, and she sometimes gets kidnapped so a driver can find a great parking spot. And so Charlie decides to get rid of her fairy, with (of course) results she doesn't expect -- especially when she agrees to swap it for a fairy that makes every boy her age want to be her boyfriend (including the gay guys).
Justine Larbalestier has come up with a very new twist on the idea of helpful fairies, the characters are well drawn, the teenage angst is there without being overwhelming, the locale is interesting, and the entire idea is fascinating. Also, it's very funny. There's room for at least one sequel here, and I'm hoping to see it. Meanwhile, I'm reading her other novels.
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