Fantasy Book Reviews

The Faerie Pact

Author: pepsi_panda
Title: The Faerie Pact
Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/41901354-the-faerie-pact-wattys2015

I was really excited to read The Faerie Pact because I always enjoy a good story about family secrets and drama. Add in fantasy elements and you've got me hooked!

The Faerie Pact is about a girl named Miranda who comes into possession of her late grandmother's mysterious music box and is fated to discover its long-kept secrets.

The cover of the book is gorgeous, and a physical copy of it would definitely catch my attention at a bookstore!

The book begins by telling us that what we believe as kids—fairies and magic—is actually real. We then learn that Miranda's grandmother has recently passed away and has left behind a music box that Miranda has been drawn to since she was a child and now has in her hands. Despite years of curiosity, she decides to wait for an appropriate time to open the music box. At a family gathering to honor her grandmother's memory, she dwells more on what could be inside and starts to notice something unusual and possibly magical about this "treasure box."

The author spends a great deal of time describing the various setting(s), from what Miranda sees in her father's car to the furniture and layout of her grandmother's cottage. I enjoyed the focus on the landscapes and flora, specifically because it was through the eyes of Miranda. This plays really well with the fairy and nature theme of the book. We also get to experience Miranda's emotions as she tries to grapple with the death of a loved one. The author makes use of internal dialogues to reveal Miranda's internal conflict, and I would say overall that it was well done.

Here's the problem with the story: it's too slow. I read up to Chapter 3 and was annoyed that Miranda still hadn't opened the damn music box! What's more? She does something so stupid—leaving the music box, something she has always wanted to see and touch and open, unattended! Really?—that it made me want to toss the book out the window. Miranda's introspection was also very repetitive, which slowed the book down, and her unreasonable animosity towards her relatives—something she reminds us of 5+ times—makes her appear childish. She's supposed to be 15, but behaves and sounds more like 12.

I would have liked to have seen more of Miranda's grandmother. A flashback with dialogue where Miranda interacts with her, showing how she developed the initial curiosity for the music box would have made the intro and first few chapters more powerful. What drew Miranda to the music box when she was little? Why weren't the other family members interested in it at the funeral. Not answering these questions made the story feel incomplete to me.

Another minor problem I had is that there was too much hand-holding from the author. There's a scene where Miranda talks to her Aunt Catie, and the author does a great job of foreshadowing the woman's role as a future antogonist (or at least an obstacle). But then in the next scene, we see Miranda being suspicious of Aunt Catie...NOT NECESSARY! Surprise us later on!

Overall, The Faerie Pact is a promising book that lovers of fairies, fairy tales, and all things magical will no doubt enjoy. I'll probably read a a couple more chapters just to find out what the big mystery behind the music box is.