Book Nook: Lang's Labyrinth

The stereotypical fairy is often what we picture in Disney movies or other light-hearted stories - sparkly magic and adorable miniature houses. However, like so many other fairy tales, they've been softened up over the years. In Grimm's Fairy Tales, the mythology of the fae was meant to keep children out of dark forests, with sinister and mischievous creatures.

I had a chance to read the final book in the series, Lang's Labyrinth. I feel like I would have gotten more out of it had I read all of them, but the book worked as a stand alone book as well. In the book, Anne has to stay with relatives in a small town for the summer. She's not happy, until she finds a cluster of abandoned homes nearby to explore. She inadvertently opens a door to the realm of the Forests of the Fae, and has to quickly learn to navigate their world, fleeing dark fae folk, learning how to commune with ghosts, solving the mystery of a mass disappearance, and saving the town and good in both worlds.

It's neat that Grace and Anne are just normal girls, saving the world - it makes it easier for some girls to imagine themselves in that realm, when the main characters are just ordinary people doing the best that they can. “I am a big believer in the common heroine,” says Kibbee. “Not enough girls and women feel empowered by being simply who they are.”