Although this book is listed for YA, I have found many such books a great ride, so even though I am not into magical ‘stuff,’ I decided to give this a read. I was not disappointed in my choice. This book is indeed magical – a breathtaking adventure of such imagination that I read myself right into the second book in the series.
Jack Crackley is a normal young teenager, who has a lot on his plate – two jobs to help support himself and his mum, school, lumbering twins at his school who think he and his classmates are good punching bags, and a strange disease affecting young children everywhere. One day they are fine, the next they are comatose and resemble very old people.
The adventure begins when Jack is asked to help move a table by a seemingly innocuous elderly gentlemen who lives in a huge old house on his paper route. What Jack finds in the house changes his life forever: he discovers he can see gnomes and other small creatures he can’t identify – a hidden world he never knew about – and most of them mean him harm. Jack escaped with no idea who he really is, but he has fae (fairies, brownies, and other little folk) all around him to help him find out.
Since he was a baby, Jack and his mother have been living under a magic spell (a glamour) designed to shield him from the clutches of the evil side of his family, the Cracklocks (he is actually Jack Cracklock). But his glamour begins to fail, just as his Aunt Agatha and cousin Anastasia and her devil of a son discover where Jack is living and plot to capture him for what end is not clear—but it is evil and designed to end the world of the fae.
His human reality and the magical world of the fae collide and he discovers that monsters are not only make believe.
The book is full of richly drawn characters, and there is humor and whimsy on practically every page. New imaginative, magical devices appear with regularity, and there is steady tension, punctuated by breathless stretches. Adventure at its highest in a world previously unimagined.
Treat yourself. Read this.
Five stars.
About the author (Amazon)
C A Deegan lives in the East Midlands, right in the center of the UK, and when he’s not writing or working, he’s with the family or walking the dog in the local woodlands with half an eye out for those ever-elusive Fae. The “Cracklock Saga” series of books came about from reading some pretty awful fairy books to his children over the years. But as he ground his way through these with gritted teeth, he always wondered what would happen if someone didn’t like fairies, what they would do about it, and could anybody stop them? This idea grew, and the Cracklocks were born.
You can find the author at
At his book site: http://www.thecracklocksaga.com
On twitter: @CracklockSaga
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCracklockSaga
Fae or Foe is on Amazon:
Thank you Noelle.
Thanks for sharing your review of Fae or Foe? I’ve enjoyed many YA books. There’s always a display of new ones across from the Reference Desk at work. This one looks good!
It is and this genre is not one of my favorites!
Wow! Thank you so much for this! It means alot. Thank you Noelle.
Well deserved. I read the second book in the series and and am awaiting the third!
That’s brilliant, many thanks! Book 3 – Alice and the Mirror Glass will be released February 2022.
This sounds great, Noelle, and diving right into book 2 is a great testament to the quality of the writing. Congrat to the author and thanks for the recommendation!
As a consummate world builder, I think you might like this book, Diana! Merry Christmas!
🙂
Great review, Noelle. It sounds fun, and we can all do with some of that. Happy 2022!
It’s absolutely entertaining and fun!