We are flung back into Elsewhere with Ceres decades after David’s story ended. I was really excited to return to the land made by fairy tales, so I was a little disappointed that we didn’t really have any new stories brought to life (homicidal Rapunzel aside).
The reasons I fell in love with The Book of Lost Things were lacking a bit in this one, the suspense of the darkness creeping up behind, and being taken by our childhood fears. This might have to do with the fact that Ceres is a grown woman and not a child. I did have some issues with how Ceres was written (call me bias for not liking how men write women) There were a few instances that did cause me roll my eyes. ex: Ceres falls out of the doorway and falls upon her breasts. I have fallen forward multiple times and cannot say that my breasts are ever what broke my fall.
There are a few other instances of just nonsense like this and as a mother I did not find them really that believable. Ceres goes between the feelings and thoughts of a grown woman and then swings into an angsty teen who has an attitude problem with people who generally are doing their best for her. Her internal dialogue and choices didn’t make much sense to me at times. Then again, I have never had a child laying in a coma with little hope of them ever regaining consciousness.
The telling of a mothers undying love and the choice to believe and have hope that things will work out was a lovely story and we ties up a nice ending for this world. But it took us some time to get there. Ceres was willing to pay any price in order to have her daughter back, until that choice was taken from her. I am interested in what would have happened had her decision making not been interrupted, who would have suffered at her hands for the chance that she had more years with her child?
I also wanted there to be some resolution to the homophobic feeling we got from the Knights story in book 1. There was an instance where David talks about seeing two women who may have been lovers and he was happy for him. But it felt like a bit too little too late in my mind. The Knights deserved their resolution and love story too.
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