Well I’ve just finished this quirky little book by Raymond Feist, and I’ve ogt to say I’m pretty glad it’s over. Faerie Tale tells the story of a happy, wealthy family moving into a creepy old New England house and discovering that their property is being overrun by little people. Yup that’s right the Good Folk have come to America, and they’re out for blood. Actually, no; they’re really not all bad, it’s just some pretty strange and cliched things begin happening around the Hasting residence. Of course it takes three months and 300 pages before the characters in the book catch on to the truth. Why, oh why are people so dumb in situations like this.
The story drags for most of the book, that’s not to say it isn’t entertaining. But it reminds me of the film “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle”, a very entertaining film with suspense, a couple of decent scares and a nice overall tone of creepyness. But Hand That Rocks The Cradle was ONLY TWO HOURS LONG… Faerie Tale took me a week and a half to read. Imagine if you will watching a film that is somewhat entertaining on a small scale, for over a week. It pretty much drove me nuts.
Speaking of films though, I’d say that this book would translate quite nicely to the screen. The story is cliched at times. But the cliches are film cliches, it’s pretty weird. The book has a very cinematic feel, and I don’t mean epic, I mean it’s written like a B genre film. If I were to make it I’d say give it a 5 Million dollar budget, no stars, give it to a young director looking to prove he’s up to the Hollywood take, and shoot it over two months. It’d be a fine film, and in my opinion make at least 15 mil return, especially with video rentals. Maybe A Miramax film… Anyhow, it’s not a film, it’s a book. And as a book it suffers.
The human characters are simplistic. The Faeries, although entertaining, are kind of childish. This book might appeal to someone a little younger than me, like 13 or so. That’s how it reads. Simple, straightforward, and predictable, even in it’s suspense. I probably wouldn’t recommend this novel to adults, but it’s at times possibly a bit too graphic for young adults. (It is definitely too graphic for children.) I should also note that this book gave me some pretty weird nightmares, not really scary but just creepy. Then again these dreams were almost certenly induced by the Larium I’m taking to avoid Malaria. Larium has the side effects of parinoia, bad dreams, and more… Anyhow, I made it through the book and am doing ok, so it’s all good for now. Overall, I don’t think I could recommend this book, it’s just too drawn out; however if someone ever makes it into a movie I’ll probably quite enjoy it.
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