Blending metaphorical story-telling and biographical narrative, Somewhere/Not/Here engrosses with coming-of-age angst, building on themes of friendship, love, and identity, as Goblin Queen searches for both Wisdom and Truth. (“We all felt we were running a bit short of it lately” she writes.) The characters are larger-than-life, with a Techno-Witch who sells "moody brooms" and spells, a punk-faerie sporting a heart that’s “cracked down the middle,” and a host of reformed well-knowns from beloved fairy tales, including a Wolf who takes a side trip to New York City with Goblin Queen—and tempers his people-eating tendencies with the big city restaurant scene.
Rife with complexity, play, and a sense of poetry, Somewhere/Not/Here drapes heavy themes with fantastical hoodwinkery, as the Goblin Queen references her “all-chemicals,” those “real magic potions – wondrous, dark, and delightful” that guide her “along the edge of reason” and flits through musings on why “Reality is turning out… to be not quite so boring a creature as I had thought.” What starts as a search for acceptance and love transforms into a deep understanding of the person reflected back in the “Magick Mirror,” an enchantment that is more therapist than looking glass. Readers up for the ride will be spellbound by this twisty, witty, and, above all, vulnerable fantasy.
Takeaway: A trippy, spellbinding quest for belonging and self-acceptance.
Comparable Titles: Francesca Lia Block's Psyche in a Dress, Melanie Karsak’s Curiouser and Curiouser.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B+
