“You’re Ellie Spencer…and your eyes are opening.”

Due to the prevalence of GU themes in the genre, and my own inclinations, I tend to read a lot of urban fantasy, and especially a lot of fairy-related stories. Honestly, it can get kind of repetitive. While some books stand out, most just follow a basic recipe with little variation. Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey, however, was original and compelling enough to stick with me. While some of the themes are certainly familiar (it wouldn’t be a Girls Underground book if that wasn’t true!), the siting in New Zealand and immersion in Maori mythology gives the story a distinct personality, complemented by characters that are interesting, complex and diverse (and finally, a love story that just gets more complicated and mature as it develops, rather than the typical facile supernatural romance found in YA fiction).

Ellie, 17, is spending her last year of school away from home at a boarding school while her parents travel around the world. She is awkward – a little tall, a little heavy – but strong and capable, excelling in martial arts and her studies. Her only friend is Kevin, who has just revealed to her his big secret: he is asexual. During a brief encounter one day with Mark, the boy she has a crush on, her hair gets caught in his charm bracelet, and he gives her a cryptic warning… things start to get strange after that. It seems that he has the power to make her forget things.

Meanwhile, Ellie is helping with the local university’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is being altered to include Maori symbolism (a nod to the concept of the book itself). A stunning but unpleasant woman named Reka joins the cast as Titania, and immediately turns her attention to Ellie’s best friend, trying to seduce him (though of course, unsuccessfully, although she manages to hold him in her thrall in general).

<spoilers> As Ellie becomes more suspicious of Reka, Mark becomes more secretive, until Ellie finally discovers the truth for herself – Reka is a patupaiarehe, a kind of fairy creature from Maori folklore. She is after Kevin for breeding purposes. And Mark is deeply involved, although it’s hard to tell at first who’s side he’s on. It seems that Reka is the Adversary, who must be defeated in order to rescue Kevin. And in fact, Ellie does just that, holding onto Kevin Tam Lin-style when Reka comes for him, enduring pain to shield him from her claws. But that is only the beginning.

The real threat is the other patupaiarehe, who have been killing magical humans to steal their power, and – in their quest for immortality – are planning a mass murder of millions of people. Ellie, who is just discovering that she herself has a latent talent for magic, must go with Mark to try to stop them. Travelling back to the North Island, they stay in her empty house (fulfilling the “brief return to familiar home” theme) and gather their forces.

But after some heartbreaking defeats and a possible betrayal, Ellie is suddenly on her own, tasked with going to the Underworld (underground, of course) to meet with the goddess of death and stop the patupaiarehe‘s plans. And there is one more rescue-of-a-companion to make, from death itself. </end spoilers>

I have to also note that from a pagan perspective, this book is fascinating. Instead of the more common Celtic-based and modernized fairy lore behind most such books these days, this story is steeped in authentic and complex Maori mythology – not just nature-based spirits, but gods, and monsters, and ritual customs. When Ellie’s inherent magic is woken up, she suddenly sees the truth of the myths – the night sky is a god with a cloak of stars, the island is a legendary fish, etc. But interestingly, she can also see other truths layered over these, from other traditions (such as the Maori and ancient Greek myths regarding the moon), and all are shown to be real simultaneously. There’s some thoughtful theology tucked in there that’s worth pondering.

“Her entire placid, predictable life now seemed to hinge on this one single event, everything she’d ever felt or believed coming into terrible relief. Nothing her parents had told her, nothing she’d ever learned in school, could possibly have prepared her for this thing that was happening. Or, really, what was to follow.”

Wildwood – the first book, apparently, of a forthcoming series – is a product of the creative mind of Colin Meloy, lead singer of the indie rock band The Decemberists, along with delightful and expressive illustrations from his wife, Carson Ellis. The book is set in Portland, Oregon, where the couple resides, and which happens to be the large city just north of my own, giving it an extra appeal for me. The “otherworld” entered by the protagonist, called the Impassible Wilderness in our world, is based on Forest Park, the largest city park in the country.

(On a related tangent, another novel set in Forest Park, but this one based on true events, is the powerful My Abandonment by Peter Rock. It is told by a 13-year old girl who lives deep in the park with her father, hidden away from society. But one small mistake of hers leads to their discovery, and a journey – often alone – through the “real world” which is as strange to her as any otherworld. It is not fully a GU book, but has elements of such.)

Prue, 12 years old, lives a normal life with her parents and baby brother. One day she is taking her brother out for a stroll when he is abducted by a flock of crows, who carry him across the river and into a murky, off-limits area called the Impassable Wilderness. Astonished and terrified, Prue hides the kidnapping from her parents and sets out the next day to reclaim her brother, accompanied by a school friend named Curtis who insists on coming along despite her protestations. However, very soon upon entering the magical forest, Curtis is captured by coyotes dressed as soldiers, and begins his own separate adventures (while they are reunited in the end, he is thus barely a companion to Prue).

SPOILERS AHEAD  It is slowly revealed that a witch called the Dowager Governess sent the crows to steal the baby, to use him most terribly in her mad war of revenge against the rest of the land. The coyote soldiers form her army (i.e., the adversary’s minions). Curtis initially helps them (which touches on the common theme of “betrayal by companion”) because he does not know of the Governess’ involvement in the kidnapping. Meanwhile, Prue makes a succession of alliances with various human and animal denizens of this world in the quest to find her brother, although her involvement often gets them in trouble. She criss-crosses the various lands (the Wildwood is but one part) in search of him.

Eventually, just when it seems like things are going well, Prue is captured by the Dowager Governess (and brought underground, to her lair in the coyote warren), and manipulated into returning home. (The brief return home in the middle of the journey is also a common GU element.) Once she tells her parents her outlandish but true story, they relate to her an even more unbelievable one, which reveals her seemingly normal existence to be anything but – and hints at why it is that she can enter the Wood without resistance, despite the heavy spell of protection laid on the boundaries. She resolves to go back and finish her quest, eventually assembling almost all the other folk of the Wood in a rag-tag army to confront the Governess and her soldiers.

The final showdown with the adversary is unfortunately not one-on-one, and the Governess is actually defeated by one of Prue’s allies, although it is Prue’s own hidden power that ends up saving her brother. Even though a part of her belongs there, Prue does leave the otherworld and return home permanently, with her brother, to the delight of her parents. But in a unique twist, her original companion Curtis (who appears to have his own connection to the Wood) decides to stay there.

Shadow by Jenny Moss is about a girl who is just that – a shadow, an ignored and unseen constant companion of the queen, existing only to deflect any potential attempts on the monarch’s life. She has spent almost every moment of her 16 years in the queen’s chambers of the castle, her parents dead, her only friend a young boy named Piers. Her only wish is to someday escape and be free.

Her wish appears to be granted when the queen is killed, and a knight named Sir Kenway helps Shadow flee the castle into the world beyond. Together they travel to his home, and onward to a small village, and all the while Shadow is struggling, between her need to flee, her growing love for Kenway, and the strange things that are happening inside her mind. Kenway reveals that he is in fact only acting on orders and there is a plan in place that involves Shadow, though neither of them understand why. They pick up another companion, an odd girl named Ingen who turns out to be the last living priestess of an earth goddess that many no longer believe in.

A visit with a local witch reveals that Shadow is indeed More than she had ever imagined – and instead of this being exciting news, it is a terrible burden for the girl, who discovers that with loftier standing comes much responsibility. Suddenly, much is expected of Shadow, and she doesn’t want any of it. She discovers the identity of her true mother, and must enlist her help in returning vitality to the land of her kingdom. She must also confront her adversary (whose identity as such is only revealed late in the story), who has taken over control of the kingdom and will do much harm. But all Shadow really wants to do is return and rescue her old friend Piers, who has been imprisoned since her escape, and live a quiet life afterwards.

It is not until the crucial last moment that Shadow is able to reach deep within herself and find the power to do all of these things, and accept the responsibility of her heritage.