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Elissa’s Quest by Erica Verrillo hit most of the major Girls Underground tropes and was an enjoyable enough read, but failed to really stand out for me; it is the first book of a trilogy, but I doubt I’ll be reading the rest of them.

Elissa believes she is an orphan, having been raised by an old healer, with no knowledge of her real family. She keeps a potent secret: she can talk with animals, and they are her only companions in an otherwise lonely life. One day, her father shows up and takes her away, hoping to use her in his plan to win a war. It turns out she is next in line to be royalty, a shock for the peasant girl. Elissa takes along her best friend, a donkey, who rescues her when she is captured by the enemy. Back with her father, Elissa chooses her own fate this time, electing to go to the palace of the Khan instead of back to her old life. There she makes a new friend and companion, a young slave girl named Maya.

Maya takes Elissa underground to a secret lake for a coming-of-age ritual that ends with the discovery of a small, insignificant-looking item that will prove important. Then she takes her to a wise woman, who speaks cryptically of things that hint at Elissa’s true power. The Khan is planning to wed Elissa and kill Maya, but they are rescued (and captured, and then escape into the desert and are rescued again – there is a lot of this type of action), and then Elissa is enlisted by a group of ancient healers to defeat the Khan. She uses her latent magic to destroy him, one on one.

“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.

“Suddenly the world seems a lot more interesting.”
What it seemed was a lot less ordinary.

There are a million faerie-romance books in the YA section these days (second only to vampire-romance), so you never really know what you’re going to get, but Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater is definitely of a higher quality than most, in addition to being a great Girls Underground story. The characters are well developed and interesting, and there are a few unique twists to the story that make it stand out from the rest (though most of these are too integral to mention here without spoilers).

Deirdre, just turned 16, is a shy student but a masterful harp player, who meets a compelling and mysterious boy at a music competition. Luke seems to understand her immediately, but he has secrets. His arrival heralds other strange events in Dee’s life, like a budding telekinetic ability – and she starts to encounter beautiful but threatening “people” who may be stalking her. It all points to faeries. Turns out, problems with the fey have haunted her maternal family line for years (her mother, partly as a result, is distant at best and her father hardly registers). Dee’s grandmother tries to help her, unsuccessfully, and her best friend James, although jealous of her new romantic relationship with Luke, remains a faithful companion and even helps defend her against her faerie stalkers. She even gets some help from a few “freelance” faeries (for a price, of course). But the perilous fey, minions of the malevolent Queen, are strong. The Queen herself, the true adversary, is not actually introduced until the very end, which is an interesting twist – although we know fairly early that it is she who seeks to kill Deirdre (as for why, I’ll leave that unspoiled).

There is the classic betrayal-by-a-companion, although it’s complicated, as well as a betrayal by a family member. And of course, she is revealed to be More than she thought she was.

When the Queen kidnaps both Luke and James, Dee must choose who to save. She then has a dramatic confrontation with her adversary, using her own weaknesses against her. There is no perfectly happy ending, but she does manage some kind of victory.

The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge was, frankly, a pleasant surprise – I was expecting something formulaic, riding the Steampunk popularity bandwagon, but the world Kittredge builds (a sort of alternate-history reality) is complete and compelling, and the story is classic Girls Underground.

Aoife, 15, lives in a harsh world of madness and monsters, in a Massachusetts city (called Lovecraft, and indeed there are many allusions to the great horror writer in this book) fueled by a giant engine of steam and gears. Her father is not in the picture, and her mother is in an asylum. A dangerous virus plagues the populace, turning the infected into vicious creatures or raving madmen, kept at bay only by the strict rule of the Rationalist government. When Aoife’s brother Conrad sends her a cryptic message, she runs away in search of him, venturing into the perilous places beyond the city. Her best friend Cal accompanies her, although he is constantly doubting the wisdom of the venture, and in fact Aoife’s very sanity as well – since the virus has already infiltrated her bloodline and is set to be triggered in her on her upcoming birthday. She also acquires a new companion and guide, Dean – who slowly becomes more important to her than just a hired hand.

After reaching her absent father’s home, she begins to discover the true story of her family, including hints that she has a special gift herself. One day she wanders away from the house and is taken by force, to a land called Thorn that is basically Faerie. There she meets her adversary, a “man” named Tremaine (although it is unusual for a Girl Underground to first meet her adversary halfway through the story). He informs her that it is her duty (which he will enforce with violence if she does not comply) to break a curse on Thorn and save his world – and in fact, she begins to come into her power shortly afterwards, making the task seem possible. In this way, she has two of the classic goals at once: saving a family member (her brother) and saving an entire world.

SPOILERS  To break the curse, Aoife travels back to Lovecraft and attempts to get to the heart of the Engine that runs the city. She is quickly captured, and learns more of the truth behind the lies of those in control. She also discovers the betrayal of one of her companions. Going literally underground for the final task, she completes her mission and has a final confrontation with Tremaine – but discovers that all her trials have only served to open a door that should have remained shut, and all hell is breaking loose because of it. While I realize that this is the first in a planned series and therefore not the “end” per se, I still thought it was a gutsy way to finish the story – failing to triumph over the adversary and instead bringing harm to her own world. Because not all stories have a happy ending.

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner is an imaginative twist on the post-apocalyptic narrative – the story takes place years after a sudden and extremely destructive war between our world and Faerie. Liza, a teenager, has grown up in a world without technology but with the remnants of 21st century life laying dormant around her. What’s more, the touch of Faerie upon her world lingers (even after its denizens have retreated), and creates danger everywhere: crops that fight back when you try to harvest them, trees that attack, butterflies that burst into flame, shadows that stalk and kill.

In Liza’s village, which is all she’s ever known, magic is feared and hated as a dangerous connection to Faerie. If a child exhibits any telltale signs of magical ability (such as translucent hair) it is killed outright. There are harsh rules of behavior, and Liza’s father whips her savagely whenever she transgresses even a little. After the birth of her baby sister, who showed magic and was immediately killed by her father, Liza’s mother runs away without a word (with absent mother and vicious father, she is virtually parentless, like most Girls Underground).

Upon discovering that she too may be tainted with magic, Liza also flees her village, hoping to spare them her destructive potential. She is followed by a friend, Matthew, who is quickly revealed to be magic himself. They find another village where magic is not reviled by rather warily welcomed and worked with – and the villagers there know Liza’s mother and can guess where she might have gone. So, with Matthew (who is sometimes an animal), Tallow (her cat), and Allie, a young healer, Liza sets off to find her mother. Along the way the companions face many obstacles and dangers, and Liza slowly begins to understand the full extent of her powers. Throughout most of the book there is not a single adversary, but by the end Liza’s own father fulfills that role, and indeed she faces him alone and defeats him.

After Liza brings back her mother from the land of Faerie, she must find a way to heal her wounds, and furthermore heal the lands on both sides of the war, each of which has been hurt deeply. And in doing so, she realizes she is More than she ever imagined.