Am I not pretty enough? Am I too outspoken? Do I cry too much? Is my heart too broken? Let’s cut some lumber with Pretty Peg, by Skye Allen.
Synopsis:
High school senior Josy Grant already had plenty on her plate before she found the magic puppet theater her murdered sister left behind. Despite Josy’s grief, the responsibility of taking care of her family falls to her, and being queer doesn’t make dealing with school any easier. Things only get worse when sexy new girl Nicky tells Josy her sister died at the hands of a mysterious figure from the Faerie Realm called the Woodcutter, and if they can’t stop him, Josy and her remaining sister will be next.
They have just days before the Woodcutter strikes again on the autumn equinox, so Josy follows Nicky into the Faerie Realm to hunt him. Along the way, she discovers Fey gifts of her own and answers to the questions that have driven the Grant family apart. Nothing comes for free when dealing with Fey, though, and those gifts and answers might come at a terrible price.
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
After Josy’s sister is murdered, Josy discovers that there was a side to her life that Josy never knew. Her sister was a mortal favorite of the Summer Court of the Fae; and her murderer, a champion of the Winter Fae known as the Woodcutter. And Josy needs to figure out the Woodcutter’s identity and find a way to stop him, fast, because he’ll be coming after her next.
It’s an interesting premise, to be sure. But after a while, I had a hard time staying interested; because the identity of the Woodcutter is way, way too obvious. For reference: the supposed big dramatic reveal takes place at the end of chapter eleven; I had it figured out by the end of chapter two. So each time Josy started suspecting another character of being the Woodcutter, I could only groan and roll my eyes and wonder how long it would take her to figure out the obvious. Honestly, the solution was so blatant that I began to wonder if it wasn’t a deliberate red herring, if it might not at the last minute throw a sudden curveball and have it be someone else entirely – but no, it does in fact end up being who I thought.
Even so, the book might have managed to redeem itself in my eyes if it’d been able to stick the landing with the end. The big question I had going into the climax was how Josy was going to end up defeating the Woodcutter. I mean, the book was clearly building to this big final confrontation between them, but Josy hadn’t demonstrated even the slightest hint of combat ability, either physical or magical. It was well past the point where any hidden talent in that regard would have had to be introduced to avoid coming off as a deus ex machina. But then, when she was taken prisoner by the Winter Fae, the corn goat that Josy had caught spying earlier secretly slipped her a vial of poison. Aha! I thought. This is how it’s going down: the old Gollum gambit, where a small act of kindness or mercy towards a seemingly insignificant and pitiful villain ends up being karmically repaid when they help you complete your mission in the end. When the Woodcutter comes to cut out Josey’s heart, she’ll splash the poison into his face somehow and kill him.
…But that’s not what actually ends up happening, oh no. What actually happens is that, out of nowhere, the Woodcutter gets taken down by Blossom, a third-tier ancillary character. Josy’s contribution to defeating the Woodcutter: zippo, zilch, nil, nada, nothing. Now, personally, I feel that the point of a protagonist, is to protag. You know, to be proactive and actually fight the villain in some way, to try and at least slightly matter in this book in which she is supposed to be the main character. As it is… why exactly are we following Josy, again? What do she actually do, except get in trouble and need to be rescued by other characters?
What a disappointment; a book that dodges the Dead Lesbian Penalty that was hanging over it like the Sword of Damocles, only for me to end up giving it a low score anyway for severe but unrelated problems. With this, I can’t say that Oaktown Fae has made a very good first impression on me; but I try to give series second chances in case they manage to move past their shaky starts and manage to improve for the second entry.
Final Rating: 2/5
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