Bibliographic Information:
Title: Greymist Fair
Author: Francesca Zappia
ISBN: 9780063161719
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, New York
Copyright Date: 2023
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Romance, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Format: Print Book/eBook
Awards/Honors: None as of publication of this post.
Reading Level/Interest Level: Ages 12+
Plot Summary: In the middle of a forest, down a path that no one can agree on the travel time of, lays the village of Greymist Fair: a peculiar town home to even more peculiar people. In Greymist Fair magic is real, and so is Death: and as the villagers face their own stories intertwining with their neighbors they find that working together is the only way to conquer Death himself. An anthology of seven different tales that weave together to create an overarching story, Greymist Fair takes the lesser known stories of the Grimm Brothers to create a new fairy tale meant to engage the imagination and entrance the reader.
Author Background: Francesca Zappia has been an author since 2017 and has won a variety of awards for her books and herself as an author (Media Kit). Her education was in computer science and math, but her love for storytelling due to a lifelong love of Dungeons and Dragons urged her to become an author (About Me). She had four other books published at the moment, and plans to continue being an author as long as she has stories to tell.
Critical Evaluation: Greymist Fair was an engaging fantasy novel based on the Grimm Brothers fairy tales, but included new characters in a central setting that made the stories feel fresh. The first two stories felt a little slow as I was still getting to know the characters and their roles in the community, but as the book progressed I became more invested in their stories and how they were all connected to each other. I think the most emotional story was that of Doctor Death, who as a baby was given to Death as a companion, raised to be a doctor, but due to his childhood was able to see when medical attention would be pointless as he could see Death sitting next to his patient. Doctor Death would later fall in love and have a daughter of whom he could not be involved with due to Death’s jealousy. He would die protecting his daughter from his guardian, without anyone else but the reader knowing his actual story. I’ll admit it - I cried.
Zappia did a great job at the pacing of each story, as well as the order the characters were introduced to give the reader time to get used to so many characters having their own major plots. Each miniature story was perfectly long without being overwhelming, and each felt just as important as the last to the overarching plot of the book. In general, Zappia created a fantastic world with characters whose arcs made sense and played into each other.
Creative Use for a Library Program: Greymist Fair would be a great book to catapult a writing prompt competition among the young adult patrons. Take your favorite fairytale and reimagine it in 10 pages: entries will be posted to the library website and voting will be open for a week. The winner wins a gift card to the local movie theater that will cover two tickets and snacks (or another prize could be thought of). Either way, using a book that reimagines fairy tales to get young adults to be creative would be great for a library program!
Speed-Round Book Talk or Short Book Trailer: Death lives in the woods of Greymist Fair, and fearing him is a sure fire way to be killed by his wargs. The residents of Greymist Fair do not know this - they only know to avoid the woods as much as they can. When the witch of the woods dies and strange things begin to happen in the village, the townsfolk become scared and start disappearing. Will the townsfolk find a way to conquer Death? Can Death even be conquered? There is only one way to find out.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: With Greymist Fair the biggest concern is the violence within the story (although none of it is graphic) and the fact that it is another fairytale fiction book in a catalog. Over the recent years there has been a pivot to including less fiction books in young adult sections of libraries, with a greater emphasis on non-fiction and the practicality of reading non-fiction in preparation for college and the workforce. In defense of this novel I would remind those who challenge its inclusion that everyone deserves a form of escapism, and fairytales provide just that. On top of this, saying that young adults are too old for fairytales is like saying an adult is too old to have fun: they are not, and to insinuate so is to say that growing up is meant to be boring and plain.
Reason for Inclusion: Anthology books are always interesting as they use multiple stories in one novel to create an overarching plot: this combined with the inclusion of tales from the Grimm brothers makes it an interesting read and honestly I spent most of the time trying to see if I recognized any of the stories (I surprisingly did not). As I am continuing this blog, I am realizing just how much I tend to rely on fantasy novels and will make a concerted effort to incorporate and include some non-fiction in this blog for teens.
References:
About Me — Francesca Zappia. (2024, November 11). Francesca Zappia.
Media Kit — Francesca Zappia. (2024, November 11).
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