Every year accomplished authors write pep-talks for Nanowriters (Nanowrimo’s aficionados, slightly cuckoo in the head) like me. This year one of the pep-talk I liked the most was written by Holly Black. Driven by sudden inspiration I checked out few of her books and I found the Good Neighbors’ series. I have already read Kin and Kith without blinking my eyes once, and I can’t wait to read the third and final installment that just came out, Kind. I didn’t know that they were comic books, and I was pleasantly surprised by discovering Ted  Naifeh, who is the illustrator. The Good Neighbors narrates the story of a teenage girl, Rue, who has always seen things out of the ordinary, but has never thought about it until tragedy wreaks havoc in her life. Rue’s mother disappears for several days after an altercation with her father. Her father is accused of having murdered his wife and another young woman who was one of his student. Rues discovers the truth behind her mother’s disappearance when, while trying to put together bits and pieces of her scattered life, the fairies reveal to her that she is one of them. Rues is forced to confront blood ties she would have never thought real, and a reality which is not a fairy tale. As if being a teenager isn’t hard enough by itself. I particularly liked Holly Black’s dark narration and the eerie qualities of Ted Naifeh’s art. I am now officially hooked on fairies’ stories. But only if they are bad, the fairies, not the stories.

Happy reading!