For the first time in over twenty years, I spent my Christmas holiday at my grandfather’s house in New England. As a five-year-old, I remember lying awake on the cot in the spare bedroom on Christmas Eve, trying to stay awake past midnight. When the clock chimed, I was positive Santa Claus and a pack of elves would land on the roof. After what seemed like hours, I swear that I heard sleigh bells tinkling. Sure enough, I woke up the next morning to discover that Santa had left presents just for me. Today, my grandfather’s house remains almost completely unchanged, but I don’t feel the same magic anymore. Instead, I’m concerned with train timetables, my tight budget, and all of the work I’ll have to make up when I get home. Luckily, I had packed Signe Pike’s debut memoir in my suitcase to help me tap into my inner child. In Faery Tale, Pike journeys across the world in search of faeries to help her cope with the death of her father and rediscover the magic of her childhood.
Pike, a book editor, is so fed up with her grueling New York City schedule that she quits her job and moves to South Carolina to start a new, more rural lifestyle with her fiancé. When a mystical neighbor convinces Pike to go on a meditation retreat to Mexico, Pike is thrilled—until she thinks she sees a small, troll-like figure hiding in her hotel room. Pike is intrigued to discover that she may have seen an Alux, short for Los Aluxes, a mythical faery creature native to Mexico. To learn more about other mythical creatures throughout the world, Pike sets off on a three-month long trip to research faeries in England, Ireland and Scotland—three countries that are notorious for faery sightings. On her journey, Pike hopes to determine whether faeries truly exist and where she can find them. (more)
