Wondrous Strange

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston, 2008 Harper Collins

     Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange is an interesting take on the fairy stories of the English-speaking world. It focuses on Kelley Winslow, a seventeen-year-old actress trying to make her big break as A Midsummer Night's Dream's Titania, as she discovers that the world she has accepted as home is overshadowed by the Fey world of folktales. When she discovers the changeling Sonny, Kelley isn't sure what to think of this handsome stranger. But when he appears to be just another New York City stalker, she is prepared to write him off as a lunatic, despite his handsome appearance and his insistence that he knows something about Kelley that she doesn't even know about herself. Add to that the strange appearance of a roan horse in her bathtub and things are becoming more and more strange for Kelley and her NYC theater dreams.
     The story deals with several of the characters from William Shakespeare's plays and other English fairy tales including Queen Mab, Titania, Puck, Auberon (or Oberon), the Wild Hunt, and  Changelings. First and foremost this is a tale of a young woman trying to discover who she is, where she belongs, and what place her new-found relationship has set against the backdrop of impending war between the Elizabethan world's vindictive sprites in their Fey kingdoms.
     Wondrous Strange is the first in a trilogy written by Lesley Livingston that follows Kelly while she attempts to fully understand the world opening before her and her relationship with Sonny Flannery, all the while dealing with new-found power and achieving her childhood dreams. It is written for the high school age-range, with content and language that would be found anywhere from a local grocery store to the public high school. It's a fun read and a refreshing take on classic literature.