When I saw that Graham Joyce acknowledges Charles de Lint as one of his influences, I knew I had to read Some Kind of Fairy Tale, as I’ve been a huge fan of de Lint for decades.

One Christmas day, Peter Martin’s sister knocks on their parents’ front door. It’s twenty years since she has last been seen. At first, her family are overjoyed by her return, but it quickly becomes apparent that she has changed. Or more to the point, hasn’t physically changed much at all. The novel explores what happened to Tara while she was away from several different points of view.

Tara claims that she ‘crossed over’ to another realm - the world of faerie. This is a world not populated by sweet little creatures with gossamer wings, but rather a world full of lusty men and women whose lifestyle would be considered bohemian to say the least! Their world is highly erotic and quite brutal. There is a sense of menace in this faerie landscape.

The best parts of this novel are Tara’s recounts of her time ‘over there’. Unfortunately these take up the smallest portion of the book. The rest is about how her family and boyfriend have coped with her loss and are now (not) coping with her return, plus a ponderous psychiatrist’s notes about his sessions with Tara.

I read this book in a couple of sittings as it flows effortlessly. Joyce has some lovely descriptions of people and places. For example, when noting the physical contrast between Tara and her brother Peter : ‘Peter had a large, lumbering physique, a gentle giant; Tara by contrast was mercurial, slender-boned and sharp-tongued. He was earthly; she was aerial. He was made of clay and iron; she was made by fire and dreaming.’

Each chapter is prefaced with quotes from writers who, according to the author’s notes, ‘champion the fusion of Realism and the Fantastic.’ These quotes are a highlight and perfectly selected to hint at what is to follow.

This is not a book for the kiddies! This is a fairy tale more in the tradition of Angela Carter than Hans Christian Andersen!