Thursday, November 20, 2014

...On That Door Is a Mischief by Alex Jeffers


Growing up in rural Massachusetts, Liam Shea is very well aware of being different from other high school students. It's not just having a gay dad that draws the bullies' attention. For Liam is not an ordinary earthbound, timebound boy but a fairy. An ethereal creature with great glowing golden eyes, dragonfly wings between his shoulders, and an allergy to cold iron. When an emissary from fairyland opens a magical door, teenage Liam chooses not to accept the seductive invitation of the unchanging lands, not to abandon his loving father as he was abandoned by his own kind.

How will a fairy live in the twenty-first century (and beyond), seeking balance between inconstant mortal concerns and his own nature? A fairy's nature is not to change. Or is it? In the human world of bullies and best friends and lovers, perhaps not. The door to the twilit country will open again, the airs of his native place call, the whims and instincts of his own folk ensnare him. Few choices there are any person - even a fairy - may face only once.


"That door is a mischief," said the house in fairyland, "and my heart is sorrowful for your troubles."

There is beauty and sorrow in this tale. The fantasy and the reality in Alex Jeffers' world of men and fairies merge into one until the reader becomes immersed in his characters' lives -- pieces of life reflecting the passing of time as they encounter the light, dark, and all the grey areas in between, including love, passion, and loss.

Key to this fantasy is the door which becomes a symbol for choices and a bridge between an ever evolving world and an unchanging one, between the person born and the one he chooses to be, the families we are born to and the ones we choose for ourselves. Most of all, at the heart of this story there is a sense of giving and coming to understand the depths and realities of love.

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