Faerie Tale walks a fine line between dark fantasy and horror, and lands mostly outside of horror only because of its subject--which is to be taken as something of a warning for dark fantasy readers, as the gore, the trauma, and the various resolutions tread territory that's often closer to what I'd expect from horror vs fantasy.

All that said, this is a fast-paced and fairly fun read. It does read as somewhat dated--there's so much head-hopping there, I often rather wished it were written from a more contemporary style--and the women in the book are especially stereotypical (though, truth be told, most of the characters do come across as fairly superficial/undeveloped, maybe partly because there are just so many POVs here and the action takes all of the focus). But if you can get past that dated quality and just fall into enjoying the story, there's plenty of entertainment to be had here.

Will I recommend this book? To anyone interested, given the caveats, yes. Will I read more of Feist's work? Likely only if the concept really jumps out at me, as plot gets a lot more focus in this story than character, and I more often enjoy books that are at least partly driven by engagement with character. ( )

There was a lot to like about this book, but it seemed methodical and not exciting. There was menace in it from the fey, but I just didn't feel it built to anything exciting. ( )

Faerie Tale steps more into the modern world than a lot of Feist's work. I like this more than any *any* of his Riftwar work, as at least it is working from a fairly original premise rather than adapting gaming sessions. Some of what's below is going to sound kind of negative, but ultimately I did enjoy this more than any other Feist work, and as long as some of the...triggering things aren't too much for a reader its probably worth the quick read it it is. Right out of the gate, potential readers should know that there's a fairly detailed sexual assault. I've read some criticism of how the aftermath is handled, but I think Feist is at least trying to give a reasonable in-universe explanation within the story. Overall, the story is pretty preoccupied with sex, probably something to expect from a semi-modern faerie story, but just be aware going in. How a lot of sex and gender relations are handled is pretty par for the course from an 80s horror/fantasy story, but again, from a current lens is going to feel pretty cringy and insensitive at times.
Its early for the urban fantasy movement, but is closer to that than most other sub-genres. Its clear some research went into the supernatural/folklore aspects of the book but its implementation is just okay. The main characters consist of a family of five, a few scholarly friends, one of whom is a love interest to the oldest daughter. Every one of them is exceedingly brilliant and wealthy. Some are famous (the parents, one of the scholarly friends), some are genius academics far more well off than academics should realistically be (another of the friends and the love interest), some have inherited wealth (the heiress daughter), some like the daughter and another academic are just so broadly brilliant and talented it puts the idea of a polymath to shame. For me, this was a harder issue to get past reading the story than dated handlings of gender roles and sex, but your mileage may vary. ( )

Special Advanced Reading Copy

Overly sexual. Was an interesting book to read as a teenager.