Even the title is intriguing for this YA novel by Jo Walton! Morwenna and Maureen were twins who grew up among an extended family in Wales. Dad disappeared from their lives pre-memory and mom was a witch--literally--but there were grandparents and aunts and uncles. Fortunately they also had the fairies, who inhabited the ruins of mining works, to offer some guidance and also to enable their use of magic. When their mother tries to seize control of something we never truly learn about in the book, there is a confrontation which results in the death of Maureen and a crippling injury to Morwenna. Fifteen-year old "Mori," as she now calls herself, has been sent to live with her stranger of a father and his three spinster sisters in England and they in turn have sent her away to a posh boarding school where she feels like an outcast for so many reasons. In an effort to protect herself from her diminished but still dangerous mother, Mori engages in protective magic spells and also wishes for a community of belonging, which comes about in a nearly perfect way. The local librarian tells Mori about the weekly science fiction book group--Mori has always been a voracious consumer of this fare as a primary form of solace and pleasure. Now she has friends and maybe even one special, very handsome friend. The predictable re-confrontation with her mother on a visit home seems a bit short-changed, but the book is very well written in terms of character and setting and I eagerly dove in each night before going to sleep. Maybe you can learn to see fairies, too! Anyone who has ever escaped social exclusion by being a bookworm will identify with this intrepid young woman.
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