I've been stuck on a reading glut lately, I've got 100000 unfinished books on my ebook reader, most of which I've made slight progress, and I've no desire to finish or continue reading any of them. So to ease my boredom, I've been rereading some old familiars that I know are enjoyable. 
 Some series are even more wonderful than I remembered (The Iron Fey), and some made me wonder how much alcohol I had been imbibing when I decided to give it a 4 rating. Bones of Faerie would be an example of the latter. What the hell was I thinking? I probably wasn't. 
 The good: it's short. 
 The bad: it's short. Because of the lack of length, I feel there's so much detail that could have been given that would have contributed so much to the book was omitted. I wanted more background on the war between fae and human. I want to know more about how the fae and human came to a tenuous peace. Why the St. Louis arch? Why were some humans "tainted" by fae magic and not others? So many questions, not enough answers. And what's with the random werewolf? There is very little logic, the system of magic here seems to be all over the damn place, and not something rational. Granted, the fae aren't known for their coherence, but given that they're intelligent enough and with enough acumen to beat our sorry human asses in this book, one would think that their magical system would be better controlled. 
 Liza is not a bad character. She's strong enough to withstand her father's emotional and physical abuse, and conscientious enough not to put her community in danger when she thinks she has developed fae magic. However, she's soft. Too soft. I didn't find her survival skills believable given her softheartedness and weak will. 
 Her reaction to Allie the stowaway frustrated me to no ends. She's a day from home. Dump her whiny, sorry little overprotected ass back to her father. Liza doesn't have the heart to deal with a liability when she sees one. 
 "You're sure you won't let us take you back?" Matthew asked. Allie just shook her head. I said nothing. I still didn't trust myself to speak. I didn't want her to come, but in truth I had no idea how to stop her. 
 It's simple, Liza. You go back to the village and tell Allie's dad. This book overcomplicates stupid things like this. 
 I didn't hate Liza as a character, but there's nothing about her that made me sympathize with her or feel like she's more developed than just a character in a book. 
 And speaking of Allie. I hated the sorry little brat. She's very young, which explains her immaturity, and Liza is nothing less than a saint in her ability to put up with her. 
 "The War was stupid," Allie said. "So stupid." 
 So profound, Allie. 
 "So big!" she said as she walked, all hints of the sullen child who'd found us gone. "Who knew the world was so big?" She twirled in place, right in the path, as if that world were the scene of a child's game, nothing more. 
 ARG! SHUT UP ALREADY. 
 As for the story, it is dark and very surreal. The setting is beautifully described, lyrical and hypnotic. 
 Bluffs rose to either side of us, holding shadows of their own: a shadow arm with a dangling charm bracelet, a shadow boot kicking the air as if to get free, a shadow face staring at us from within a hillside, its mouth open as in surprise, a poplar root growing through one of its shadow eyes. 
 I also found it very confusing. I think the best way I can describe it is when I had a stomach flu, and was suffering from some massive fever-induced hallucinations. I was wandering around a dark, glowing forest, with no idea where I was going. Things were happening and yet they made no sense, but I followed along with my dream anyway. This was roughly how I felt about the plot of this book. It's lyrical and surreal, but not in a good way. 
 Like the art movement after which it's named, the surrealism in this book gave me a massive headache after awhile. I actually started book two about a year after reading this, and found out I couldn't remember a damn thing about this book. That should have foreshadowed it for me; writing aside, the story is purely forgettable.