23 interwoven stories and poems are edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner in Welcome To Bordertown: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands. Carefully crafted, skillfully interwoven, and richly textured, the collection flushes out the dark and the magical, the secrets and the mysteries, of the border between the Faerie Realm and The World. Truebloods (High and Low-born Elves), Halfies (mixed race elves & humans), and mortals, as well as many other magical creatures live in, search for, and get lost in Bordertown. It’s a city that’s been lost to The World for 13 years (only 13 days to those in Bordertown) where neither magic nor technology work reliably and strange magic often wafts across the border from The Realm. Runaway human teens flock here looking for second chances: some discover both their true selves; many find a magical second chance; and countless others face tragic fates that are worse than whatever they ran away from.
Bordertown the city is as much a character in this collection as the individual protagonists in the stories and poems. Over the course of the book, it seems to come alive: pulsing with magic, music, and energy. Its dark alleys, squats, and bad neighborhoods ooze with danger and fear, and you know that around any corner misery, pain, and perhaps death are waiting. But then there are magical, intoxicating neighborhoods that are alive with joy, love, and wonder. This collection is, in many ways, a love letter to Bordertown, which feels as real and as compelling as New York City. The reader, along with the characters in the collection, is inexplicably drawn to this metropolis and once you’re there, you have no desire to return to the real world ever again.
- Posted by Cori