Stray Book Review

Stray by Elissa Sussman

Review by Mayte Van den Broeck

2.5/5 stars

I was in a bookstore with few English books. However, this book (which I’d never heard of before) was there. And well, the cover is really beautiful, and the book was in good shape. Along with that, the summary sounded very nice. So I bought it.
Stray is about a world where royal girls all have a path, they also each have an adviser who tells them how to stay on the path. Each has magic, though they are told that it is dangerous and that they must not want things or think wicked thoughts. Girls who are unable to fulfil their job, become fairy godmothers. If they fail being a fairy godmother, they become a teacher. The people who leave their path, or run away from it are called ‘strays.’ Aislyn is one of the royals, but she fails her path and becomes a fairy godmother. 

I gave this book almost three stars because the idea was so original, and unlike anything I’d ever read before. However, one thing that bothered me quite a lot was that most of the characters seemed as if they had bipolar disorder. Including the main character. The characters were happy and nice one moment, grumpy/sad the next. There wasn’t all too much character development either. This book reminded me a bit of a fairy tale retelling, though a mix of fairytales. It had certain elements of fairytales. Such as the Briars from Sleeping Beauty and a lone shoe from Cinderella (this one had a severed toe though). Overall this book had many good and bad aspects to it.