Neil Gaiman’s writing is always delightful. I was bound to you to be your slave until the day that the moon lost her daughter, if it occurred in a week when two Mondays came together. I was tickled when this piece of nonsense actually came true: After Neil Gaiman is done mixing up literal and figurative things to the point that you no longer know which is which, he will then present you with nonsense that makes sense when it’s explained.

Just like Harry Potter, love protects you in such a way that it’s magical. For example, the witch can’t literally steal her heart because it is figuratively not her own anymore because she fell in love. The world that Stardust takes place in is such a fascinating mix of the literal and the figurative. I first heard that story in Alice in Wonderland and it’s one of my favorites. I also loved the familiar fairy tales told in new ways like the lion and the unicorn. My favorite was when the witch’s curse comes back to bite her. Stardust starts with 3 seemingly random tales that combine as time goes on in such interesting and unexpected ways. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall-named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow.

Stardust novel