Name: magemadi (Signed) · Date: 30 Jan 2021 07:32 PM · For: Chapter 1

Hi Kat!

I don’t know how I missed this when the challenge was going on, but I’m glad I rediscovered it now, because this is super cute! Even though it has its dark elements, I think you’ve done an excellent job portraying a classic fairy tale/fable moral lesson for the birthday girl being told this story. I really like how you’ve woven this into the fabric of the HP universe so it ultimately tells the story of how witches and wizards as we know them today came to be from the beginning, and it is definitely a unique take on the typically fraught relationship between fae and humans, too. They don’t like each other, yeah, but the wall and then the twin births under a full moon linking them together forever is really well done and I love the language choices for describing the human girl and fae boy. Great job with this piece, Kat, I really really enjoyed it :)

~Madi
Fairy foxy review event

Name: Noelle Zingarella (Signed) · Date: 10 Jan 2020 01:34 AM · For: Chapter 1

Hi Kat! I’m here for your challenge entry review :D

 

This is a beautiful story. Your language is so visual and I could see everything you described. I enjoyed the tale you wove of the peoples kept apart by their own prejudices, and the two young folk; one from each race; who are willing to buck tradition in order to follow their hearts. The writing is very good and I was definitely teary-eyed by the end of it, first when the Fae died, and then later when the girl finally died. I thought the story was particularly poignant because, while the Fae’s gift does save the girl in the moment, it also eventually kills her. And yet, it gives the gift of magic to all humans after. A really fine, complex idea here.

 

The framing of the story with the father telling his daughter the tale was very sweet and seamlessly done. 

 

A really fine job creating this fairy tale! Thank you for entering my challenge—the results should be up soon.

 

Yours,

 

Noelle

Name: Felpata_Lupin (Signed) · Date: 06 Oct 2019 08:27 PM · For: Chapter 1

Aww... how cute! <3

This was absolutely lovely! I love stories within stories so much, and I love that you did that here, with the father reading his daughter a fairytale... it's so cute!

And the story he told was so cute as well... bittersweet, maybe, but still so lovely! A classic, to be true... the two races at war, then choosing to separate forever and setting a boundary not to be crossed, the two children from the two different worlds who break the boundaries and become friends and eventually bring everyone back together... a classic, yes, but the kind of classic I never tire of... and you managed to make it brilliant with your writing. Your descriptions are stunning as usual, and the voice you chose to use really did sound like a fairytale... just brilliant! <3

It's so sad that the tragedy of death was needed to stop the feud. At the same time, it was so moving the way the Fae boy sacrificed himself for the girl. I also really, really love the idea that this friendship is what brought witches and wizards into existence. Such a beautiful legend. So lovely. (I've lost count of how many times I've said lovely in this review... but, you see, this story is just lovely...)

Thank you so much for the swapping and for writing this absolutely adorable piece! May your dreams be full of magic and sweetness! <3

Snowball hug, my dear!

Chiara

Name: Oregonian (Signed) · Date: 30 Sep 2019 05:12 PM · For: Chapter 1

Hi, Kat.  I'm here for our swap.

This is an utterly charming story.  The writing flows easily and gracefully, and the images and word choices are beautiful. The story is simple, uncluttered, but it says a lot in a relatively few words. Every phrase, every sentence contributes to the structure of the story without wordiness or repetition. I cannot find any fault with its style or its logic.

As an explanation for how magic came to a portion of the human population, this story fills the bill perfectly (and is more appealing than 'a random genetic mutation'). The Fae boy didn't give the girl his pointed ears or patterned wings; there was no hybridization, just a gift of one thing -- magic.  

But given the uncertain, wary relationship between the magical and Muggle populations today, one wondeers how the Fae and the humans managed to keep the peace in the end.  Obviously they did, for the wall wasn't rebuilt.

That detail is of course beyond the scope of a fairy story composed for little children, but it does give hope that changes for the better can occur within society. And that's a valuable feature of fiction -- it gives us examples of what might be possible.

I noticed that the twins, upon reaching adulthood, must have married Muggles since they couldn't marry each other.  Thus, all the magical community has at least some Muggle ancestry; there cannot be anyone at present with entirely "pure" blood!

I like the way you have bookended this story with the paragraphs about the father and daughter.  They must be magical because the father says "...the first of our kind."  They could be Harry and Lily or any father-daughter pair in the magical world. Your lack of specificity here focuses our attention entirely on the fairy story itself, and we are left wondering what happened to the Fae? Are they still around somewhere, if only we look in the right place?

A lovely story.  Thank you for writing.

Name: toomanycurls (Signed) · Date: 12 Sep 2019 05:40 AM · For: Chapter 1

Hi Kat, 

I really like the mythology you lay out here. It's really cool to think through how magic made it to humans but it's so sad that it started with a tragic death. 

Showing how children can unite people is very fitting. It's very sweet that they are so interested in one another. I'm curious what happened to the Fae who shot the boy. It's something that had to follow them for the rest of their life. 

What I really love is how well you nailed the fairy tale tone in this story. It's something I'd expect to find in a Beetle the Bard book. 

Thanks for doing a swap!

-Rose

Author's Response:

Hi, Rose! Thank you for the lovely review! :D