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    Stray
    Stray
    Stray
    Audiobook7 hours

    Stray

    Written by Elissa Sussman

    Narrated by Caitlin Davies

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Epic, rewarding, and provocative, Elissa Sussman’s original fairy tale tells the story of Aislynn, a princess who misbehaves and must give up her royal trappings and enter a life of service as a fairy godmother. Booklist wrote, “Sussman delightfully mixed dystopian tension with retold fairy tales, and the result is something wholly original.”

    A cross between The Handmaid’s Tale and Wicked, with a dash of Grimm and Disney thrown in, this original fairy tale is part coming-of-age story, part adventure, part sweet romance. Will Aislynn remain true to her vows and her royal family and turn away from everything she longs for? Or will she stray from The Path and discover her own way? Includes a recipe for Fairy Godmother Bookbinder Bread, and a map.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 7, 2014
    ISBN9780062345776
    Author

    Elissa Sussman

    Elissa Sussman received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and in a previous life managed animators and organized spreadsheets at some of the best animation studios in the world, including Nickelodeon, Disney, DreamWorks, and Sony Imageworks. You can find her name in the credits of The Croods, Hotel Transylvania, The Princess and the Frog, and Tangled. She lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and their rescue dog, Basil. Stray is her first novel.

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    Reviews for Stray

    3.5/5

    34 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is how fairy tales should be written. I will be thinking about the characters long after reading!
    • 4/5
      STRAY was a fascinating fairy tale about a world where only the women had magic but they aren't allowed to use it. They are punished for any magic they do. They are supervised by fairy godmothers and led by male advisers. Aislynn is a daughter of a king but, when she can't control her magic, she is sent to undergo the harsh training needed to become a fairy godmother. Fairy godmothers lose their homes and futures and even their hearts and must devote themselves to a life of service.Aislynn is very distressed to lose the path she thought she was bound for. She has tried very hard to buy into the brainwashing of her adviser and her culture. It takes meeting a gardener, a maid, and a carriage driver before she begins to question the path that she has been set upon. I loved the richness of the language in this story. I loved Aislynn for her confusion and her courage. I thought that Thackery made a great hero and love interest for Aislynn despite the rocky beginning to their relationship. While I am still a bit unclear about the reason for the villains actions, Aislynn's adventures and changes were enough to carry me through this story. Fantasy fans will enjoy Aislynn's story and the world that Sussman created.
    • 5/5
      This book was great. It is kind of fairytale-ish. There was fairy godmothers, slippers, briars, spindles, evil queens, princesses, and magic. It starts with Princess Aislynn believing she is wicked and cursed, being a woman who can do magic. She can't control this magic, which in her eyes, makes her worse than the other girls at her school. So much so that her magic comes out when she least wants it to and she gets in more and more trouble because of these outbursts. She gets sent to a new school to learn to become a fairy godmother. Here she meets Thackery, a gardener who brings her out of her own head long enough to help her relax. This was a book that I couldn't wait to listen to, since I listened to it on audiobook, each time I had free time and was able to listen to something. I give this 5 stars and can't wait for the next book to come out.
    • 3/5
      First of all, I did really like the concepts and the fantasy world presented in this novel. However, I found it really hard to get into and even towards the end I found myself reading just to finish it, not out of a true interest in the characters. Now this could have been due to my gloomy January mood, but I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.
    • 3/5
      For more reviews, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.Before Stray was added to my Sadie Hawkins queue, I’d mostly made up my mind to skip it. See, my lovely friend Debby (Snuggly Oranges) read it and let’s just say that she didn’t care for it. Wait, no, that’s not strong enough. She pretty much disliked everything about it. Obviously, I trust Debby. We agree on a lot of things. Her not liking Stray tells me that it’s not a shippy book, which was accurate by the way. Perhaps because Debby had warned me and lowered my expectations, I didn’t feel as negatively towards it as she did, but I still feel like it was a very meh read all around. Not impressed, but not offended either.The world building is a mess. I mean, yay for fairy tales and all, but I feel like I have yet to see fairy tale schools actually done well. They always seem to tip over to the sexist. Ladies take courses on deportment and make up while men do whoever the fuck knows what. It’s pretty obvious that this system isn’t being held up as ideal, but I also don’t see any outright condemnation of the system. Aislynn finds it stifling certainly and doesn’t want to live within in it, but she’s still following the Path by the end. I’d guess that more will be said and could see this series taking up a feminist mantle. The evil guys do seem to be representatives of the patriarchy at any rate. However, not much has been done with respect to this so far.My big issue with the world building was that it was utterly nonsensical. Young ladies of wealth are sent to schools whenever they exhibit magical talent. This usually happens around fourteen, but for the more powerful, like Aislynn, might happen younger. This is where they learn about dancing and flirting, so that, during their sixteenth year, they can find a husband. Each girl has a fairy godmother, who assists her and, much like Big Brother, reports back to the administration any instances of her charge using magic. The sole goal in life of the girls is to find a husband once they’re out in society. I’ll not go into the weird tiered system of kings, so that many of the girls can be princesses, because I frankly didn’t understand it.If the girl does too much magic, she has strayed from the Path and must be Redirected, as happens to Aislynn, When this happens, she’s forced to become a fairy godmother. They can use magic in service of their assigned lady. Aislynn is immediately assigned to one of the highest ranking girls in the kingdom, because reasons. The fairy godmothers wear habits and have their hearts taken away and learn magic. Aislynn, again because reasons, has feelings even though her heart is taken away. She’s just special, I guess. She is unlike any other fairy godmother. She can have a romance and break rules. Whatever.Then there are the servants, aka the only people who appear to actually do anything of use in this kingdom. They ALSO have magic. This is my issue. There are all of these rich people ruling over the country. Half of them are trained not to use their magic. Then there are all of these people in subservient roles who are taught how to use their magic really well. Yet, they only use their magic in service of their masters. If I were a Redirected princess, I’d take everyone out with my fairy godmother magic fu. I suppose the removal of the emotions is meant to squash any rebellious tendencies, but wouldn’t that just make me more logical and inclined to see how I could fight most effectively?Aislynn, much like her book, is meh. I don’t loathe Aislynn. She’s just sort of there. The only time she ever really seems like a person is when she’s cooking. Otherwise, she ventures to oft towards special snowflake syndrome. I don’t like that she’s the only fairy godmother to retain some of her feelings. I want there to be a reason. Did someone fuck up when taking her heart? If it’s just that she’s special, I want to barf on this book. Her magical abilities also come and go at really convenient times to move the plot along. She finally seems to master them without any training whatsoever. In fact, training made her worse. How convenient. Indeed, a lot of things just sort of drop into her lap, like the end of the book where a wolf friend just appears to defend her and reveal plot points to her. Her love interest, Thackery, is alright. The romance was sort of kind of cute, at least from his side.Ultimately, I’m just not really sure what the point of all of this was. The world doesn’t work for me which places everything else on this really shaky foundation. If I cared about Aislynn, then I could ignore that, but I really don’t think there’s anything to her. I didn’t unship the romance, but it was mostly just there. I’m not sure if I’ll read the next book or not. I’m not planning on it, but a pretty cover or curiosity to find out what the point was might lure me in.
    • 4/5
      A dystopia within a mash-up of fairy-tale retellings.Stray wasn't perfect. It made classic mistakes for the first book in a new series; namely, leaving too many unanswered questions in an attempt to coax readers into the next book, which led to its not being a complete story all on its own. Plus, the climax/ending was rushed - jamming way too much into too few pages.HOWEVER, I liked this book a lot. From the beginning I kept wondering, where's this going? What's really going on here? And, though I finished the story without knowing much for sure, the possibilities are exciting. Sussman created an incredibly believable dystopian society within a fantasy world populated by her own reimagined versions of fairy-tale characters and symbolism. Her characters felt alive and unique. I will definitely read Book Two in the Four Sisters series.Cute Alert #1: "Oh, soot!" as profanity.Cute Alert #2: The recipe for Tahlia's Cinnamon Bookbinder Bread was included at the end of the book.4 stars
    • 4/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: Stray is an enchanting original fairy tale that will completely captivate you. It surprisingly covers a lot of realistic issues in a fun and interesting way. I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like this before!Opening Sentence: Aislynn’s hands were bleeding.The Review:Princess Aislynn has never really felt like she was good enough. She is a princess so she figured she would grow up to be graceful, beautiful, and the curse would never be a problem, but that’s not what happened. There is magic inside her that is always fighting to get out and she doesn’t always have the purest thoughts. Girls that don’t learn to control their abilities are much more likely to stray from the sacred path that has been put in place to protect everyone.All girls of noble birth are introduced to society at the age of 16 and if they aren’t married by the time they turn 17 they are sent to become fairy godmother’s to other noble girls. It is finally Aislynn’s 16th birthday and she couldn’t be happier to be introduced to society. But something terrible goes wrong at her ball and instead of meeting prince charming she is shipped off to become a fairy godmother. She is assigned to Princess Linnea, an orphaned girl that has had a rough childhood. As they get to know each other Aislynn comes to realize that she wasn’t as different as she thought and that maybe magic isn’t such a bad thing. There is so much Aislynn doesn’t understand, but she knows that there are people out there that will do anything to make sure she doesn’t stray!Aislynn is a very interesting character to get to know. She has some wonderful traits but at the same time lots of flaws as well. She is a very caring person and she is always trying to do the right thing, but at the same time because she is so naïve she makes a lot of mistakes. In a lot of ways this was really a coming of age story and I enjoyed watching Aislynn grow into a woman. Even though she started out as a shy girl that was easily influenced, she quickly learned that if she wanted to be happy she was going to have to pave her own path. She was a very easy character to like and connect with.I adored Thackery and he was probably my favorite part of the story. He is sweet, clever, brave, and stubborn. Pretty much from the first moment I met him I was completely taken with him. To be perfectly honest there isn’t really a lot of romance in the story but there is just enough to make you want more. Their relationship developed slowly and it was done so perfectly. For the most part, Thackery is a pretty minor character in the story, but I am hoping that we will get to see him a lot more in the next book.Stray is a beautiful dark fairy tale that completely captivated me. To be totally honest, there were parts of the story that dragged and some things were a little confusing. So it obviously wasn’t perfect, but I found that its flaws were easy to overlook because the story was so intriguing. I loved the characters, they were engaging and easy to connect with. The idea was very unique and I can honestly say I haven’t ever read anything quite like this before. It did start out a little slow but it caught my interest enough that I wanted to keep reading and I found that my interest never wavered throughout the story. The ending was pretty abrupt and I am glad that there is going to be another book because I still have lots of unanswered questions. I wouldn’t say that this book is for everyone, but if you like fairy tales or want a unique young adult book, I would recommend you give this one a try!Notable Scene:Madame Moira held the glass jar aloft. Inside was a glowing orb, pulsing and blinking like a firefly. Its bright blue light filled the room. The headmistress quickly sealed the jar and, with a ring of keys, unlocked one of the doors in the wall. She placed the jar inside, the glowing thing that had once been a part of Aislynn swiftly locked away.Aislynn waited for pain. She waited for a sense of loss, of unfathomable sadness, but nothing came. She felt the same. Had it worked? She glanced over at the apple on the headmistress’s desk. The heat that had been there earlier when she had thought about Thackery was gone. She thought about Everett too, and there was no twinge, no ache. Her heart beat steadily on, no longer stopping at the thought of him.It felt wonderful.FTC Advisory: Greenwillow/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Stray. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.