return to form for Martin Millar, 04 Sep 2008
As an old Martin Millar fan, this was a great return to form. I'd been disappointed by Love and Peace with Melody Paradise and really didn't get on with Suzie Led Zepelin and Me. But Lonely Werewolf Girl was up there with the great Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving and Good Fairies.

Reading it was great in its own right - fast moving, funny, fantastic, quirky. Millar's voice was very clear throughout, with his love of short sentences, and simple writing style.

For those who haven't read other things by Millar, he has a unique style, voice, and milieu - marrying elements of fantasy with the London counterculture of squats, pub gigs and piercings.

I read this on holiday, enjoyed it immensely and was gutted when I finished it. I'd waited a long time for a new good book by Millar and I hope the next one comes along soon.

I couldn't put it down., 22 Jun 2008
I started to read this book yesterday evening and read and read and read until it was finished. This was probably the best book I've read in a long time and it's made me want to go out and buy everything this author has written. The sheer joy of finding a new author that I love!

Why did I love it so much? The world as populated with werewolves, faries, fire elementals and a cast of other strange beings was so vividly portrayed and the humor made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions.

The plot centres around Kalix MacRinnalch,(the lonely werewolf girl) youngest daughter of the Thane (werewolf king) who has been living in hiding in london, pursued by a host of murderous hunters, since nearly killing her father. After the death of her father the plot thickens as her brothers Sarapen and Markus (with more than a little plotting on their mothers part) vie for the sucession. So far it doesn't sound to funny does it? However the fantastic cast of supporting characters make this story a complete gem of a read; Fire elementals for whom infighting has become a fashion war, the twins Beauty and Delicious and their rock star ambitions, Daniel and his unrequited crush on Moonglow... The list goes on.

All I can really say is read this book. It's fantastic.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 28 May 2008
The first thing that hit me about this book was the richness of backstory and the sheer size of the cast of characters.

Although the plot centers around the titular lonely teen werewolf, Kalix MacRinnalch, she lives in a rich world populated with numerous other characters whose actions interfere with or drive important developments in the story. Fifteen-year-old Kalix is the youngest daughter of the Thane of the MacRinnalch Clan of werewolves. She's strong and she knows it, and she doesn't get along well with others--she escapes from the clan stronghold in Scotland and makes her way to London after almost killing her father in a fight. Addicted to laudanum and in poor shape, she is set upon by members of her own Clan who think she should pay for what she did to her father. Her older sister and London-based fashion designer, Thrix, helps her as best she can, but when Kalix sells the protective amulet Thrix gave her, she's easily discovered by other werewolves trying to hunt her down.

Kalix's attempts to escape the members of her clan who are trying to kill her lands her squarely in the path of Daniel, a normal university student in London who's never thought about anything like werewolves before. He and his roommate, Moonglow, do their best to protect Kalix and convince her that there are things worth living for, but outside forces intervene and place Kalix directly in the middle of MacRinnalch Clan politics.

This sprawling narrative can be unwieldy at times, and the large numbers of characters and situations initially may seem disjointed, but when the plots begin to intertwine and work together, the many different storylines coalesce into a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.

The beginning of the novel works to set up all of the information necessary for the reader to understand the world that Kalix and her friends and enemies move in, preparing the reader for the meatier middle scenes. The occasional rapid-fire scene shifts and point of view shifts were initially difficult, but these problems ironed themselves out as the ook progressed.

I was really impressed by the different characters portrayed throughout. Kalix is by no means the only one with depth; some of the other werewolves, paranormal creatures, and humans that she runs into are equally well-drawn, with their little quirks and amusing habits. Thrix, Kalix's older sister, is the werewolf enchantress, and yet she enjoys designing clothing, some of which appeals to buyers from alternate dimensions. Malveria, one of these customers, begins as what appears to be a comic character but ends up having a real impact on the plot later on. The politics of the MacRinnalch Clan are carried out by a large array of characters, each with their own distinct motivations and machinations.

LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL is not a simple read, but the complexity is part of the pleasure of reading this book.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard

Werewolf Lite, 17 Jan 2008
Well, I found this book a bit of a disappointment. I bought it because of the recommendation from Neil Gaiman, who is one of my favourite authors.

WARNING- Minor spoiler alert

This book reads like it was written by a mix of a 13 year old girl, all giggly about boyfriends and fashion, and a good fantasy writer.

The characters are interesting but several have motives and drives that are completely unbelievable. For instance, a fire elemental Empress despot who having destroyed all her enemies is now only interested in fashion, to the point where she rescues a dying werewolf at great cost to herself in order to facilitate someone making her an outfit.

The book has flashes of interest and shows a great imagination, but is annoyingly juvenile most of the time.

If you are a young adult female you are most likely to enjoy it.

I was a teenage werewolf, 23 Dec 2007
Even though i'm 37 and usually read, you know, grown-up intellectual stuff...I just love this book! Absolutely could not put it down. It would make a fantastic film or Buffy-style TV series - someone, please buy the film rights. And call it The Werewolf Princess, rather than Lonely Werewolf Girl. And while you're at it, keep the London-Scotland setting, put Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' on the soundtrack, make sure the male werewolves are totally fit, and cast the daft Big Brother twins as Beauty and Delicious. Wouldn't Keira Knightley be great as Kalix - she's the perfect combination of beautiful and irritating...

Hope there's a sequel...

return to form for Martin Millar, 04 Sep 2008
As an old Martin Millar fan, this was a great return to form. I'd been disappointed by Love and Peace with Melody Paradise and really didn't get on with Suzie Led Zepelin and Me. But Lonely Werewolf Girl was up there with the great Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving and Good Fairies.

Reading it was great in its own right - fast moving, funny, fantastic, quirky. Millar's voice was very clear throughout, with his love of short sentences, and simple writing style.

For those who haven't read other things by Millar, he has a unique style, voice, and milieu - marrying elements of fantasy with the London counterculture of squats, pub gigs and piercings.

I read this on holiday, enjoyed it immensely and was gutted when I finished it. I'd waited a long time for a new good book by Millar and I hope the next one comes along soon.

I couldn't put it down., 22 Jun 2008
I started to read this book yesterday evening and read and read and read until it was finished. This was probably the best book I've read in a long time and it's made me want to go out and buy everything this author has written. The sheer joy of finding a new author that I love!

Why did I love it so much? The world as populated with werewolves, faries, fire elementals and a cast of other strange beings was so vividly portrayed and the humor made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions.

The plot centres around Kalix MacRinnalch,(the lonely werewolf girl) youngest daughter of the Thane (werewolf king) who has been living in hiding in london, pursued by a host of murderous hunters, since nearly killing her father. After the death of her father the plot thickens as her brothers Sarapen and Markus (with more than a little plotting on their mothers part) vie for the sucession. So far it doesn't sound to funny does it? However the fantastic cast of supporting characters make this story a complete gem of a read; Fire elementals for whom infighting has become a fashion war, the twins Beauty and Delicious and their rock star ambitions, Daniel and his unrequited crush on Moonglow... The list goes on.

All I can really say is read this book. It's fantastic.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 28 May 2008
The first thing that hit me about this book was the richness of backstory and the sheer size of the cast of characters.

Although the plot centers around the titular lonely teen werewolf, Kalix MacRinnalch, she lives in a rich world populated with numerous other characters whose actions interfere with or drive important developments in the story. Fifteen-year-old Kalix is the youngest daughter of the Thane of the MacRinnalch Clan of werewolves. She's strong and she knows it, and she doesn't get along well with others--she escapes from the clan stronghold in Scotland and makes her way to London after almost killing her father in a fight. Addicted to laudanum and in poor shape, she is set upon by members of her own Clan who think she should pay for what she did to her father. Her older sister and London-based fashion designer, Thrix, helps her as best she can, but when Kalix sells the protective amulet Thrix gave her, she's easily discovered by other werewolves trying to hunt her down.

Kalix's attempts to escape the members of her clan who are trying to kill her lands her squarely in the path of Daniel, a normal university student in London who's never thought about anything like werewolves before. He and his roommate, Moonglow, do their best to protect Kalix and convince her that there are things worth living for, but outside forces intervene and place Kalix directly in the middle of MacRinnalch Clan politics.

This sprawling narrative can be unwieldy at times, and the large numbers of characters and situations initially may seem disjointed, but when the plots begin to intertwine and work together, the many different storylines coalesce into a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.

The beginning of the novel works to set up all of the information necessary for the reader to understand the world that Kalix and her friends and enemies move in, preparing the reader for the meatier middle scenes. The occasional rapid-fire scene shifts and point of view shifts were initially difficult, but these problems ironed themselves out as the ook progressed.

I was really impressed by the different characters portrayed throughout. Kalix is by no means the only one with depth; some of the other werewolves, paranormal creatures, and humans that she runs into are equally well-drawn, with their little quirks and amusing habits. Thrix, Kalix's older sister, is the werewolf enchantress, and yet she enjoys designing clothing, some of which appeals to buyers from alternate dimensions. Malveria, one of these customers, begins as what appears to be a comic character but ends up having a real impact on the plot later on. The politics of the MacRinnalch Clan are carried out by a large array of characters, each with their own distinct motivations and machinations.

LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL is not a simple read, but the complexity is part of the pleasure of reading this book.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard

Werewolf Lite, 17 Jan 2008
Well, I found this book a bit of a disappointment. I bought it because of the recommendation from Neil Gaiman, who is one of my favourite authors.

WARNING- Minor spoiler alert

This book reads like it was written by a mix of a 13 year old girl, all giggly about boyfriends and fashion, and a good fantasy writer.

The characters are interesting but several have motives and drives that are completely unbelievable. For instance, a fire elemental Empress despot who having destroyed all her enemies is now only interested in fashion, to the point where she rescues a dying werewolf at great cost to herself in order to facilitate someone making her an outfit.

The book has flashes of interest and shows a great imagination, but is annoyingly juvenile most of the time.

If you are a young adult female you are most likely to enjoy it.

I was a teenage werewolf, 23 Dec 2007
Even though i'm 37 and usually read, you know, grown-up intellectual stuff...I just love this book! Absolutely could not put it down. It would make a fantastic film or Buffy-style TV series - someone, please buy the film rights. And call it The Werewolf Princess, rather than Lonely Werewolf Girl. And while you're at it, keep the London-Scotland setting, put Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' on the soundtrack, make sure the male werewolves are totally fit, and cast the daft Big Brother twins as Beauty and Delicious. Wouldn't Keira Knightley be great as Kalix - she's the perfect combination of beautiful and irritating...

Hope there's a sequel...

More than 5, 02 Nov 2008
I think this is the first Martin Miller book I read and I think it's still my favourite. I've rebought it several times now having loaned it out and never got it back.

Awful, 29 Sep 2008
I rarely abandon books, especially really early on, but after about 30 pages I could see that this was not going to be my sort of book.

The book started in a very disjointed and confusing way, jumping between characters and venues. But when one of the faries declared that although she'd had sex with many others in a single debauched night she took exception to telephone sex advetised on television, I decided I'd had enough.

Punk fairy invasion, 08 Aug 2008
Most urban fantasy that's currently being published is made up of werewolves, vampires, dark cities and lots of violence and/or sex.

Not so for Martin Millar. Instead, he creates a different kind that is no less urban or fantastical -- incredibly complex, comedic little novels spun out of thistledown prose. And "The Good Fairies of New York" is a primo example of this -- a mixture of rock'n'roll, Celtic fairy tales, and New York chaos, with a little love story and lots of fairy warfare woven in.

Two Scottish thistle fairies arrive on the surly, overweight Dinnie's window, and puke on the carpet. "Don't worry," one says. "Fairy vomit is no doubt sweet-smelling to humans."

But soon the fairies Heather and Morag have a spat, and Morag ends up stomping to Dinnie's neighbor Kerry, a sweet neohippie. The two fairies stick with their new friends throughout the days that follow -- Heather tries to teach Dinnie to play the fiddle, and Morag accompanies Kerry on a Chinatown shoplift trip, and the making of her Celtic flower alphabet. Then Kerry's rare triple-bloom poppy is stolen repeatedly.

And Heather and Morag decide (separately) to bring Dinnie and Kerry together (for very different reasons). Unfortunately, the fairies' attempts to help their friends ends in massive warfare between the Italian, Chinese and Ghanaian fairies of New York -- especially when Scottish thugs and Cornish royalty arrive. Wrecked fairy banners, a legendary violin, a deranged homeless woman who believes herself to be Xenophon, Johnny Thunders' ghost, and Tullochgorum are all thrown into the mix. Can Morag and Heather overcome their differences and somehow save the day?

You can tell what kind of book "The Good Fairies of New York" is by the title alone. Obviously it takes place in New York, and it is mostly populated by (mostly) benevolent fairies. But it's also a gloriously frothy fantasy story that grows more wonderfully chaotic as it goes on, and tackles everything from the proper way to play a fairy reel to avant-garde adaptations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

It's also very tangled up. There are about a hundred different subplots all interwoven together like little strips of silk, and Millar is magically able to juggle all of them throughout the book before tying them neatly together at the finale. Some of them are sweet little stories (the rebel leader desperately wooing his enemy's daughter), and some are just delightfully kooky (the spirit of Johnny Thunders trying to reclaim his prized guitar).

And not only is the frothy plot complex, but it's also hilariously funny. Millar has a spare, tongue-in-cheek style that breezes by smoothly, and it's peppered with jokes on every single page ("So this is the end of the romance?" "Of course not! A passionate young fairy like myself does not let a little thing like a knife attack put him off"). The height of the hilarity involves Morag's confession about what she and Heather did to the fairy flag.

Heather and Morag are a fun pair -- punk rock thistle-fairies who feud constantly when they aren't fast friends, and who have a knack for causing mass mayhem. The airy neohippie Kerry is a likable foil to the fairies, and her crippling disease adds a bit of pathos to the story. Dinnie remains too surly to ever be quite likable, especially given how many TV sex ads he watches.

"The Good Fairies of New York" lives up to its name -- a charming little book with a rock'n'roll edge, a big grimy city, and an abundance of very odd fairy characters. Not your average urban fantasy.

Suggest you read insideu, 28 Jun 2007
Modern day fantasy with descriptive title, enthusiastic reviews, forward by Neil Gaimon. If this is a genre you enjoy, what's not to like?

I bought this book for all these reasons but despite trying couldn't get past the first 30 pages. I found the writing style inconsistent and incoherent to the point I couldn't enjoy the story.

You might love this book as the other reviewers clearly have done, but I suggest you try sampling a couple of pages before you do.

The fairies are abroad, 17 Jun 2007
The rock n roll Scottish thistle fairies, Heather and Morag, are on the run.

Their disrepute brings them to New York, New York!

Beauty, romance, rock n roll, obscure disease, warring factions, and, yes, even the ghost of punk legend Johnny Thunders grace this fast-moving tale.

Martin Millar's unique ability to bring fantasy slam bang together with harsh reality truly shines.

return to form for Martin Millar, 04 Sep 2008
As an old Martin Millar fan, this was a great return to form. I'd been disappointed by Love and Peace with Melody Paradise and really didn't get on with Suzie Led Zepelin and Me. But Lonely Werewolf Girl was up there with the great Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving and Good Fairies.

Reading it was great in its own right - fast moving, funny, fantastic, quirky. Millar's voice was very clear throughout, with his love of short sentences, and simple writing style.

For those who haven't read other things by Millar, he has a unique style, voice, and milieu - marrying elements of fantasy with the London counterculture of squats, pub gigs and piercings.

I read this on holiday, enjoyed it immensely and was gutted when I finished it. I'd waited a long time for a new good book by Millar and I hope the next one comes along soon.

I couldn't put it down., 22 Jun 2008
I started to read this book yesterday evening and read and read and read until it was finished. This was probably the best book I've read in a long time and it's made me want to go out and buy everything this author has written. The sheer joy of finding a new author that I love!

Why did I love it so much? The world as populated with werewolves, faries, fire elementals and a cast of other strange beings was so vividly portrayed and the humor made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions.

The plot centres around Kalix MacRinnalch,(the lonely werewolf girl) youngest daughter of the Thane (werewolf king) who has been living in hiding in london, pursued by a host of murderous hunters, since nearly killing her father. After the death of her father the plot thickens as her brothers Sarapen and Markus (with more than a little plotting on their mothers part) vie for the sucession. So far it doesn't sound to funny does it? However the fantastic cast of supporting characters make this story a complete gem of a read; Fire elementals for whom infighting has become a fashion war, the twins Beauty and Delicious and their rock star ambitions, Daniel and his unrequited crush on Moonglow... The list goes on.

All I can really say is read this book. It's fantastic.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 28 May 2008
The first thing that hit me about this book was the richness of backstory and the sheer size of the cast of characters.

Although the plot centers around the titular lonely teen werewolf, Kalix MacRinnalch, she lives in a rich world populated with numerous other characters whose actions interfere with or drive important developments in the story. Fifteen-year-old Kalix is the youngest daughter of the Thane of the MacRinnalch Clan of werewolves. She's strong and she knows it, and she doesn't get along well with others--she escapes from the clan stronghold in Scotland and makes her way to London after almost killing her father in a fight. Addicted to laudanum and in poor shape, she is set upon by members of her own Clan who think she should pay for what she did to her father. Her older sister and London-based fashion designer, Thrix, helps her as best she can, but when Kalix sells the protective amulet Thrix gave her, she's easily discovered by other werewolves trying to hunt her down.

Kalix's attempts to escape the members of her clan who are trying to kill her lands her squarely in the path of Daniel, a normal university student in London who's never thought about anything like werewolves before. He and his roommate, Moonglow, do their best to protect Kalix and convince her that there are things worth living for, but outside forces intervene and place Kalix directly in the middle of MacRinnalch Clan politics.

This sprawling narrative can be unwieldy at times, and the large numbers of characters and situations initially may seem disjointed, but when the plots begin to intertwine and work together, the many different storylines coalesce into a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.

The beginning of the novel works to set up all of the information necessary for the reader to understand the world that Kalix and her friends and enemies move in, preparing the reader for the meatier middle scenes. The occasional rapid-fire scene shifts and point of view shifts were initially difficult, but these problems ironed themselves out as the ook progressed.

I was really impressed by the different characters portrayed throughout. Kalix is by no means the only one with depth; some of the other werewolves, paranormal creatures, and humans that she runs into are equally well-drawn, with their little quirks and amusing habits. Thrix, Kalix's older sister, is the werewolf enchantress, and yet she enjoys designing clothing, some of which appeals to buyers from alternate dimensions. Malveria, one of these customers, begins as what appears to be a comic character but ends up having a real impact on the plot later on. The politics of the MacRinnalch Clan are carried out by a large array of characters, each with their own distinct motivations and machinations.

LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL is not a simple read, but the complexity is part of the pleasure of reading this book.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard

Werewolf Lite, 17 Jan 2008
Well, I found this book a bit of a disappointment. I bought it because of the recommendation from Neil Gaiman, who is one of my favourite authors.

WARNING- Minor spoiler alert

This book reads like it was written by a mix of a 13 year old girl, all giggly about boyfriends and fashion, and a good fantasy writer.

The characters are interesting but several have motives and drives that are completely unbelievable. For instance, a fire elemental Empress despot who having destroyed all her enemies is now only interested in fashion, to the point where she rescues a dying werewolf at great cost to herself in order to facilitate someone making her an outfit.

The book has flashes of interest and shows a great imagination, but is annoyingly juvenile most of the time.

If you are a young adult female you are most likely to enjoy it.

I was a teenage werewolf, 23 Dec 2007
Even though i'm 37 and usually read, you know, grown-up intellectual stuff...I just love this book! Absolutely could not put it down. It would make a fantastic film or Buffy-style TV series - someone, please buy the film rights. And call it The Werewolf Princess, rather than Lonely Werewolf Girl. And while you're at it, keep the London-Scotland setting, put Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' on the soundtrack, make sure the male werewolves are totally fit, and cast the daft Big Brother twins as Beauty and Delicious. Wouldn't Keira Knightley be great as Kalix - she's the perfect combination of beautiful and irritating...

Hope there's a sequel...

More than 5, 02 Nov 2008
I think this is the first Martin Miller book I read and I think it's still my favourite. I've rebought it several times now having loaned it out and never got it back.

Awful, 29 Sep 2008
I rarely abandon books, especially really early on, but after about 30 pages I could see that this was not going to be my sort of book.

The book started in a very disjointed and confusing way, jumping between characters and venues. But when one of the faries declared that although she'd had sex with many others in a single debauched night she took exception to telephone sex advetised on television, I decided I'd had enough.

Punk fairy invasion, 08 Aug 2008
Most urban fantasy that's currently being published is made up of werewolves, vampires, dark cities and lots of violence and/or sex.

Not so for Martin Millar. Instead, he creates a different kind that is no less urban or fantastical -- incredibly complex, comedic little novels spun out of thistledown prose. And "The Good Fairies of New York" is a primo example of this -- a mixture of rock'n'roll, Celtic fairy tales, and New York chaos, with a little love story and lots of fairy warfare woven in.

Two Scottish thistle fairies arrive on the surly, overweight Dinnie's window, and puke on the carpet. "Don't worry," one says. "Fairy vomit is no doubt sweet-smelling to humans."

But soon the fairies Heather and Morag have a spat, and Morag ends up stomping to Dinnie's neighbor Kerry, a sweet neohippie. The two fairies stick with their new friends throughout the days that follow -- Heather tries to teach Dinnie to play the fiddle, and Morag accompanies Kerry on a Chinatown shoplift trip, and the making of her Celtic flower alphabet. Then Kerry's rare triple-bloom poppy is stolen repeatedly.

And Heather and Morag decide (separately) to bring Dinnie and Kerry together (for very different reasons). Unfortunately, the fairies' attempts to help their friends ends in massive warfare between the Italian, Chinese and Ghanaian fairies of New York -- especially when Scottish thugs and Cornish royalty arrive. Wrecked fairy banners, a legendary violin, a deranged homeless woman who believes herself to be Xenophon, Johnny Thunders' ghost, and Tullochgorum are all thrown into the mix. Can Morag and Heather overcome their differences and somehow save the day?

You can tell what kind of book "The Good Fairies of New York" is by the title alone. Obviously it takes place in New York, and it is mostly populated by (mostly) benevolent fairies. But it's also a gloriously frothy fantasy story that grows more wonderfully chaotic as it goes on, and tackles everything from the proper way to play a fairy reel to avant-garde adaptations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

It's also very tangled up. There are about a hundred different subplots all interwoven together like little strips of silk, and Millar is magically able to juggle all of them throughout the book before tying them neatly together at the finale. Some of them are sweet little stories (the rebel leader desperately wooing his enemy's daughter), and some are just delightfully kooky (the spirit of Johnny Thunders trying to reclaim his prized guitar).

And not only is the frothy plot complex, but it's also hilariously funny. Millar has a spare, tongue-in-cheek style that breezes by smoothly, and it's peppered with jokes on every single page ("So this is the end of the romance?" "Of course not! A passionate young fairy like myself does not let a little thing like a knife attack put him off"). The height of the hilarity involves Morag's confession about what she and Heather did to the fairy flag.

Heather and Morag are a fun pair -- punk rock thistle-fairies who feud constantly when they aren't fast friends, and who have a knack for causing mass mayhem. The airy neohippie Kerry is a likable foil to the fairies, and her crippling disease adds a bit of pathos to the story. Dinnie remains too surly to ever be quite likable, especially given how many TV sex ads he watches.

"The Good Fairies of New York" lives up to its name -- a charming little book with a rock'n'roll edge, a big grimy city, and an abundance of very odd fairy characters. Not your average urban fantasy.

Suggest you read insideu, 28 Jun 2007
Modern day fantasy with descriptive title, enthusiastic reviews, forward by Neil Gaimon. If this is a genre you enjoy, what's not to like?

I bought this book for all these reasons but despite trying couldn't get past the first 30 pages. I found the writing style inconsistent and incoherent to the point I couldn't enjoy the story.

You might love this book as the other reviewers clearly have done, but I suggest you try sampling a couple of pages before you do.

The fairies are abroad, 17 Jun 2007
The rock n roll Scottish thistle fairies, Heather and Morag, are on the run.

Their disrepute brings them to New York, New York!

Beauty, romance, rock n roll, obscure disease, warring factions, and, yes, even the ghost of punk legend Johnny Thunders grace this fast-moving tale.

Martin Millar's unique ability to bring fantasy slam bang together with harsh reality truly shines.

Whole Lotta Like, 18 Aug 2008
An impossible book to dislike, this book is a kind of fictionalised autobiography, sharing some of the elements of Nick Hornby's early works which detail odd male obsessional behaviour. The main story here is set in the Seventies, and revolves around a gig by the mega rock group Led Zeppelin in Glasgow.

Towards the end of the book, it becomes more and more obvious that this is a heavily fictionalised retelling of events; In fact, it is the more mundane musings on day to day teenage concerns that are the highpoints of the book for me. A passage where the narrator and his equally geeky friend, Greg, discuss the nature of Time, while on their paper round, is a real comic gem.

The rather melodramatic ending of the story rather undermines the earlier down to Earth tone, in my opinion, but overall, it is a very enjoyable read.

The very short chapters, designed for readers with short attention spans, our author tells us, would make this a perfect book for anyone who has difficulty with finishing a book, or even for anyone who has not managed to acquire the habit of reading for pleasure, and would like to do so.

Best Book I've read in Years, 29 Sep 2003
For all those like me that can remember and still articulate the smells and sounds of rock n roll in the seventies and early 80's. The girls, the noise, the sweaty theatres called odeons and Apollos.

Interwoven with 90's cool, 70's metal , tragedy and love, this book is all about obsession and the belief in rock.

Buy it now, you will not regret

A great book., 13 Jul 2002
I thought this book was excellent. Most of it is very funny. Lots of sub plots revolving round the Led Zeppelin gig, appearances from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scottish fairies, teenage angst and more. With some unexpected tragedy along the way, made all the more effective by its unexpectedness. Martin Millar is one of my favourite authors and this is as good as anything he's written.

Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me captures teenage angst perfectly., 08 May 2002
I've read most - maybe all - of Martin Millar's books but Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me has got to be his best one yet. It's about being a teenage boy in the seventies, obsessed (you've guessed it) with Suzy and Led Zeppelin. You don't have to be a man or a Led Zep fan to appreciate this book (I'm not either). It is funny, moving - some really sad things happen - and completely compelling. You'll read it in one sitting. I don't think I've ever read a book that captures so well, yet so simply, the feeling of being a teenager. And Millar favourites, the fairies, appear too. Along with dragons and dead rock stars like Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin.

return to form for Martin Millar, 04 Sep 2008
As an old Martin Millar fan, this was a great return to form. I'd been disappointed by Love and Peace with Melody Paradise and really didn't get on with Suzie Led Zepelin and Me. But Lonely Werewolf Girl was up there with the great Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving and Good Fairies.

Reading it was great in its own right - fast moving, funny, fantastic, quirky. Millar's voice was very clear throughout, with his love of short sentences, and simple writing style.

For those who haven't read other things by Millar, he has a unique style, voice, and milieu - marrying elements of fantasy with the London counterculture of squats, pub gigs and piercings.

I read this on holiday, enjoyed it immensely and was gutted when I finished it. I'd waited a long time for a new good book by Millar and I hope the next one comes along soon.

I couldn't put it down., 22 Jun 2008
I started to read this book yesterday evening and read and read and read until it was finished. This was probably the best book I've read in a long time and it's made me want to go out and buy everything this author has written. The sheer joy of finding a new author that I love!

Why did I love it so much? The world as populated with werewolves, faries, fire elementals and a cast of other strange beings was so vividly portrayed and the humor made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions.

The plot centres around Kalix MacRinnalch,(the lonely werewolf girl) youngest daughter of the Thane (werewolf king) who has been living in hiding in london, pursued by a host of murderous hunters, since nearly killing her father. After the death of her father the plot thickens as her brothers Sarapen and Markus (with more than a little plotting on their mothers part) vie for the sucession. So far it doesn't sound to funny does it? However the fantastic cast of supporting characters make this story a complete gem of a read; Fire elementals for whom infighting has become a fashion war, the twins Beauty and Delicious and their rock star ambitions, Daniel and his unrequited crush on Moonglow... The list goes on.

All I can really say is read this book. It's fantastic.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 28 May 2008
The first thing that hit me about this book was the richness of backstory and the sheer size of the cast of characters.

Although the plot centers around the titular lonely teen werewolf, Kalix MacRinnalch, she lives in a rich world populated with numerous other characters whose actions interfere with or drive important developments in the story. Fifteen-year-old Kalix is the youngest daughter of the Thane of the MacRinnalch Clan of werewolves. She's strong and she knows it, and she doesn't get along well with others--she escapes from the clan stronghold in Scotland and makes her way to London after almost killing her father in a fight. Addicted to laudanum and in poor shape, she is set upon by members of her own Clan who think she should pay for what she did to her father. Her older sister and London-based fashion designer, Thrix, helps her as best she can, but when Kalix sells the protective amulet Thrix gave her, she's easily discovered by other werewolves trying to hunt her down.

Kalix's attempts to escape the members of her clan who are trying to kill her lands her squarely in the path of Daniel, a normal university student in London who's never thought about anything like werewolves before. He and his roommate, Moonglow, do their best to protect Kalix and convince her that there are things worth living for, but outside forces intervene and place Kalix directly in the middle of MacRinnalch Clan politics.

This sprawling narrative can be unwieldy at times, and the large numbers of characters and situations initially may seem disjointed, but when the plots begin to intertwine and work together, the many different storylines coalesce into a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.

The beginning of the novel works to set up all of the information necessary for the reader to understand the world that Kalix and her friends and enemies move in, preparing the reader for the meatier middle scenes. The occasional rapid-fire scene shifts and point of view shifts were initially difficult, but these problems ironed themselves out as the ook progressed.

I was really impressed by the different characters portrayed throughout. Kalix is by no means the only one with depth; some of the other werewolves, paranormal creatures, and humans that she runs into are equally well-drawn, with their little quirks and amusing habits. Thrix, Kalix's older sister, is the werewolf enchantress, and yet she enjoys designing clothing, some of which appeals to buyers from alternate dimensions. Malveria, one of these customers, begins as what appears to be a comic character but ends up having a real impact on the plot later on. The politics of the MacRinnalch Clan are carried out by a large array of characters, each with their own distinct motivations and machinations.

LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL is not a simple read, but the complexity is part of the pleasure of reading this book.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard

Werewolf Lite, 17 Jan 2008
Well, I found this book a bit of a disappointment. I bought it because of the recommendation from Neil Gaiman, who is one of my favourite authors.

WARNING- Minor spoiler alert

This book reads like it was written by a mix of a 13 year old girl, all giggly about boyfriends and fashion, and a good fantasy writer.

The characters are interesting but several have motives and drives that are completely unbelievable. For instance, a fire elemental Empress despot who having destroyed all her enemies is now only interested in fashion, to the point where she rescues a dying werewolf at great cost to herself in order to facilitate someone making her an outfit.

The book has flashes of interest and shows a great imagination, but is annoyingly juvenile most of the time.

If you are a young adult female you are most likely to enjoy it.

I was a teenage werewolf, 23 Dec 2007
Even though i'm 37 and usually read, you know, grown-up intellectual stuff...I just love this book! Absolutely could not put it down. It would make a fantastic film or Buffy-style TV series - someone, please buy the film rights. And call it The Werewolf Princess, rather than Lonely Werewolf Girl. And while you're at it, keep the London-Scotland setting, put Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' on the soundtrack, make sure the male werewolves are totally fit, and cast the daft Big Brother twins as Beauty and Delicious. Wouldn't Keira Knightley be great as Kalix - she's the perfect combination of beautiful and irritating...

Hope there's a sequel...

More than 5, 02 Nov 2008
I think this is the first Martin Miller book I read and I think it's still my favourite. I've rebought it several times now having loaned it out and never got it back.

Awful, 29 Sep 2008
I rarely abandon books, especially really early on, but after about 30 pages I could see that this was not going to be my sort of book.

The book started in a very disjointed and confusing way, jumping between characters and venues. But when one of the faries declared that although she'd had sex with many others in a single debauched night she took exception to telephone sex advetised on television, I decided I'd had enough.

Punk fairy invasion, 08 Aug 2008
Most urban fantasy that's currently being published is made up of werewolves, vampires, dark cities and lots of violence and/or sex.

Not so for Martin Millar. Instead, he creates a different kind that is no less urban or fantastical -- incredibly complex, comedic little novels spun out of thistledown prose. And "The Good Fairies of New York" is a primo example of this -- a mixture of rock'n'roll, Celtic fairy tales, and New York chaos, with a little love story and lots of fairy warfare woven in.

Two Scottish thistle fairies arrive on the surly, overweight Dinnie's window, and puke on the carpet. "Don't worry," one says. "Fairy vomit is no doubt sweet-smelling to humans."

But soon the fairies Heather and Morag have a spat, and Morag ends up stomping to Dinnie's neighbor Kerry, a sweet neohippie. The two fairies stick with their new friends throughout the days that follow -- Heather tries to teach Dinnie to play the fiddle, and Morag accompanies Kerry on a Chinatown shoplift trip, and the making of her Celtic flower alphabet. Then Kerry's rare triple-bloom poppy is stolen repeatedly.

And Heather and Morag decide (separately) to bring Dinnie and Kerry together (for very different reasons). Unfortunately, the fairies' attempts to help their friends ends in massive warfare between the Italian, Chinese and Ghanaian fairies of New York -- especially when Scottish thugs and Cornish royalty arrive. Wrecked fairy banners, a legendary violin, a deranged homeless woman who believes herself to be Xenophon, Johnny Thunders' ghost, and Tullochgorum are all thrown into the mix. Can Morag and Heather overcome their differences and somehow save the day?

You can tell what kind of book "The Good Fairies of New York" is by the title alone. Obviously it takes place in New York, and it is mostly populated by (mostly) benevolent fairies. But it's also a gloriously frothy fantasy story that grows more wonderfully chaotic as it goes on, and tackles everything from the proper way to play a fairy reel to avant-garde adaptations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

It's also very tangled up. There are about a hundred different subplots all interwoven together like little strips of silk, and Millar is magically able to juggle all of them throughout the book before tying them neatly together at the finale. Some of them are sweet little stories (the rebel leader desperately wooing his enemy's daughter), and some are just delightfully kooky (the spirit of Johnny Thunders trying to reclaim his prized guitar).

And not only is the frothy plot complex, but it's also hilariously funny. Millar has a spare, tongue-in-cheek style that breezes by smoothly, and it's peppered with jokes on every single page ("So this is the end of the romance?" "Of course not! A passionate young fairy like myself does not let a little thing like a knife attack put him off"). The height of the hilarity involves Morag's confession about what she and Heather did to the fairy flag.

Heather and Morag are a fun pair -- punk rock thistle-fairies who feud constantly when they aren't fast friends, and who have a knack for causing mass mayhem. The airy neohippie Kerry is a likable foil to the fairies, and her crippling disease adds a bit of pathos to the story. Dinnie remains too surly to ever be quite likable, especially given how many TV sex ads he watches.

"The Good Fairies of New York" lives up to its name -- a charming little book with a rock'n'roll edge, a big grimy city, and an abundance of very odd fairy characters. Not your average urban fantasy.

Suggest you read insideu, 28 Jun 2007
Modern day fantasy with descriptive title, enthusiastic reviews, forward by Neil Gaimon. If this is a genre you enjoy, what's not to like?

I bought this book for all these reasons but despite trying couldn't get past the first 30 pages. I found the writing style inconsistent and incoherent to the point I couldn't enjoy the story.

You might love this book as the other reviewers clearly have done, but I suggest you try sampling a couple of pages before you do.

The fairies are abroad, 17 Jun 2007
The rock n roll Scottish thistle fairies, Heather and Morag, are on the run.

Their disrepute brings them to New York, New York!

Beauty, romance, rock n roll, obscure disease, warring factions, and, yes, even the ghost of punk legend Johnny Thunders grace this fast-moving tale.

Martin Millar's unique ability to bring fantasy slam bang together with harsh reality truly shines.

Whole Lotta Like, 18 Aug 2008
An impossible book to dislike, this book is a kind of fictionalised autobiography, sharing some of the elements of Nick Hornby's early works which detail odd male obsessional behaviour. The main story here is set in the Seventies, and revolves around a gig by the mega rock group Led Zeppelin in Glasgow.

Towards the end of the book, it becomes more and more obvious that this is a heavily fictionalised retelling of events; In fact, it is the more mundane musings on day to day teenage concerns that are the highpoints of the book for me. A passage where the narrator and his equally geeky friend, Greg, discuss the nature of Time, while on their paper round, is a real comic gem.

The rather melodramatic ending of the story rather undermines the earlier down to Earth tone, in my opinion, but overall, it is a very enjoyable read.

The very short chapters, designed for readers with short attention spans, our author tells us, would make this a perfect book for anyone who has difficulty with finishing a book, or even for anyone who has not managed to acquire the habit of reading for pleasure, and would like to do so.

Best Book I've read in Years, 29 Sep 2003
For all those like me that can remember and still articulate the smells and sounds of rock n roll in the seventies and early 80's. The girls, the noise, the sweaty theatres called odeons and Apollos.

Interwoven with 90's cool, 70's metal , tragedy and love, this book is all about obsession and the belief in rock.

Buy it now, you will not regret

A great book., 13 Jul 2002
I thought this book was excellent. Most of it is very funny. Lots of sub plots revolving round the Led Zeppelin gig, appearances from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scottish fairies, teenage angst and more. With some unexpected tragedy along the way, made all the more effective by its unexpectedness. Martin Millar is one of my favourite authors and this is as good as anything he's written.

Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me captures teenage angst perfectly., 08 May 2002
I've read most - maybe all - of Martin Millar's books but Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me has got to be his best one yet. It's about being a teenage boy in the seventies, obsessed (you've guessed it) with Suzy and Led Zeppelin. You don't have to be a man or a Led Zep fan to appreciate this book (I'm not either). It is funny, moving - some really sad things happen - and completely compelling. You'll read it in one sitting. I don't think I've ever read a book that captures so well, yet so simply, the feeling of being a teenager. And Millar favourites, the fairies, appear too. Along with dragons and dead rock stars like Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin.

Martin Suter - A Deal With the Devil, 25 Nov 2008
Recently shortlisted (probably justly) for the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger, Martin Suter's bestselling novel of altered senses is a quirky, original crime novel that has much charm and appeal.

After being attacked by her husband, and resultantly going off the rails a bit, Sonia Frey becomes synaesthetic after a hard acid trip. In other words, her senses become interchangeable: she sees noises as colours, for example, and can feel tastes. Needing a break from her increasingly stressful life, she takes a job as a physiotherapist at a new hotel in a remote Swiss village. After a while, strange events start occurring. Initially, they're dismissed as freak happenings and no attention is paid them. That is, until Sonia comes across the folklore tale of "the Devil of Milan", and realises that the strange events happening around her oddly mirror some disturbing verses in the tale. Originally no one believes her. But when more violent events start taking place at the hotel, Sonia's theory does not seem quite so outlandish...

I enjoyed A Deal with the Devil immensely. As a puzzle to be solved, it's excellent, as a panorama of the journey Sonia makes from beginning to end, it's mapping and illustration are also excellent. And as a meditation on the nature of reality and perception, the way people see things differently though no versions are any the less real in the mind, it is also excellent. Much of its charm and grip lies in how original it is, how intriguing the nature of Sonia's sensual disorder. It's pacy, very exciting, sometimes moving, always a puzzle that leaves you in the dark.. However, the pace means that few of the characters have much depth, apart Sonia of course, who is a superb and superbly realised protagonist. Most of the periphery characters, though, are fleshed out arbitrarily, and some of them don't seem to have much purpose at all. Pace doesn't always mean superficial characters, of course, but Suter's writing isn't good enough (or the translation, or that he just doesn't make much effort to do it) to achieve both.

Nevertheless, reading it, and finishing it and being completely satisfied, meant I wasn't bothered. I'd enjoyed it so much that it didn't really matter. The characters could have been more fleshed out but that would have been merely a bonus. Because the bottom line is that A Deal with the Devil is an incredibly enjoyable, gripping and dramatic book, with a lovely line in originality. It's worth anyone's time, and I would all too gladly have spent a lot more time in the company of Sonia Frey. Very good stuff.

return to form for Martin Millar, 04 Sep 2008
As an old Martin Millar fan, this was a great return to form. I'd been disappointed by Love and Peace with Melody Paradise and really didn't get on with Suzie Led Zepelin and Me. But Lonely Werewolf Girl was up there with the great Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving and Good Fairies.

Reading it was great in its own right - fast moving, funny, fantastic, quirky. Millar's voice was very clear throughout, with his love of short sentences, and simple writing style.

For those who haven't read other things by Millar, he has a unique style, voice, and milieu - marrying elements of fantasy with the London counterculture of squats, pub gigs and piercings.

I read this on holiday, enjoyed it immensely and was gutted when I finished it. I'd waited a long time for a new good book by Millar and I hope the next one comes along soon.

I couldn't put it down., 22 Jun 2008
I started to read this book yesterday evening and read and read and read until it was finished. This was probably the best book I've read in a long time and it's made me want to go out and buy everything this author has written. The sheer joy of finding a new author that I love!

Why did I love it so much? The world as populated with werewolves, faries, fire elementals and a cast of other strange beings was so vividly portrayed and the humor made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions.

The plot centres around Kalix MacRinnalch,(the lonely werewolf girl) youngest daughter of the Thane (werewolf king) who has been living in hiding in london, pursued by a host of murderous hunters, since nearly killing her father. After the death of her father the plot thickens as her brothers Sarapen and Markus (with more than a little plotting on their mothers part) vie for the sucession. So far it doesn't sound to funny does it? However the fantastic cast of supporting characters make this story a complete gem of a read; Fire elementals for whom infighting has become a fashion war, the twins Beauty and Delicious and their rock star ambitions, Daniel and his unrequited crush on Moonglow... The list goes on.

All I can really say is read this book. It's fantastic.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too, 28 May 2008
The first thing that hit me about this book was the richness of backstory and the sheer size of the cast of characters.

Although the plot centers around the titular lonely teen werewolf, Kalix MacRinnalch, she lives in a rich world populated with numerous other characters whose actions interfere with or drive important developments in the story. Fifteen-year-old Kalix is the youngest daughter of the Thane of the MacRinnalch Clan of werewolves. She's strong and she knows it, and she doesn't get along well with others--she escapes from the clan stronghold in Scotland and makes her way to London after almost killing her father in a fight. Addicted to laudanum and in poor shape, she is set upon by members of her own Clan who think she should pay for what she did to her father. Her older sister and London-based fashion designer, Thrix, helps her as best she can, but when Kalix sells the protective amulet Thrix gave her, she's easily discovered by other werewolves trying to hunt her down.

Kalix's attempts to escape the members of her clan who are trying to kill her lands her squarely in the path of Daniel, a normal university student in London who's never thought about anything like werewolves before. He and his roommate, Moonglow, do their best to protect Kalix and convince her that there are things worth living for, but outside forces intervene and place Kalix directly in the middle of MacRinnalch Clan politics.

This sprawling narrative can be unwieldy at times, and the large numbers of characters and situations initially may seem disjointed, but when the plots begin to intertwine and work together, the many different storylines coalesce into a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.

The beginning of the novel works to set up all of the information necessary for the reader to understand the world that Kalix and her friends and enemies move in, preparing the reader for the meatier middle scenes. The occasional rapid-fire scene shifts and point of view shifts were initially difficult, but these problems ironed themselves out as the ook progressed.

I was really impressed by the different characters portrayed throughout. Kalix is by no means the only one with depth; some of the other werewolves, paranormal creatures, and humans that she runs into are equally well-drawn, with their little quirks and amusing habits. Thrix, Kalix's older sister, is the werewolf enchantress, and yet she enjoys designing clothing, some of which appeals to buyers from alternate dimensions. Malveria, one of these customers, begins as what appears to be a comic character but ends up having a real impact on the plot later on. The politics of the MacRinnalch Clan are carried out by a large array of characters, each with their own distinct motivations and machinations.

LONELY WEREWOLF GIRL is not a simple read, but the complexity is part of the pleasure of reading this book.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard

Werewolf Lite, 17 Jan 2008
Well, I found this book a bit of a disappointment. I bought it because of the recommendation from Neil Gaiman, who is one of my favourite authors.

WARNING- Minor spoiler alert

This book reads like it was written by a mix of a 13 year old girl, all giggly about boyfriends and fashion, and a good fantasy writer.

The characters are interesting but several have motives and drives that are completely unbelievable. For instance, a fire elemental Empress despot who having destroyed all her enemies is now only interested in fashion, to the point where she rescues a dying werewolf at great cost to herself in order to facilitate someone making her an outfit.

The book has flashes of interest and shows a great imagination, but is annoyingly juvenile most of the time.

If you are a young adult female you are most likely to enjoy it.

I was a teenage werewolf, 23 Dec 2007
Even though i'm 37 and usually read, you know, grown-up intellectual stuff...I just love this book! Absolutely could not put it down. It would make a fantastic film or Buffy-style TV series - someone, please buy the film rights. And call it The Werewolf Princess, rather than Lonely Werewolf Girl. And while you're at it, keep the London-Scotland setting, put Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' on the soundtrack, make sure the male werewolves are totally fit, and cast the daft Big Brother twins as Beauty and Delicious. Wouldn't Keira Knightley be great as Kalix - she's the perfect combination of beautiful and irritating...

Hope there's a sequel...

More than 5, 02 Nov 2008
I think this is the first Martin Miller book I read and I think it's still my favourite. I've rebought it several times now having loaned it out and never got it back.

Awful, 29 Sep 2008
I rarely abandon books, especially really early on, but after about 30 pages I could see that this was not going to be my sort of book.

The book started in a very disjointed and confusing way, jumping between characters and venues. But when one of the faries declared that although she'd had sex with many others in a single debauched night she took exception to telephone sex advetised on television, I decided I'd had enough.

Punk fairy invasion, 08 Aug 2008
Most urban fantasy that's currently being published is made up of werewolves, vampires, dark cities and lots of violence and/or sex.

Not so for Martin Millar. Instead, he creates a different kind that is no less urban or fantastical -- incredibly complex, comedic little novels spun out of thistledown prose. And "The Good Fairies of New York" is a primo example of this -- a mixture of rock'n'roll, Celtic fairy tales, and New York chaos, with a little love story and lots of fairy warfare woven in.

Two Scottish thistle fairies arrive on the surly, overweight Dinnie's window, and puke on the carpet. "Don't worry," one says. "Fairy vomit is no doubt sweet-smelling to humans."

But soon the fairies Heather and Morag have a spat, and Morag ends up stomping to Dinnie's neighbor Kerry, a sweet neohippie. The two fairies stick with their new friends throughout the days that follow -- Heather tries to teach Dinnie to play the fiddle, and Morag accompanies Kerry on a Chinatown shoplift trip, and the making of her Celtic flower alphabet. Then Kerry's rare triple-bloom poppy is stolen repeatedly.

And Heather and Morag decide (separately) to bring Dinnie and Kerry together (for very different reasons). Unfortunately, the fairies' attempts to help their friends ends in massive warfare between the Italian, Chinese and Ghanaian fairies of New York -- especially when Scottish thugs and Cornish royalty arrive. Wrecked fairy banners, a legendary violin, a deranged homeless woman who believes herself to be Xenophon, Johnny Thunders' ghost, and Tullochgorum are all thrown into the mix. Can Morag and Heather overcome their differences and somehow save the day?

You can tell what kind of book "The Good Fairies of New York" is by the title alone. Obviously it takes place in New York, and it is mostly populated by (mostly) benevolent fairies. But it's also a gloriously frothy fantasy story that grows more wonderfully chaotic as it goes on, and tackles everything from the proper way to play a fairy reel to avant-garde adaptations of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

It's also very tangled up. There are about a hundred different subplots all interwoven together like little strips of silk, and Millar is magically able to juggle all of them throughout the book before tying them neatly together at the finale. Some of them are sweet little stories (the rebel leader desperately wooing his enemy's daughter), and some are just delightfully kooky (the spirit of Johnny Thunders trying to reclaim his prized guitar).

And not only is the frothy plot complex, but it's also hilariously funny. Millar has a spare, tongue-in-cheek style that breezes by smoothly, and it's peppered with jokes on every single page ("So this is the end of the romance?" "Of course not! A passionate young fairy like myself does not let a little thing like a knife attack put him off"). The height of the hilarity involves Morag's confession about what she and Heather did to the fairy flag.

Heather and Morag are a fun pair -- punk rock thistle-fairies who feud constantly when they aren't fast friends, and who have a knack for causing mass mayhem. The airy neohippie Kerry is a likable foil to the fairies, and her crippling disease adds a bit of pathos to the story. Dinnie remains too surly to ever be quite likable, especially given how many TV sex ads he watches.

"The Good Fairies of New York" lives up to its name -- a charming little book with a rock'n'roll edge, a big grimy city, and an abundance of very odd fairy characters. Not your average urban fantasy.

Suggest you read insideu, 28 Jun 2007
Modern day fantasy with descriptive title, enthusiastic reviews, forward by Neil Gaimon. If this is a genre you enjoy, what's not to like?

I bought this book for all these reasons but despite trying couldn't get past the first 30 pages. I found the writing style inconsistent and incoherent to the point I couldn't enjoy the story.

You might love this book as the other reviewers clearly have done, but I suggest you try sampling a couple of pages before you do.

The fairies are abroad, 17 Jun 2007
The rock n roll Scottish thistle fairies, Heather and Morag, are on the run.

Their disrepute brings them to New York, New York!

Beauty, romance, rock n roll, obscure disease, warring factions, and, yes, even the ghost of punk legend Johnny Thunders grace this fast-moving tale.

Martin Millar's unique ability to bring fantasy slam bang together with harsh reality truly shines.

Whole Lotta Like, 18 Aug 2008
An impossible book to dislike, this book is a kind of fictionalised autobiography, sharing some of the elements of Nick Hornby's early works which detail odd male obsessional behaviour. The main story here is set in the Seventies, and revolves around a gig by the mega rock group Led Zeppelin in Glasgow.

Towards the end of the book, it becomes more and more obvious that this is a heavily fictionalised retelling of events; In fact, it is the more mundane musings on day to day teenage concerns that are the highpoints of the book for me. A passage where the narrator and his equally geeky friend, Greg, discuss the nature of Time, while on their paper round, is a real comic gem.

The rather melodramatic ending of the story rather undermines the earlier down to Earth tone, in my opinion, but overall, it is a very enjoyable read.

The very short chapters, designed for readers with short attention spans, our author tells us, would make this a perfect book for anyone who has difficulty with finishing a book, or even for anyone who has not managed to acquire the habit of reading for pleasure, and would like to do so.

Best Book I've read in Years, 29 Sep 2003
For all those like me that can remember and still articulate the smells and sounds of rock n roll in the seventies and early 80's. The girls, the noise, the sweaty theatres called odeons and Apollos.

Interwoven with 90's cool, 70's metal , tragedy and love, this book is all about obsession and the belief in rock.

Buy it now, you will not regret

A great book., 13 Jul 2002
I thought this book was excellent. Most of it is very funny. Lots of sub plots revolving round the Led Zeppelin gig, appearances from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Scottish fairies, teenage angst and more. With some unexpected tragedy along the way, made all the more effective by its unexpectedness. Martin Millar is one of my favourite authors and this is as good as anything he's written.

Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me captures teenage angst perfectly., 08 May 2002
I've read most - maybe all - of Martin Millar's books but Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me has got to be his best one yet. It's about being a teenage boy in the seventies, obsessed (you've guessed it) with Suzy and Led Zeppelin. You don't have to be a man or a Led Zep fan to appreciate this book (I'm not either). It is funny, moving - some really sad things happen - and completely compelling. You'll read it in one sitting. I don't think I've ever read a book that captures so well, yet so simply, the feeling of being a teenager. And Millar favourites, the fairies, appear too. Along with dragons and dead rock stars like Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin.

Martin Suter - A Deal With the Devil, 25 Nov 2008
Recently shortlisted (probably justly) for the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger, Martin Suter's bestselling novel of altered senses is a quirky, original crime novel that has much charm and appeal.

After being attacked by her husband, and resultantly going off the rails a bit, Sonia Frey becomes synaesthetic after a hard acid trip. In other words, her senses become interchangeable: she sees noises as colours, for example, and can feel tastes. Needing a break from her increasingly stressful life, she takes a job as a physiotherapist at a new hotel in a remote Swiss village. After a while, strange events start occurring. Initially, they're dismissed as freak happenings and no attention is paid them. That is, until Sonia comes across the folklore tale of "the Devil of Milan", and realises that the strange events happening around her oddly mirror some disturbing verses in the tale. Originally no one believes her. But when more violent events start taking place at the hotel, Sonia's theory does not seem quite so outlandish...

I enjoyed A Deal with the Devil immensely. As a puzzle to be solved, it's excellent, as a panorama of the journey Sonia makes from beginning to end, it's mapping and illustration are also excellent. And as a meditation on the nature of reality and perception, the way people see things differently though no versions are any the less real in the mind, it is also excellent. Much of its charm and grip lies in how original it is, how intriguing the nature of Sonia's sensual disorder. It's pacy, very exciting, sometimes moving, always a puzzle that leaves you in the dark.. However, the pace means that few of the characters have much depth, apart Sonia of course, who is a superb and superbly realised protagonist. Most of the periphery characters, though, are fleshed out arbitrarily, and some of them don't seem to have much purpose at all. Pace doesn't always mean superficial characters, of course, but Suter's writing isn't good enough (or the translation, or that he just doesn't make much effort to do it) to achieve both.

Nevertheless, reading it, and finishing it and being completely satisfied, meant I wasn't bothered. I'd enjoyed it so much that it didn't really matter. The characters could have been more fleshed out but that would have been merely a bonus. Because the bottom line is that A Deal with the Devil is an incredibly enjoyable, gripping and dramatic book, with a lovely line in originality. It's worth anyone's time, and I would all too gladly have spent a lot more time in the company of Sonia Frey. Very good stuff.

Really funny, 15 May 2008
this book is about a vain 'poet' wondering around a riot searching for the woman he loves(who is a lesbian), whilst trying to recite his poetry to very annoyed reporters. And to top off the wierdness, reincarnated angels are also wondering around, one trying to do good deeds, and the other determined to thwart her.

Martin Millar. Python for Generation X, 03 Oct 2006
There's a riot, see. Lux is looking for the love of his lives but she's in shock after killing her computer. Anyway, she's a lesbian. Her employers want their disc back. The thrash metal band want their tape back not to mention their cocaine and all their KY. The immortals are fighting (as usual.) And the marketing exec thinks he's being head hunted.

There's some sex in their, too. Some upset TV crews. Some angry police. Quite a bit of humour. Some laugh out loud humour. Some smile knowingly to yourself humour. Some WTF? humour. There's an awful lot of humour, actually.

Oh, and not forgetting the ancient Japanese aroma competition. And poetry.

brixton belle, 01 Nov 2003
This is a style-changing book.Author Martin Miller is probably one of the least appreciated and most influential of underground authors, and this is my most favourite book by him. This is anarchist prose with love and kisses. Lux, the poet, is the vainest of heroes, with a cast of gods, queens, lovers and rioters to add to a fin de siecle drama that captures 80's London so well.I love this book so much I bought 2 copies so if anyone borrowed one I'd never be without...Lux.XXX