The wicked lies of Habren Faire by Anna Fiteni
Set in Llanadwen, a village in Anglesey Wales (Cymru) in the year of 1842 CE, The wicked lies of Habren Faire, takes the reader to a Welsh world; a world caught between the real life world of a Welsh mining village and a forest containing the world of the tylwyth teg (the fair family). Deeply imaginative and immersed in the world of the faerie folk, anyone who has ever been told to never mess with the fairies at the bottom of the garden as well as anyone who hasn't, will know to tread very carefully after reading this book.
Told in the first person voice of Sabrina Parry (Habren), The wicked lies of Habren Faire is a romantasy about a girl who must strike a bargain with a fae prince. We all know it is not a good idea to bargain with the faerie folk! They are dangerous, complex and otherworldly. Depicting the world of nineteenth century Wales, the age when the Welsh were impoverished and endentured to the English who owned everything including the coalmines in which the Welsh toiled in dangerous conditions, the book reflects a time when Welsh language was banned in schools and the people were weighed down with tax, tolls and famine.
The wicked lies of Habren Faire opens with our heroine Sabrina (Habren), watching her father on trial for a litany of crimes including inciting civil unrest and arson (the burning of the Llanadwen Tollhouse) and being sentenced to transportation to Australia. Habren's father tells her that she is the trunk of the family tree with him being the roots, Gran the branches and Ceridwen (her beautiful but frail sister) the leaves. When the roots are torn away, it is up to Habren to look after the family. All a girl could do in those days was to marry as well as she could or work for the English as a servant in one of their great houses. In the evening after the trial, Habren tells Ceridwen an old Welsh story about royalty, beautiful princesses, duty and marriage. She tells Ceredwin that she may have to marry to save the family as she sees no chance of herself winning any suitors living, as she does, in the shadow of her beautiful sister. "I know how it is to be overlooked. Don't take it to heart," says her Gran. She too had had a sister who outshone her and disappeared. On that very evening Ceridwen disappears from the house...a second disappearance of a woman from the family - a generation apart.
Close to the family house is a forest where no one goes because no one comes back alive. Habren follows her sister into the forest and into the world of the tylwyth teg. Habren's greatest talent is her ability to lie and these lies will take her far. She is a very engaging heroine whose character, with its strengths and flaws, changes, grows and resolves.The reader cannot help but be on her side, heart in the mouth, as she faces horrors and dangers and somehow lies, fabricates and smart mouths her way out of trouble. Intent on the rescue of her sister, she encounters the possibility of her own attractiveness and of love. She learns to use her power to great advantage. Sometimes her choices are heartbreaking but she learns to control her world.
Cardiff based author, Anna Fiteni's language useage is rich, creating a world of emotional depth and vivid, engaging imagery. Open any page and be delighted by the colour, depth and Welsh cultural context where every chapter heading is both Welsh and English and smatterings of Welsh appear throughout the text. This adds to the otherworldliness as the book occupies the Welsh and faerie worlds. Where will Habren finish up? Will she have the power to choose?
For lovers of coming-of-age romantasies, The wicked lies of Habren Faire is a book that immerses the reader in adventure, danger, romance, betrayals and in addition - a world that is part folkloric Welsh and part historical nineteenth century Wales. The coal mining families' lives and real historical disasters are captured and woven into the storyline so that the reader has a sense of blurry lines between historical Welsh collier village life and the faerie world.
What a clever book The wicked lies of Habren Faire is! It is an atmospheric convergence of the mortal and immortal world as well as a cry for Welsh nationhood and cultural reclamation!
Themes: Welsh faeries, Legends, Language, Culture and history, Humans vs faeries, Immortality, Romance, Reclamation of Welsh identity.
Wendy Jeffrey