Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy

Melissa de la Cruz

Dec 2020 · The Chronicles of Never After Book 1 · Sold by Roaring Brook Press

About this ebook

*A New York Times Bestseller*
*A B&N Young Reader Monthly Pick*
*A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist*

Discover a new middle-grade fantasy saga perfect for fans of The Land of Stories series from the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of The Descendants, Melissa de la Cruz, where real life and fairy tales collide!

Nothing ever happens in Filomena Jefferson-Cho’s sleepy little suburban town of North Pasadena. The sun shines every day, the grass is always a perfect green, and while her school seems to swear there’s no such thing as bullying, she still feels bummed out. But one day, when Filomena is walking home on her own, something strange happens.

Filomena is being followed by Jack Stalker, one of the heroes in the Thirteenth Fairy, a series of books she loves about a brave girl and her ragtag group of friends who save their world from an evil enchantress. She must be dreaming, or still reading a book. But Jack is insistent—he’s real, the stories are real, and Filomena must come with him at once!

Soon Filomena is thrust into the world of evil fairies and beautiful princesses, sorcerers and slayers, where an evil queen drives her ruthless armies to destroy what is left of the Fairies. To save herself and the kingdom of Westphalia, Filomena must find the truth behind the fairytales and set the world back to rights before the cycle of destruction begins once more.

Ratings and reviews

t is a fun, light read meant for a fairly young audience but I still enjoyed it. I could kinda relate to Filomena and being obsessed with a series of books, waiting excitedly for the next one to come out. I still am that way sometimes. The world of Never After was really interesting, especially when it began to bleed out into the real world. I think this world could use a bit of magic like Never After, but no ogres though! All the fairy tales are mixed up together in this book, from Jack the giant killer (the hero of course with cool vines!), to Aladdin's lamp (and flying carpets), ‎Scheherazade, and even Gretel and the wolves of the wood (cool bikers and not at all the villains!). Filomena of course learns that there is more to her than expected and grows into her role (as expected from a middle grade novel). As this is just the start of a series, it does have a fairly open ending that leads right into the next book.

Reads like a first draft After seeing the gorgeous cover and reading the first look, I couldn't wait to dive into my first book by this author. Filomena was instantly likeable to me and as someone who always had her eyes inside a book growing up, I connected to her love of a great series and characters. But this is where my enjoyment of this book ended. The idea behind this book is exciting, but the implementation didn't work for me. Everything felt two dimensional and like stereotypical fairy tale plots. Filomena's parents were lovely, but I felt it was unbelievable how they adopted Filomena. I was so tempted to give up and not finish reading this book, but I really wanted to post an honest review based on reading the entire book. I did like Filomena and some of the silly humor and word play. However, the characters never had difficulties solving problems and the solutions fell flat and were so boring and very much a let down to the "buildup" of the conflict. The ending was super disappointing and I won't be reading more of this series.

Never After is a middle-grade fantasy book that follows 12 year old Filomena’s journey into a storybook world. Overall I enjoyed this book, but it is definitely geared towards audiences younger than myself. The main character’s dialogue and thoughts jump all around, and emotions are stated plainly rather than being inferred. Perfect for a reader around middle-school age. This book started off with a bang, and even as an adult I appreciated the writing style in the prologue. It follows a story similar to Sleeping Beauty, where a fairy is offended when she is not invited to the newborn princess’s birthday celebration. The writing style is very reminiscent of a voiceover they would do at the start of the cartoon where the narrator reads to you from a book- I loved it! As for the rest of the book, it was cute seeing familiar characters and stories pop up and interact with the main character. I also enjoyed the visual aspects of this book. At the start of each chapter, there is a small illustration that really adds to the feel of the book. Overall I would definitely recommend this book to younger fans of fairy tales!

About the author

Melissa de la Cruz is the #1 New York Times-USA Today-Wall Street Journal-Los Angeles Times-and Publishers Weekly-internationally bestselling author of many critically acclaimed books for readers of all ages, including the Alex & Eliza trilogy and Disney's Descendants novels.