Black Fairy Tale by Otsuichi

Black Fairy Tale is a book that’s lovely, in a macabre sort of way. It follows the journey of a high school girl who lost her left eye in an accident – and her memory along with it. When she awakens and eventually returns to her life, all of those around her compare who she is to the person she was before. Unfortunately, the person she was before was someone accomplished and popular, and without her memories of being that person, every comparison to who she’s become is negative. Her friends desert her, her parents hate the stranger that’s taken their daughter’s place. She doesn’t even look like herself anymore, with an eye missing.

Her grandfather steps in and gets her a black market eye replacement surgery. Despite looking more like the girl she was, though, instead she finally has memories to help bolster her – the memories that were imprinted on her new left eye of its previous owner’s life.

She writes down every detail of every memory/vision she has thanks to her new eye, and she comes to realize the death of the young man whose eye she now possesses was no accident, and that there is someone else in need of saving. No longer welcome in her own life, she leaves her city for the mountains, to get to know the people that were in his.

In the process she discovers who she’s become without her own memories to rely on, as well as solving the mystery of what happened to the young man.

It’s a beautifully told story, interspersed with a tale we’re told was written by the killer, of a raven who brings an eyeless girl eyes so that she can see visions of her own. The main character, Nami, is very relatable, and it’s easy to see why she goes from trying to fit into a mold that she doesn’t know how to fill, to becoming someone with a purpose and the determination to see it through.

I would recommend this book for those at the older end of the YA range, and adults – there’s quite a bit of gore involved, and it’s pretty twisted. I really enjoyed this novel, and the way the bits and pieces of the different stories were interwoven with each other.

Available June 10, 2016.

 

 

Disclaimer: I was given a digital advanced copy of this book from publishers registered with NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.