The other day I was bored and clicking through Netflix when I stumbled across the Canadian TV show Lost Girl. A succubus who’s torn between two lovers and struggling to find her place in the fae world? Yes, please. I started watching and basically streamed all four seasons in about a week. It’s just that good.
For those of you in the dark, Lost Girl stars Anna Silk as Bo, a loner with a terrible secret — she has the power to suck the life force out of people and doesn’t know how to control it. In the first episode she discovers that she’s fae and must align herself with the dark or the light in order to survive. But Bo is a rebel and refuses to take a side…which leads to her and her human best friend Kenzie starting a fae detective agency of sorts. Over the next four seasons she negotiates fae politics, fights some truly evil beings, and tries to sort out her complicated feelings for the shape-shifter Dyson and the human doctor Lauren. Plus she makes out with both of them. A lot.
Season 4 ended in February, and fans are still trying to dry our tears. I, for one, refuse to believe that Kenzie is dead, or that there’s no more hope for Bo and Dyson (Team Dyson for the win! Sorry Lauren lovers.). I’ll just have to wait until December for the fifth and final season to get some much needed answers. But in the meantime, I’ve been consoling myself with books about faeries and their dark worlds. Here are three fae-related must-reads while we wait on pins and needles for Lost Girl to return:
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
Full disclosure: I reread Tithe and its sequel, Ironside, every single year. Holly Black is the Queen of Fae as far as I’m concerned. The stories are pretty dark for young adult novels – lots of explicit torture tossed around – but realistic both in terms of the fae and of how teenagers can behave. The books focus on Kaye Fierch, a faerie changeling who’s been living with humans for years. Beneath her glamour she’s a green-skinned pixie, but she’s unaware of her true identity until she meets Roiben – a knight who’s been traded to the Unseelie court. Roiben is incredibly damaged (and, um, hot) from all he’s seen and had to do for the nasty Unseelie queen, Nicnevin. Like Bo, Kaye unwittingly finds herself caught up in the politics of the fae and becomes a victim of their casual cruelty. Tithe is exciting, quickly paced, and wonderfully romantic; if you like Lost Girl, or just good stories in general, then this book is for you.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
I first read the young adult novel Wicked Lovely when it came out in 2007, and it’s a book that has stuck with me ever since. It tells the story of Aislinn, a teenage girl who can see the fae that move invisible through our world, as well as their cruel acts and violence. She’s trying to live with her fear when Keenan shows up. He’s the fae Summer King who’s searching for his long-lost queen, and he’s convinced that Aislinn is it. But there’s a problem: she’s already in love with Seth, her best friend. And taking on the role of Summer Queen comes with its own risks – if she’s not the queen, she could end up like Donia, breathing ice and wandering forever. Wicked Lovely is just the start of Marr’s fae series, which includes several novels and novellas. All of the books show the dark – and light – sides of the fae and are compulsively readable. Pick these up when you’re missing the fae politics in Lost Girl, or if you’re craving another story about a girl torn between two loves.
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
For a more grownup tale of fae, try Monie’s popular Darkfever series (six books and counting!). The novels follow Mac Lane, who travels to Ireland when she learns that her sister has been killed. There she realizes that she’s a sidhe-seer, immune to fae magic and able to see through their glamour and tricks. She also learns of an impending war between fae and humanity. With the help of the mysterious Barrons, she searches for her sister’s killer and tries to learn her place in the world of fae. Which sounds a lot like Dyson and Bo, minus the sister part.
Oh, Dyson and Bo. Now I’m distracted. Time to go YouTube some kissing scenes.
