I have never actually read A Tale of Two Cities beyond the famous opening paragraph and yet I was very much interested in a retelling with Fae. I’ve read a few novels this year that were either retellings or inspired by other classic texts but they were looser, taking those bones and putting them in a modern setting or otherwise being more homage than retelling.
From what I can tell, this one takes the approach of following one of the supporting characters of the original novel and making him the main character as well as adding the magical element with the Fae. As a result, this novel is much more constrained by trying to fit alongside the Dickens story since we are supposed to believe this could have been happening in parallel. After all, this isn’t a world where the Fae are known but Sydney and a few others are very much controlled and impacted by them. Sydney is one of the children raised in the Fae realm and sent into the real world as an adult to serve them.
As this novel progresses, Fae political intrigues lead to Sydney discovering and interacting with the changeling that took his place when he was stolen – in this world, the changelings who have magical origins do not know the truth while the humans whose lives they stole know more about it than they do.
I thought parts of the novel were quite interesting and it especially picks up in the last third or so. Unfortunately, there are parts in the middle that are a bit slow paced, but as mentioned, this is the challenge when having to follow the actions and time line of a 19th century novel (at least I assume that’s what partially caused it since I haven’t read the original).
It’s been a few months and I admit I have already forgotten the outcome of the Fae intrigues or even what the motivation truly was. While the ending was powerful, that part was from the original story, except with a different perspective and additional context. Basically, I enjoyed the novel as a deeper character study into a side character but also wish some of the details that were entirely the author’s creation had left more of an impression (the Fae realm and such definitely did, but the plot around them has faded from memory in only a few months).
