Fairy Tales Are Just That

I went into Fables with no real expectations (lies) but I guess framed against the two things that I have seen on TV– The Charmings (which Wikipedia tells me aired from 1987-88 but I must’ve only watched one show or two) and Once Upon a Time–no offense to anyone if either or both of these things are your “thing” but because of this, I was more wary than excited to read it.  This made little sense because I’ve only seen good reviews and I’m always looking for a new graphic novel to turn to.  I ended up liking it mostly, although I’m not really that interested in Vol. 2 (should I be? I should right?!?) and I’m curious if it’s worth it/or if it’s ok to just skip to Vol. 3.  If you’re in the know, let me know.

The gist of the story is this–Fairy Tale people (like Cinderella, Beauty, the Beast etc) have been forced out of the Homelands by “the Adversary”. They’ve relocated to New York City where the people who can blend, do so and those who cannot, go and live on The Farm.  Only recently (like 25 seconds ago), did I learn that the earlier volumes take on a different genre–so this one was obviously a murder mystery.  It appears that someone has killed Rose Red, and it’s up to Bigby (formerly known as the Big Bad Wolf, now looking like a hot Peter Faulk–ok, that’s an oxymoron, but you know what I mean) to find out who wanted to kill her (answer: a lot of people), why (answer: a myriad of reasons) and how (answer: wouldn’t you like to know).  With the help of Snow White (Rose Red’s sister), Bigby uses the backdrop of the Fabletown Ball (or whatever it’s called) to solve all the mysteries with all the Fabletown residents responsible present.

When writing this very lackluster review (sorry! My sister in law is in labor! I keep looking at my phone!), I needed to look at the Amazon link to remember the Big Bad Wolf’s new name. This was fortuitous because while I was busy cheating/trying to remember the book, I happened upon a couple of reviews that made me feel a lot better about my reaction. Here’s the thing–I wanted to love this a lot more than I did after I read it.  I loved seeing familiar characters in different situations but the story was mostly meh and I wanted to visit with more of the characters instead of just little glimpses of them.  According to these other reviews, these books only get better and better and that while you have to start at Book 1, Book 1 shouldn’t stop you from reading the rest.  So…I’m going to pick up volume two and see how I feel about things after that.