Reviews

"As Andersen has done for the book's beautifully bizarre yet detailed illustrations, Ford has filled his novel with customs and side stories-some no more than a sentence or two-that make the world feel real, wonderful, and horrifying simultaneously...this novel is at heart a fairy tale in the grand, dark tradition of the best of such stories; the book speaks to the reader's deepest fears and highest hopes, told through the odyssey of a girl who is scared by what is happening around her and within her." - Kirkus Reviews''Such gorgeous imagery throughout this novel--both in the stark beauty of the story and in the illustrations that accompany it. Lily is atmospheric, gothic, magical, touching, and haunted, with moments of suspense and terror, like a dream mixed with a nightmare. Lily makes me think of Stephen King's troubled young misfits and the heartbreaking heroines in the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.'' - Tim Schaffert, author of The Swan Gondola and Lady of the Burlesque Ballet''The last thing I thought would happen to me when I read this novel was cry: not once, but several times the kind of tears that make you put down the pages, press your hands against your face, and sob like a child. Lily is the heart-breaking story of a lonely young girl and a curious old woman, of their reluctant and hesitant, then breathtaking and courageous, journeys into the women they were destined to become. It is a fairy tale that takes place in the magical world, in the real world, and within themselves at once terrifying, sorrowful, and triumphant, revealing the wondrous mysteries of life and death through exquisite prose and illustrations.'' --Livia Llewellyn, author of Engines of Desire and Furnace