Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
The human world has been rendered almost unlivable, victim of the wild magic unleashed by the faeries in their war with the humans twenty years earlier. Liza, a teenage girl, tries to survive in a small community in the Midwestern United States that has been savaged by the remnants of the war. The corn fights back against the humans harvesting it, and the blackberry vines seek flesh. Everyone who survived the war knows that magic is dangerous and cannot be tolerated, so when Liza’s sister is born with the clear hair that marks her as magically tainted, Liza’s father leaves the infant on a hillside to die.
This is where Bones of Faerie starts, with a horrified young woman finding the remains of her baby sister’s body scattered on a hillside. In this dark, post-apocalyptic YA novel, Janni Lee Simner sets up an interesting story of a teenager seeking... Read More
Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner
Based on the Icelandic myth told in Njal’s Saga, Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner centers around American teenager Haley, who comes to Iceland with her father. The two of them are trying to find Haley’s mother, who had disappeared there a year earlier after an argument with Haley’s dad. Haley gets caught up in a generations-old curse when she finds an inscribed coin on the shore of a lake. Trying to escape the effects of the curse, she has to face the consequences of actions made by people a thousand years before she was born, and negotiate the conflicting needs of her parents, ancient gods, and Ari, a young man who is much more than he seems.
I was impressed with the originality of the setting. Based on ancient Icelandic mythology, this story is in keeping with many recent young adult fantasy books also based on mythological settings, but mines new terr... Read More
More fantasies by Janni Lee Simner
Phantom Rider — (1996) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Hating her new home in Arizona, twelve-year-old Callie finds her prospects changing when she glimpses a phantom horse outside her window and is drawn into its quest to be reunited with its ghostly owner.
Drawing the Moon — (2011) Publisher: This short dark fantasy story by young adult author Janni Lee Simner originally appeared in Bruce Coville’s Book of Nightmares, published by Scholastic Inc. “Andrew knew that the moon had stolen his parents away. “He tried to explain to Elizabeth once, after the funeral, but she didn’t understand. Her face turned horribly pale, and she whispered, “They’re dead, Andrew. Don’t you know that?” And then, just in case he didn’t, she drew him a picture. She used her red pencils, and some of Andrew’s crayons, besides. She used rusty-red for the brick buildings, brownish-red for the mugger’s jacket, rosy-red for Mom’s torn sweater on the sidewalk. And bright red for Dad, where the knife had gone through his chest. “Andrew tore the drawing up – not because looking at it sent icy shivers up his spine, though it did — but because she’d gotten the drawing all wrong. She’d left out the moon, large and round in the night sky, and that was the most important part.”
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Janni Lee Simner lives in the Arizona desert. She has published books for younger readers, young adults, and more than 30 short stories. She also post a monthly story at 
