Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy

By: Melissa de la Cruz

Narrated by: Imani Jade Powers

"Narrator Imani Jade Powers sets a vibrant tone for this first audiobook in the middle-grade adventure series. Her clear delivery emphasizes the storytelling, which skillfully takes listeners from one suspenseful chapter to the next." (AudioFile Magazine)

Real life and fairy tales collide in Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy, the first audiobook in the new middle-grade Chronicles of Never After series from the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Descendants series, Melissa de la Cruz.

Nothing ever happens in Filomena Jefferson-Cho’s sleepy little suburban town of North Pasadena. The sun shines every day, the grass is always a perfect green, and while her progressive school swears there’s no such thing as bullying, she still feels bummed out.

But one day, when Filomena is walking home on her own, something strange happens. Filomena is being followed by Jack Stalker, one of the heroes in the Thirteenth Fairy, a series of books she loves about a brave girl and her ragtag group of friends who save their world from an evil enchantress. She must be dreaming or still reading a book. But Jack is insistent - he’s real, the stories are real, and Filomena must come with him at once!

Soon, Filomena is thrust into the world of evil fairies and beautiful princesses, sorcerers and slayers, where an evil queen drives her ruthless armies to destroy what is left of the Fairy tribes. To save herself and the kingdom of Westphalia, Filomena must find the truth behind the fairy tales and set the world back to rights before the cycle of sleep and destruction begins once more.

A Macmillan Audio production from Roaring Brook Press

©2020 Melissa de la Cruz (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Mix of several stories

It kinda three me off when I realized this was a mix of several stories, combined in one, with fillers. I liked the performance. Didn't like that there wasn't more depth in characters and details of fairy life. It was ok, but I probably wouldn't re-read.

So so good

It was a great book it is so adventurous and scary at the end but the whole story combined it all ties into the end of the story and you should read it like now and I mean now so go and bye it because if you don’t I don’t know what to tell you so you better go bye it!!!😂🤣😆

Super Cute

I loved the fact that there were so many different fairytales in one story. It was like reliving my childhood stories while listening to this book. Some scenes dragged on a little long then I would have liked, but a great read overall!

Loved it!

This book was so good! I suggest it to anyone eight and older only problem was the narration, the narrator’s British accent was terrible. Loved the story, lots of girl power.

A great twist on your favorite fairy tales

Filomena Jefferson-Cho is from Northern Pasadena, a sleepy town where nothing ever happens... until one day, when she goes to her local bookstore to pick up a copy of the newly published book in the Never After series. Not only does she discover that the book hasn't been published, but it may not even exist; the author had passed away and the family had been hoping they would find it when going through her things. Disappointed, Filomena leaves the bookstore and discovers she's being followed. By Jack Stalker. The protagonist of the book series. Not only that, but Jack insists that the world of Never After is real, and he needs her help to get home and stop the ogres.

This was such a fun book. In the tradition of fairy tale retellings, this story looks at quite a few different fairy tales and turns them on their heads. The story goes back and forth between the real world and the world of Never After, and both aspects were great. I loved the world-building of both worlds and especially enjoyed the way Jack and Alistair experienced the real world - it's not every day you have individuals talking seriously about hunting cheeseburgers.

I also loved the way the author revisited the prologue of the story, providing a little more information each time she did so. The added information would often change the underlying assumptions of the story. I definitely loved where the story ended up, and I look forward to continuing the series.

For this novel, I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Imani Jade Powers. She did a wonderful job, and I look forward to listening to her narrate the other books in this series as well.

Terrible Narration and Prose

the Narration was annoyingly slow paced to the point that it didn't sound like natural speaking. I had to eventually increase the speed to 1:20 to make it sound "normal."

The prose was written like someone who figured out how to rhyme words for the first time.

Every other sentence or paragraph ended with a rhyme and I didn't have time for that. It felt lazy and started to drive me a bit crazy.

With that said, I was curious until I read the protagonist was 12 yrs old so I kind of lost interest. But the biggest turn off was when the author promoted her own book in her own series. I hate 4th wall breaking with a passion. Especially when this is the first book and the character is like "Oh wow, today's the release of the final installment of the Never After Series." That was my stopping point.

I kind of want to know what happens as I do like modern spins on classic fairytales like Wicked and Dorothy Must Die and I've been searching for other similar stories and haven't found any.