What I liked about this book was the interesting nature of the relationship of the main characters. The book avoids typical stereotypes about faerie and traveling in faerie. It also has an interesting subtext commentary about the industrial revolution and Marxism. I would recommend this book if you are looking for an off kilter read, which I often am.

SO much fun! Vampires, Victorian England, the faerie realm, and REVOLUTION! Seriously, I got through this really quickly and I'm really hoping there will be a sequel.

This is yet another backlist book that I requested and received a long time ago. It is a fantasy story that adds something different to the issues plaguing the characters: a capitalist economy.Our leading lady is a half-vampire who escapes her mother's clutches with great difficulty. She is trying to get back into the world that she actually belongs in, but things have changed in the time she was locked away. Jane had a plan to get a job and make her life in Fairie, but things are not going her

This book is charming, lighthearted, funny, and yet deals with some very dark themes - class oppression, processed food, Marxism, unions, psychiatric wards. The plucky young heroine kept me laughing, and a sense of joy and playfulness pervades the writing. Well worth a read.

This is a fun book! A rollicking good adventure-mystery with a double scoop of cheeky mischief on top. Industrialization has come to the Otherworld (aka fairyland) and there's conspiracies afoot. Ellsworth brings together a new combination of ingredients for his book: gnomes, vampires, werewolves, bad cheese, and the Communist Manifesto. Wacky hijinks ensue. I felt like the turns of phrase for the different cultures were particularly entertaining as people from different groups clashed with each...

This book is a fantastical, rollicking ride through the (mostly) real world of Victorian London and the strange, beautiful and dangerous world of the fey. From the first page, Ellsworth drops you head first into a story populated by a brawny, boisterous, and sometimes belligerent cast of gnomes, vampires, and werewolves. We follow Jane, an investigative reporter (half-human and half-vampire) who witnesses a murder. And we also follow the gnome Charles who becomes an agitator and workers' organiz...

Another fun adventure from Spencer Ellsworth. The industrial revolution has come to Faerie! Can our plucky heroine and her neer-do-well young man mitigate the damage? Fairy tale and urban fantasy tropes meet union history.

Disclaimers upfront: the author and I both belong to the same writers' forum (though I don't think we've directly interacted), and I received a copy via Netgalley for review. This is, in part, a pastiche of Victorian adventure fiction (the format of the chapter titles makes that pretty clear). I'm therefore going to assume that the scene where a Convenient Eavesdrop is set up by Accidental Discovery of a Secret Passage is part of the pastiche, and not a terrible piece of writing that diminishes

I'd have read this sooner if I knew one of the main characters was a Marxist gnome. This was a very weird time to read a book about a labor strike, a riot, looting, violent class warfare waged by the bourgeois against the proletariat, and the attempts to pit one subsection thereof against another. It could be the headlines of any American newspaper, except with gnomes, vampires, werewolves, and trolls. I found it especially compelling/horrifying to read about how the industrialized use of magic

Whimsical horrorAn excellent story with plenty of twists and turns. I was not expecting some of the more horrific aspects of the story; it’s a bloody, gory affair with plenty of dark humor. The not-too-on-the-nose allegory of capitalism consuming everything was appreciated. A unique gem.

ACTUAL RATING: 3.5 STARSI found this to be a pleasant read. The narrative was entertaining and draws in the reader, fully immersing them into a plot full of intrigue. I sped through this one in a matter of a couple of hours as a result of its enthralling twists and turns.

I loved this book. It took place in a steampunk-esque, industrial revolution-era faerie reflection of London. It features a gnome who loses his job because the industrialists import a new workforce who will work for cheaper. Said gnome discovers the writings of Marx. Hilarity ensues while a half vampire who isn't altogether certain she isn't just imagining this covers it for the local paper.I never knew I needed more labor relations and union organization in my fantasy, but it was great!

This book just didn't work for me. It started off silly and funny, but became less so as the book progressed. By the time we reached the drugged babies being killed to make doors to another world, I was no longer amused. Sorry, mine seems to be a minority opinion.I received an eARC from NetGalley.

A half-vampire reporter covering a murder mystery, and a gnome worker inspired by Karl Marx team up to take down the bourgeois. The Great Faerie Strike is an adventure into the Otherworld of Victorian London during the rise of industrialization and the exploitation of workers, be they vampire, gnome, or other fae. This was a fantastic read with a satisfying ending.

Really entertaining romp through a different sort of fairyland, a fairyland unfortunately infused with the worst elements of our world.

I blurbed this one! Here's what I wrote: "A rollicking adventure told with Pratchettesque wit and compassion. This is an Otherworld as real and as strange as our own, with characters you can't help but root for and an economic system you can't help but recognize. This book is a delight."

In Victorian London, Jane, a half-vampire is released from an asylum. Half-convinced she is actually mad, she finds a way to the faerie realm Otherworld, meets a drunken, recently-unemployed gnome whom she converts to communism, gets a job at a newspaper, and the rest, they say is history. Amid orchestrating a workers strike in the Otherworld, Jane seeks to uncover the secrets behind the industrial werewolves rise to power and deals with the trickster Puck to do so. But is all as it actually see...

First, I want to say: What a great cover! It’s so unique and full of fun and this image perfectly reflects the vibe of this fabulous story!Jane is not MAD. And, Jane is not your ordinary kind of girl. After an extended stay in an Asylum, Jane is ready to break free and return to Otherworld. However, after a year of being away, she finds that everything has changed.Charles is part of Otherworld, a constant part. He is a gnome. But unfortunately he does not live up to the gnomish standards of reli...

DNF. Only got to 14% when I had to give up. At least for me, this book was too "scattered" and hard to follow. I was rereading each part of it a couple of times to see if I could connect everything properly. To me, it seems like everything was thrown in all at once and not enough time given to each blurbs before moving on to something else. The storyline came back but it also moved on to other subjects. I was just too confused, frustrated and uninterested to continue at this time.

May come back and finish this at some point. It’s a nifty core idea.