Stardust, an adult fairy tale by Neil Gaiman, is one of the few books that I have enjoyed enough to spend the time to read it twice. Tristran Thorn walks from the mundane world into the world of faerie through a mystical gate in a wall, searching for a gift to win the hand of his lady love. As can be discerned from that quick summary, the story brims with traditional fairy tale elements such as true love, mythical creatures, evil witches, and many more. This book is for anyone who loved fairy tales as a child and wants to take a pleasant stroll back to that childhood enchantment. However, this book offers more than just a rehash of fairy tales on memory lane. The story is more complex than those typically served up to children, and it has elements that definitely wouldn’t mesh with notions of childhood innocence.

Neil Gaiman tells this story beautifully, and even the minor characters in the cast are detailed and behave in realistic ways. The fantasy setting is described in a way that helps the reader easily imagine it without dwelling on so many details that the story pace suffers. Stardust is a gorgeous story that almost makes the reader long to find their own way to faerie, and this book is the next best thing.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  4 mild obscenities; 2 derogatory names; 2 scatological terms; 1 f-word.

Violence/Gore:  Character hits another; characters have a fist-fight over a girl they like; characters threatens to kill each other with magic a few times; bodies from a prior battle are found; character threatens to cut out another’s heart; a few reports of murders; a character describes dismemberment and bloody plans while sharpening knives; characters are cut by tree branches; a character breaks a leg in an accident; characters are transformed into animals a few times, and one of those so transformed is eaten by another animal; scene in which characters use animal innards to tell fortunes (blood and various pieces are described); two animals have a fight with claws, teeth, and horns, resulting in serious injury; scene in which a few characters die or are injured, and a few of the deaths are graphic (throat slit, stabbed through the eye, impaled); a character sets fire to a house; a couple of characters are poisoned, with agonizingly graphic results and some resulting in death; an animal’s rotting corpse is raised from the dead, dismembered, and used in a ritual; a character discovered corpses with graphic stab wounds and knife cuts.

Sex/Nudity:  A few instances of characters kissing, holding hands, and flirting; mention is made of “stepping out” (dating); characters court with a chaperone; a character notices a woman’s curvy figure; a woman’s description includes that she has “small breasts”; female characters are envious of another woman’s body as she changes clothes; character mentions that her breasts are sagging; a character is naked before and during a bath, but it is not in mixed company and has no sexual connotation; mention of whores; discussion of choosing a husband includes a sexual reference; boy climbs a tree to try and see a woman dressing; mention of a character having fathered children with past wives; mention of a character’s breasts and maidenhood; characters have sex in a scene that describes writhing, entwining limbs, and fondling of body parts normally covered by a swimsuit; a character pays a woman for sex, resulting in a brief scene with a few details.

Mature Subject Matter:

Slavery, family strife over inheritance, piracy (mention), arson, prostitution.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults drink wine, ale, beer, and grog; opium is mentioned as a medicine.