Review: Happyland: A Fairy Tale in Two Parts

Author: Tes Mekonnen
Illustrator: Anthony Resto
Started reading: September 19th 2018
Finished the book: September 22nd 2018
Pages: 135
Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Published: October 4th 2017
Source: Got a physical copy from the author
Goodreads score: Not enough ratings
My score:

Synopsis
Would you like to court me to Happyland?" Prince Gobbledygook asks Lily Marshmallow and himself. Therein the journey begins to find Happyland. Follow him as he tries to define happiness with a little help from his friends, Big Wig Sophisticated Pig, Brutus Beaujolais and Cornelius Wordbook, an English gentleman with a book-for-a-head.

Prince Gobbledygook duels, loses his ladylove, regains his original name and gains a friendship that will last for fourforevers. Will they make it to Happyland?

My thoughts

This is a poetic, quick read. The book is filled with awesome illustrations, good job to Anthony Resto on those! It's quick to read and the book feels a bit like a song sometimes, with the poems and the colourful choice of words.

Pros

• Illustrations: It fits this book so well, that there are illustrations included. It made the story come alive more and I was able to understand the story a bit better as well. The illustrations are all made so that they fit the way the story is told, I saw something poetic in the illustrations as well. I really like the way Tes and Anthony made the story fit the illustrations and vice versa.
• Poetic: The choice of words feels so poetic and it almost reads like music. I'm not a person for poems and poetic books, but the illustrations made me understand better. 
• Moral: I like the way all the different chapters have a moral and it makes you think about what just happened on a deeper level. The fact that the author tells you more about the moral he sees in the certain part of the story is a nice addition as well. Even the page that contains the moral fits the story and the illustrations, it's very well done.

Cons

• Vague: Even though I love the poetic way the story is told, it also makes it a bit vague for me. I just said that I'm not the right person for poems and stuff like that, and I still feel that way. The illustrations made me understand the story a bit better, but still some of the parts were vague and I was also glad that the moral of that part of the story was explained for me. I feel such a dummy!

Overall

The first word that comes to mind if I have to describe this book is: colourful. The language in this book is colourful and so are the illustrations. The book feels poetic and I like the fact that the story has a moral. It's a quick read and if you like poetic fairy tales, you should read this book!

Other opinions on this book

"If you enjoy literary works in the nonsensical vein of Lewis Caroll's alice in Wonderland, you'll enjoy reading the poetic prose Happyland. Playing with word meaning, order, rhyme, and reason, Mekonnen paints a fairy tale in a land of fanciful adventure and emotion. The illustrations add to the stylistic rendering of the tale."

- Elizabeth N. Love (Writerbee's Book Reviews)

Memorable quotes from this book

"If one wears a mask long enough - it becomes their face."

Thanks for reading!

I'd love to talk books, so let me know what you think about this book/review.

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