New Book Alert: The Unseen Blossom by Zlaikha Y. Samad and L’mere Younossi; Beautiful Magical Allegorical Modern Fairy Tale About Empathy and Love

New Book Alert: The Unseen Blossom by Zlaikha Y. Samad and L’mere Younossi; Beautiful Magical Allegorical Modern Fairy Tale About Empathy and Love




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The Unseen Blossom reads almost like a fairy tale. Once Upon a Time, a princess meets a handsome commoner. They are given a task to go on a journey to retrieve a magical object. Along the way, they encounter other creatures that either help or hinder their progress giving them side quests that add to their journey. After much struggle, they reach their goal and fall in love.

Cut and dry, The Unseen Blossom would be no different from “Cinderella” or “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp,” but the authors, Zlaikha Y. Samad and L'mere Younossi made their fairytale much deeper than the usual clichés. Instead The Unseen Blossom is a beautiful allegorical tale about love and empathy that has plenty of romance and magic that the best fairy tales share. It is for all ages and people of all faiths.

Princess Zuli, an Afghan princess, visits her favorite fig tree in her garden but while caring for the tree she is pushed onto the path of Lamar, a shoemaker's son. The two encounter a rock creature that tells them that Afghanistan is a country torn apart by war, bloodshed, and inequality. What can help save it is a fig blossom. The two are destined to work together to find it and bring it to Kabul.

This will be an odd quest. (After all, who has ever seen a fig tree blossom?) But journey they do through a landscape of fairies, royal fish, flying horses, talking birds and many strange landscapes with such names as The Garden of Tulips, The Garden of Lily Ponds, and The Garden of Roses to reach their goal.

It's kind of strange to say this about a book that has no illustrations, but The Unseen Blossom is a visually beautiful book. Samad and Younossi's writing creates evocative word pictures that are vibrant almost hallucinatory. The secret is in the little details such as their description of a waterfall in which the “water pounded onto the rocks below, creating an enticing silvery pool. Under the moon's gaze, the waterfall looked like a wall of shimmering silver and gold coins.”

Some of the most beautiful sections are in the Garden of Tulips and the Garden of Roses. The former features the characters traveling through a garden of different colored flowers that are so delicately described that the fragrances leaps off the pages.

The flora in the Garden of Roses is a somewhat disappointing follow up consisting solely of white roses, but the bird life more than makes up for that. Not only are they different types, but they are so dense that there are moments where the bird's wings look like something else; crows resemble a night sky, doves take the form of wings, multicolored plumages resemble tiaras and gowns. These details and descriptions give off the impression that the Reader is walking into someone else's dream.

Besides the dream like setting, Samad and Younossi give us compelling characters to take this fairy tale journey. Zuli is hardly a damsel in distress. She is aware of the situations outside the palace walls because she often dressed as a commoner to sneak out. She is very adventurous and sometimes haughty. (She engages in a few quarrels with Lamar along the way.) However she is also skilled in diplomacy such as when she negotiates with a tyrannical fish queen who surprisingly acquiesces to her suggestion with little argument. Zuli has what it takes to be a good ruler especially in a male dominated society.

Lamar is also a developed character. While not a prince, he is extremely charming as he shows in a letter he composes to Zuli revealing his deep feeling for her. He is quite intelligent as he is able to recognize signs and portents. He is also very protective of Zuli as we learn that he used to follow her on her excursions out of the palace. Throughout the book, Zuli and Lamar show that they are more than their titles of princess and commoner and that is the point of their journey.

As Zuli and Lamar travel, they probe into their inner consciousness and become self-actualized. Some characters appear that had previous connections to them through dreams and stories, implying that they are spirit guides to help them on their path.

Part of this self-actualization is empathy. Every time they help other characters or each other, they understand their predicament and do all they can to change that. They know that to help heal a country that has been torn apart by war, people need to empathize with each other and see others as people and not enemies incapable of understanding.

Forgotten Favorites: The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks; A Beautiful Detailed Modern Fairy Tale

Forgotten Favorites: The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks; A Beautiful Detailed Modern Fairy Tale

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: It can be rather annoying when an author's book is so popular that their other works are often ignored or not held in as high regard as the favored book. In October, I reviewed what I feel was Anne Rice's best work, The Witching Hour over her more well known, Interview with the Vampire. While J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey is well regarded by many (and J.D. Salinger himself actually preferred The Glass Family), it doesn't have the same academic and cultural impact as Holden Caulfield and his book, Catcher in the Rye.

\Another author that falls in that category is Lynne Reid Banks. I remember when her Indian in the Cupboard was seen everywhere: bookstores, libraries, book fairs, and in the pages of book order forms. Banks wrote five sequels and many Readers thrilled to the adventures of Omri, a young boy, and Little Bear, a tiny figure turned human and the title character. Because of the popularity of the Indian in the Cupboard books, many of Bank's other works have often been ignored.

Her best work however is The Fairy Rebel, a beautiful modern fairy tale about a young fairy who helps a childless English family despite orders from the rigid Fairy Queen.

Jan, a former actress, and Charlie, a General Practitioner, have a loving marriage except they want to have children. One day as Jan sits in her garden, a fairy appears dressed in a flowing top and a pair of blue jeans. Jan and Tiki, the fairy, become friends so Tiki helps her human friend by magically creating a baby for her. Unfortunately, the Fairy Queen learns about Tiki assisting Jan so she imprisons Tiki in a wasp’s nest. (The book explains that fairies are afraid of wasps. One sting and they become fairy dust) Jan, Charlie, and Tiki’s Elvin friend, Wijic rescue her.

A year after Tiki's rescue, Jan gives birth to a baby girl, Bindi. When Bindi is 8-years-old, the Fairy Queen prepares a final assault on Tiki, Wijic, Bindi and her parents.

The book is filled with interesting unique touches that show that Banks took a lot of thought into creating the Fairy World. She creates terms such as “Earthed” (when a fairy touches a human and is therefore able to be seen by the human). Even Bindi’s name is a Fairean word meaning “expensive” or a “treasure.” (Because Tiki had to borrow magic from various friends to create her).There are whole chapters describing Fairy culture such as that fairies sleep in bird's nests, flower petals, and tree notches or that fairy babies come from sugar eggs.

One of the most enchanting chapters is one that reveals magical presents that Tiki leaves for Bindi each year on her birthday. Because Bindi was born in June and Tiki admits to being a “pink rose fairy,” the presents are shaped like roses and reflect Bindi's interests and age. Tiki's presents for Bindi include a large rose that tells a story every week for a year, a rose comprised of letters so she can learn how to spell in school, and a pink and green gown that gives her the confidence to play a queen in the school play. The Fairy World is so detailed that I wish there were parts set entirely in that world and so we could get Tiki and Wijic's  point of view

The book mostly focuses on Jan, Charlie, and Bindi and the Reader learns about the Fairy World as they do. That's not a big loss in that they are all great characters. Jan is a woman of deep sensitivity and kindness with some regret. (Her acting career ended early because a lamp fell on her in a TV studio giving her a limp. For a long time, she believed that the injury may have been responsible for her inability to bear children.) Charlie is the stern straight man of the family, but is not above showing kindness such as when they first encounter Wijic after he is frozen during the winter. While one would expect a kid surrounded by magic to be spoiled, Bindi is not. She is emotional and very enthusiastic, a sweet little girl, so the Fairy Queen's manipulations to get Bindi to do rotten things like shop lift candy and using magic for selfish purposes are deliberately out of character.

Tiki and Wijic also make for an interesting duo. Tiki is a kind soul with a penchant for rebellion hence why she wears blue jeans (The Fairy Queen forbids it). Wijic is more cautious less willing to break the Queen's rules until Tiki is in trouble. (Though he does long to be a human boy because he is tired of using magic and eating sweet foods preferring savory snacks like chips).Tiki and Wijic are that type of couple that are forever arguing and teasing each other but are actually close friends who might be more.

The Fairy Rebel is not a well known book but it should have a better reputation of being a charming, beautiful, detailed late 20th century fairy tale.