My Review of Green Fairy by Kyell Gold


For those of you that don't know, Kyell Gold is a very famous author in the furry community, mostly known for making both gay and adult novels with anthropomorphic characters in them. The reason I bring this up is because Green Fairy is Kyell Gold's first non-adult novel to be published. I got intrigued, and decided to read it, not knowing it would be an amazing emotional experience.


In a world filled with anthropomorphic animals, we revolve around two different stories entwined by three different characters. Our first character is a wolf named Sol Wrightston, a closeted senior who wants to move in with his secret boyfriend ram named Carcy, and leave his homophobic small town behind. But fate has a different idea when he loses his starting spot on the high school baseball team to a bully, and his father finds out. Add that to the fact that Sol is giving up meat in order to live with Carcy, and his father gives Sol a choice to either take his spot back, or he'll lose the car he needs to move away.


While that's going on, Sol and his gothic best friend, an otter named Meg Kinnick, have to work on a school project involving France. As part of the project, Sol reads up on a gay love story written from the eyes of Jean, a ram noble who fell in love with a foxy dancer named Niki at the Moulin Rouge. To help, Meg and Sol drink some absinthe to 'get a feel for the time period'.


However, not only does Sol have visions of the time period, but he sees them through the ghostly perspective of Niki. And because of these hallucinating dreams, he sees what truly happened a century ago. From this, Sol must figure out the line between what is real and what's not, and try to keep his sanity together.


I'm going to be honest with you. I actually thought this book was going to be a terrible novel, with terrible cliches, like the high expectations father and the loser pretending to be something he's not. But thankfully, I was 100% wrong. As always, Kyell Gold brought us a novel with beautiful writing, excellent pacing, interesting characters, emotional moments, and a surprisingly complex and dark story to follow in this case.


Sol is as basic a main character Kyell Gold writes, but he makes up for that by having fantastic character development in the novel and a good sense of maturity. Plus, you do relate to Sol, mostly because Green Fairy both focuses on the pressures of high school and being on a sports team, especially a homophobic sports team.


As for side characters, we have Meg, who is pretty fun for a goth, and she get's good lines here and there. Another is a red fox named Alexei Tsarev, a foreign exchange student from Siberia that Sol eventually becomes great friends with. We have others, but talking about them more would lead to big spoilers.


And at the Moulin Rouge, we have Jean, who is pretty interesting as a nobleman. We also have Niki, who has this sense of wanting more out of life, and just loves to dance, despite the fact he has to disguise himself as a vixen when he has to. Again, these guys do have good character development, and I just loved to read their chapters.


I love how these stories link and mirror off one another, how there's a distinct link between these characters. I also like how mystical the books feels from these two entwined stories, almost like Wolf Children or a Miyazaki film. It can also be very dramatic, mostly toward the end.


Speaking of which, Green Fairy also sort of gives you this look into a person's perception and reality after taking something as strong as absinthe. You don't know if what Sol sees are real or it's the absinthe talking. It makes Sol, and even the reader, question what is reality, and if ghosts are in fact real.


Overall, I see this not only as a gay coming-of-terms story, but as a great journey into the spiritual psyche. I find it ironic how I thought I would hate this book, and it did show in the first chapter, but I instead see it as one of my favorite novels. It left me with this bittersweet feeling inside that also left me joyous, loved, and happy.