Since Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie Riddell were introduced in de Lint’s first Newford tale, “Timeskip,” back 1989, their friends and readers alike have been looking forward to them to realize that they belong collectively. Now, in Widdershins, a stand-alone novel of fairy courts set in shopping malls as well as the Bohemian road scene of Newford’s Crowsea region, Jilly and Geordie’s tale is finally being told. Before it’s over, we’ll get ourselves plunged in to the rancorous and occasionally violent about Widdershins: The Newford Series issue between the marvelous UNITED STATES “pet people” and the more newly showed up fairy folk. We’ll watch as Jilly is certainly held captive within a sinister world predicated on her very own most severe memories-and Geordie, attempting to help, can be sent someplace a whole lot worse. And we’ll become captivated by the energy of like and perseverance to redeem historic hatreds and heal older magics gone sour.

To walk “widdershins” is to walk counterclockwise or backwards around something. It’s a vintage pathway in to the fairy world. It’s also just how people often back slowly into the interactions that matter, the true ones that make for any lifestyle. In Widdershins, Charles de Lint has delivered one of the most accessible and shifting works of his career.