It had to happen at some point, I suppose. A book written by Adrian Tchaikovsky that I don't love. It didn't grab me, it didn't hook me. It hurts. "And Put Away Childish Things" felt flat, the characters were boring to me, and the story wasn't very engaging. Not everyone will love every book, and my disappointment says far more about me than about this book.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

This was my first work by Tchaikovsky, but I will definitely be reading more of his books. This standalone novella takes the premise of a portal to another realm in a children's fantasy series and asks, "What if it were actually real?". Harry Bodie is a struggling actor whose grandmother wrote a beloved children's fantasy series about a fairyland called Underhill. When weird things start happening, Harry eventually finds his way to Underhill, but it's nothing like the charming land of adventure in his grandmother's books. It's cold, and dark, and everything and everyone there is literally falling apart. The writing is excellent and the premise is engaging and thought-provoking. I'm always impressed by authors who can write SFF novellas and clearly convey the world-building in that limited amount of space. Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion, Solaris for a digital review copy.

This was too creepy and sad for me - while not explicitly marketed as horror, Tchaikovsky's take on the classic through the wardrobe tale is a haunted funhouse mirror full of mysterious creatures and miserable, angry, long-forgotten children's story characters. I've never been a fan of this brand of anti-fantasy that is concerned with smashing the naïveté of youth and injecting innocent tropes with the "realities" or horror and misery present in adulthood. All told, I found Seanan's McGuire's version of this more nuanced take.

A quick, brilliant read! Having grown up with the Narnia books, this was a peek at the darker side of the imaginary worlds I loved to read.

This world through the wardrobe is covered in non-snow, with a nightmarish faun who has given up on life, and other strange creatures that are slowly falling apart as the world comes to an end. Brodie, the grumpiest, laziest, most selfish hero, is their final hope.

Full of a mix of humour and darkness, silliness and fear, real world and a wild imagination, I really enjoyed And Put Away Childish Things. Highly recommend!

Not sure what I feel about this one yet, but once again Tchaikovsky is unique and interesting. The first half of this I found somewhat dull as it felt like it took forever to get to the actual story. I was tempted to DNF and then everything clicked and I loved the last third. It helped me appreciate the setup in the first half more but I still think it could have been done a bit more efficiently.

This novella examines portal fantasy and the effect of fiction on us, and is definitely in conversation with Narnia and Tolkien (both of which are name dropped several times), but I also found it remiscent if Winnie the Pooh, if Christopher Robin had abandoned 100-Acre Wood and left Pooh and the others to fend for themselves. It also reminded me quite a bit of Stephen King, both in some of the plot reveals but also in the dialogue.

Tchaikovsky continues to impress me, even with the things I like less.

7/10 I think?

Not sure what I feel about this one yet, but once again Tchaikovsky is unique and interesting. The first half of this I found somewhat dull as it felt like it took forever to get to the actual story. I was tempted to DNF and then everything clicked and I loved the last third. It helped me appreciate the setup in the first half more but I still think it could have been done a bit more efficiently.

This novella examines portal fantasy and the effect of fiction on us, and is definitely in conversation with Narnia and Tolkien (both of which are name dropped several times), but I also found it remiscent if Winnie the Pooh, if Christopher Robin had abandoned 100-Acre Wood and left Pooh and the others to fend for themselves. It also reminded me quite a bit of Stephen King, both in some of the plot reveals but also in the dialogue.

Tchaikovsky continues to impress me, even with the things I like less.

7/10 I think?

Imagine finding out that the universe and characters of one of the best-beloved children´s books are actually real, you are the heir of it all, and it´s up to you to save it. I bet most people would love to be the hero and dive right in the adventure of a lifetime, right?

Well, not Harry Bodie, though. Struggling professionally and personally, this mediocre British actor has no desire to live up to his family literature legacy. He only wishes to be taken seriously for his craft, and keep his distance from all the weirdness it entails. But Fate has other plans for him, and now he has to deal with obsessive-crazed fans, a twisted dark fairy tale universe that is in the same decaying shape his life is right now, and some hard truths about his heritage.

I really enjoyed what I found here. Having a somewhat unlikeable mature protagonist with a twisted spin on the Chosen One trope was great. Even though this book has a lot of Narnia-related references, which was a bit too much on the nose for me, I think it worked fine as a critique/homage to the middle-grade portal-style books.

However, as someone who has read Tchaikovsky before, I was expecting more from the themes, so the story as a whole fell a little flat for me at times, and was not as entertaining as I thought. Still, it is a solid quick read I would recommend, especially for an adult audience who wishes for a different sort of fantasy.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for a free copy in exchange for my honest review and feedback .

Harry Bodie's life isn't going that well. His acting career is mediocre at best. An appearance on a tv show unearths his great grandmothers stay in a mental asylum, rather than the royal ancestry he'd hoped for and the world is shutting down because of a new virus running rampant.
And then he's kidnapped by a group of devotees of his grandmother's books. They believe so fiercely in these children's books that they want him to lead them back to Underhill, as he is the heir to the throne there. Or barring that, they will sacrifice him for their own entry.
With the aid of PI/folklorist, a faun and a spider Harry makes his way to Underhill and what he finds.. is not what he expected. A land far removed from the stories, decaying and in need of help.
Tchaikovsky's imagination and humor throughout this story are a delight. The writing is detailed and engaging, and the characters, especially those from Underhill, interesting.
Wonderful read!

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't really have any expectations going into this book, which was probably for the best. I've heard nothing but amazing things about Tchaikovsky's books and I feel a little like this may have fallen a bit short. There was nothing wrong with it per say, it just didn't grab me the way I'd hoped. I do plan to check out his SciFi work, as that seems to be where he really shines.

Overall, an interesting concept, but I feel like it paralleled existing classic children's fantasy a bit much for me. This felt like Chronicles Of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, and a little bit of Peter Pan all rolled in to one without enough of an original twist to me. I also feel like a darker ending may have been better instead of having everything wrap up in a nice tidy bow.

This is a novella about an exceedingly mediocre man who gets sucked into the machinations of Underhill--the fanciful, aged world spoken about in his late grandmother's semi-famous, somewhat-saccharine beloved children's fairytale books.

I did not anticipate it cracking my heart open like a freaking nutshell, but here we are. Crying after I explain this thing from cover to cover to my much confused husband, who presumably sat still for twenty minutes because he loves me or something.

I don't think I'm the only person who got drawn back to a favorite children's story during pandemic. And I don't think I'm the only one who felt a strange sort of shift from my experiences there as a child. Because I was different, now. I was older. I carried more things, like trauma, and crippling doubt, and all of that fun stuff with comes with owning a beating heart.

And then here was Harry--who is perhaps tolerant at best of his grandmother's legacy and work, who doesn't care for his job on children's television because he wants to do serious acting, who is moderately selfish and out to look after himself above most others, mostly. He's not the worst person alive, but he's certainly not a shining pinnacle of morality. He's just...run down. And tired. And you get the sense that he's spinning his wheels, not really sure how to turn things around, exactly.

And, contrary to what I expected, when figures from those fabled stories rise to the foreground, we find them in a similar state. Like the decay of the protagonist is mirrored there, with them. Like, they've been through it, too, in their own way. At first, they are eerie, threatening, uncanny in a way that had me echoing Harry's horror at the possibility of their reality.

And then they are just...sad.

Seeing Harry process this, wrestle with it and some unforeseen complications, and eventually take a course of action was extremely satisfying. <spoiler>[ Bit by bit, he comes to try to take care of the characters from his childhood, and in doing so, he grows into himself a bit more and finds some ways to take care of his own lifeworld as well.]</spoiler>

This thing is well-paced, has a funny, vibrant voice, and engaging characters. It's a good read. I didn't realize it was about pandemic when I picked it up, but honestly, it feels like this novel is for the "post"-pandemic readers in the way Narnia and all the rest were for the post-WWII readers. Like it recognizes a need we've all got right now to wake up and gently care for others.

[Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for a free copy in exchange for my honest feedback.]

It’s always interesting to see takes on the idea that fantasy worlds were real, particularly in the case of places like Narnia, where the world was similar to ours, but only similar, fantastical creatures abound and the world is not really in any way like the one that we inhabit.

Harry is the sole remaining descendant of Mary Bodie, who wrote the famous Underhill series of books a long time ago. An unpleasant man looking to turn the world to his advantage, Harry isn’t someone to like, he’s only in it for what he can get for himself and he’s willing to exploit anything to make that happen.

But then things start to change, both for him and for life, as this book is set against the backdrop of the beginning Covid crisis, when things started to get strange, and then they got weird, and then it went bad in all sorts of ways. Not that this concerns Harry, still looking out for himself and no one else, until one day, something visits him.

Something from the Underhill books.

Naturally this doesn’t go down well with Harry, who up until that point had been already feeling sorry for himself without much reason to do so, and now finds that not only were the Underhill books based on reality, but there was a part within this for him to play, a part that makes him every bit as important as he felt he always should be.

It’s not hard to see where the book is going, but there are clever twists and subversions of the classic tropes, and what Harry thought he was getting into turns out not to be anything of the sort. This is where Tchaikovsky has always excelled, taking the things that you expect and deftly turning them to something else entirely. The concepts of those from this world going to another world and there becoming saviours is long known, but what is done here (no spoilers) is a superb change from the normal.

Harry, the main character, isn’t a likable character, and that makes it all the more difficult to root for him at any point, and the moment where he could have become more of a traditional hero is twisted, giving the understanding that not all of us have the capacity to become what history wanted us to be. This is storytelling at its finest, where the expectation of a second ago becomes the frustration of a second later, and all the way to the end, we’re kept in suspense as to what will be the true ending of this.

Well recommended, and it’ll make you ask more questions about all the classic tales that many children have read over the years.

Thanks again to Netgalley and Solaris for providing a free ARC of the book in return for an honest review.

And Put Away Childish Things is an interesting take on portal fantasy mostly in that its not designed for children.
I did really enjoy this book, it was a fun fantasy story that was not too serious but it also had an interesting plot. I thought the world building for Underhill was really good and it was easy to imagine that we were there with the characters. The characters themselves could have been better but I feel because its so short a story it would have been hard to flesh this out on top of everything else. Harry is the only one that we really get to know and connect with, he is pretty realistic and and the way he acts seems like how anyone would in his situation.. There was a few nods to Narnia which were pretty funny, it is very much like this in a lot of ways but its also very different. I did enjoy how this story incorporated a book world with something thats the same but also very different. Underhill ends up being a pretty dark and messed up place but this made it so much more interesting!

This is also a book that mentions the Covid pandemic and makes it pretty advantageous to the character, I'm not sure how I feel about this but its interesting to see more books starting to mention this in them. If this wasn't a real thing that happened it would feel like a very odd to include to the reader so maybe won't hold up in the future.

I’ll read pretty much anything by Tchaikovsky, and this one didn’t disappoint. Portal fiction is one of my favorite subgenres, and this was a new spin on it. It had some of the darkness of <I>Wayward Children</i> but is not YA, and it contained more melancholic themes geared toward adults.

One of my only nitpicks with Tchaikovsky is that he doesn’t always have great character development—his character-driven stories seem less successful than his others—so this one was a nice surprise. Harry is sympathetic in that kind of lost-and-kind-of-angry-middle-aged-man kind of way, and I cared what happened to him and the other characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion & Solaris!

3 out of 5

Although actor Harry Bodie was currently employed, it was only as a presenter on a popular children's television series. Despite twenty=five years working in the entertainment business, his career was still not as secure as he had hoped to be by 40. Frustrated and desperate, Bodie is convinced by his agent to appear on a genealogy show. He assumed the primary focus would be on his grandmother Mary Bodie, author of the Underhill book series. Then he discovers a dark hidden secret about his great-grandmother, sending him into an alcoholic down=spiral.

One drunken night Harry sees a faun straight out of the books. He's no longer a child wishing for impossible things, but perhaps he can find his way back to that innocent time. as it appears the Land of Underhill really exists. Unfortunately it isn't as it once appeared. Can Harry save Underhill and its remaining residents or is it past time for a childhood fantasy to fade away?

The premise is definitely interesting. I found the choice of an adult male protagonist to be different. Sadly I found Harry unlikeable in the extreme almost throughout the book. It wasn't until things were at their worst that he showed some redeeming features. Character and execution are the weakest parts of the book, although i can recognize the talents of the author. This is the first Adrian Tchaikovsky story that I've ever read, so I had nothing to base my responses to in comparison to his other works.

The Narnia books are such a heavy influence to the point of being blatantly mentioned throughout. Sadly, despite my love of that series, I alternated here between boredom and annoyance. However there were flashes of brilliance, particularly as the end approached. I found the ending, in my opinion, to be how fictional worlds read and loved by children can come alive, but once no one reads them any longer, the lands begin to disappear, no matter how much the inhabitants try to stop that disintegration..

Pet peeve? The use of COVID. It wasn't necessary as far as I could see. Although I suppose it was a great explanation as to how Harry wasn't kicked out of his apartment for non-payment of rent.

There is without a doubt an audience for this standalone fantasy. Perhaps I've become too jaded and old to appreciate this unique view of hidden lands and overage Chosen Ones. If the premise intrigues you, I encourage you to read it.

(Review cross-posted on Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Tumblr, with a link on Twitter.)

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review! I think this book had some real promise, and it's definitely an interesting concept. However, I couldn't really connect to the characters or the story. I wish I could give something more concrete, but I just found myself wanting to feel a little bit more while I was reading. I think, maybe, had the constant comparisons to Narnia have been toned down I might have enjoyed it a bit more? It's okay to have a similar plot and mention it, but I felt like it was a bit overdone at some points.

This is a somewhat whimsical short book about a hellish Narnia clone, and the one person who could save it. Like everything I've ever read by Adrian Tchaikovsky, it's brilliantly written and interesting. Harry is not an altogether likeable protagonist, starting off as an entitled whiner, but growing on you as he sorts through discovering the Underhill is real and befriending it's citizens. He obtains some assistance from a likable folklorist posing as private detective. The deterioration of Underhill is grim, but there's hope for a good outcome by the end, which comes quickly and satisfyingly.

A creative, well-written spin on a familiar fantasy premise. I also really appreciate the compact length; no fat on this at all.

I wanted to like Adrian Tchaikovsky's AND PUT AWAY CHILDISH THINGS--in theory, the premise of a portal fantasy, a magical bloodline, and a quasi-Narnia should have hit my sweet spot. Instead, I found the story dragged, with too much narration and summary, and I disliked the main character. THE MAGICIANS (which has a similar premise) was disappointing in some of the same ways, but the strong writing of that book pulled me through. This was my first Tchaikovsky book, and I'm not sure I'll try another anytime soon.

The book is a good exploration of an adult previously surrounded by characters taken from a host of fantasy worlds who has become as jaded and worn out as our main character.
Unfortunately, I found midway through the book I did not connect with any of the main characters and found myself caring less about how this was going to turn out. There was nothing wrong with the writing or the concepts and ideas but this one just didn't work for me.

There were so many elements of this that I loved, but they never quite came together. Humour, excellent. Characters, bad. Concept, amazing. Execution, less amazing. This book also had an inclusion of covid that could have been interesting, but wasn't.
There were also constant references to Narnia that just reminded you how good Narnia is and how bad this world is by comparison.
With a couple of tweaks this could be really good, but the story ended up being so boring! And every time I thought we were taking a turn for the better (the introduction of the Underlings had be so excited) that potential would be squashed within the chapter.