Welcome to Bordertown

Gr 9 Up—After 13 years of being "closed" to the outside world (and 13 years since the publication of Terri Widling's original anthologies), Bordertown has reopened to a new generation of runaways, misfits, and dreamers. This gritty metropolis sits metaphysically at the edge of the World and Realm, populated by mostly teen and 20-something humans; high- and lowborn elves; the occasional cursed human (e.g., Wolfboy); and halfies (Elf/human progeny). Widling and Kushner's "Welcome to Bordertown," the first of 22 stories, poems, and a graphic entry, immerses readers into a fully realized urban fantasy world that runs on unreliable faerie magic and erratic human technology, and pulses with sex, drugs, music, and brutal lawlessness, as a brother seeks out his missing sister and finds a community amid cursed humans and dangerous Elves. This story also sets up the themes carried throughout the collection: identity and authenticity, race and power, and the balance between wonder and naïveté. It's easy to be transported by each entry's rich details and compelling characters, but this page-turner's biggest success is in how veteran authors simultaneously address the themes through traditional fantasy tropes and current reality. Sardonic references to modern tech fads and fantasy trends abound: in Janni Lee Simner's "Crossings," two friends learn that werewolves and vampires (or sinister, opportunistic elves) do not actually make good boyfriends. Some poems are more successful than others, and the graphic story adds perhaps the least to the anthology. Nonetheless, every contribution brings something valuable and new, and readers will leave Charles de Lint's "A Tangle of Green Men," the volume's particularly heart-wrenching and beautiful last story, richer for having had the Bordertown experience, and eager for more.—Riva Pollard, Prospect Sierra Middle School, El Cerrito, CA