OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

Children fight to free themselves from an oppressive, segregated society in Cunningham’s dark fantasy.

Granny Rose, the “oldest storyteller left,” relays a tale to children around a campfire. It begins with four other grannies: Granny Sweep, Granny Spark, Granny Dirt, and Granny Brine. They each live in distinctive places (Granny Spark resides in a magical forest, for instance), but not one of them remembers how she got there.Granny Rose then recounts the tale of young Briar, who belongs to the “outside world” where poverty is rampant and the land is desolate. The comfortable people of the “inside world,” located underneath a vast dome, never feel rain or wind or any temperature that’s too hot or cold. This arrangement is essentially the creation of Noone, a sinister being who has a chief magician at his beck and call. Outside, members of the Guard actively subjugate the people, which includes going after “beauty singers,” whose songs are a form of rebellion. The oppressed population includes Briar, an aspiring beauty singer, and her two friends Sal and Jack. All three kids make an admirable attempt to escape the confines of the outside world. Granny Rose’s story gradually moves to a later time, when she herself is a young girl. Her mother and her peculiar twin aunties keep Rose a secret, hiding her away from both the inside and outside worlds. If she ever hopes to branch out on her own, she’ll likely have to face Noone, the ever-present villain.

Narrator Granny Rose makes it clear that Cunningham’s narrative is “not a children’s story.” It certainly tackles serious issues, namely the mistreatment of others based on social class and gender. The book has signs of violence as well, though much of it is implied. In this vein, characters deliberately withhold details or become evasive when someone asks a straightforward question throughout the novel; Granny Rose, for example, seems to be safeguarding the campfire kids from the story’s harsher content, and Rose’s mother declares her daughter to be “too young to hear about such things.” Readers will find plenty of wonderful surprises, particularly in the way Briar, Sal, and Jack fit into the Rose-centric tale. These four characters display valor, loyalty, and tenacity—Sal tries to determine her own fate by disguising herself as a boy, since that way she’ll likely do hard labor instead of being forced into sex work, as many young females are. It’s not all doom and gloom: The author makes several entertaining nods to classic fairy tales, sometimes directly and other times more generally (shoes, as they do in many fairy tales, play a crucial role in this novel). Rose’s aunties provide a touch of comic relief, with their nonstop banter complicating many conversations, whether they’re arguing or in complete agreement. The action picks up in the story’s latter half, and while the final act is definitely in no rush to reach the ending, the journey to get there is well worth it.

A diverting, insightful fusion of a dystopian yarn and a fairy tale.