Leaves in the whirlwind, scarecrow’s clappin’
All good children ought to be nappin’.
The cows in the tree, the bird’s on the ground
For your dream’s just a nightmare upside down.

This is a fun & light hearted fairy tale written by singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith. The story is set in the town of Hinthoven, a bustling little village full of eccentric characters. Let’s see…we’ve got barkeep Crad Grimsby, local bully Jacques Tortière, bouncers Griff & Gruff & young Deryn Hedlight, the hero of our tale.

While out hunting one day Deryn has the great misfortune to run into Eleanoir, as wicked a witch as there ever was. (How do we know she’s a witch? C’mon people, she’s got purple eyes! Everyone knows the worst witches have purple eyes…sheesh.)

Poor Deryn. HIs life takes an extreme 180 & the story that follows is full of peril (PERIL!!), heartache, magic & the enduring power of love. The cover is gorgeous & sprinkled through the pages are little hand drawn sketches of the characters. Despite this being billed as an adult fairy tale, I think it’s better suited for kids. The chatty narrator speaks directly to the reader as they deliver a mystical & humorous coming-of-age story that is clean & full of good messages about the importance of friendship, whether it comes into your life on two legs or four.

So if you go out to the woods today, beware of those with a viole(n)t gaze. And bowler hats…..definitely avoid bowler hats.

Verdict: WTF did I just read??

Thankfully, it was short. It was supposed to be a dark fairytale, a fairytale for adults. Instead? It was more like what felt as an inexperienced writer's attempt at a first story with really bad illustrations, strange humor and some good puns, interspersed with some really bad puns.

So we've got this witch that's basically roaming the land without any good reason, causing loads of trouble. All of that is well and fine, but next time maybe you could try giving her some sort of motive for doing what she's doing..? <b>I can understand not everyone is Neil Gaiman, but there are a few things everyone could learn from him. Especially things re: dark fairytales.</b> Aside from the witch, there's a kid who gets enchanted. The story is supposed to be about him, but he's present in maybe 20% of it..? There are also all these people who <I>keep turning out to be affected</I>, like it's completely normal to pull out an "oh yeah, so their mother was ALSO killed by the witch all those years ago" in the last 5 pages of the story (I'm not even kidding, although I might be rounding the page number.)

In short, this was about as dark as my skin in mid-winter (hint: I'm white and really pale.) It was also not written very well. Some things were well intentioned, but very eye-roll-worthy. I've heard the author makes good music - well, award winning music doesn't always win you a literary award. I feel like it would be best of all if Mr. Sexsmith stayed with writing good music (I assume it's good for his own sake as I have not heard any.) I must say, the artist of the cover has done the best bit of work here, as the cover is undeservedly gorgeous, and one could only wish the illustrations inside were also done by him, but alas... it appears the author has many hobbies.

I received this copy in exchange for my honest opinion from the publisher through NetGalley. I apologize for having this opinion to the author. I very honestly have nothing against you and I'm sorry I hated this book. But I can't help it.

I think the story line was great, and it’s just the type of book that makes you feel happy. My commute takes forever, and Deer Life definitely made it a lot brighter. The idea is pretty cool, and the cover is gorgeous.

There’s a sort of musical quality to Ron’s writing style, which I think is pretty neat. When you think of fairy tales, the first thing that comes to mind is rhyming; but Deer Life doesn’t rhyme, not even once. It’s the way the words play out together and how its written that makes it all the more magical to read. It makes sense though, since Ron is a super successful, and super famous singer/songwriter. I mean, duh!

I just don’t know what it is with this book that makes it such a feel-good story. The characters are so charming, the adventure they have are exciting, and (again), the writing is easy and fun. I think every single one of us needs something to remind us of our childhood, and reading this fairy tale for adults is a great way in doing so. One of the main messages is if you work hard and work together, the impossible will become possible. As adults, I think we all need to remember this lesson, and apply it to our daily lives.

It already looks like I’m going to be in the minority on Goodreads for my thoughts on Deer Life.

Normally it doesn’t bother me if my opinion goes against the grain, but I don’t like giving out low scores. I know how much effort it takes to write a novel and I know how much it can hurt to have your work criticized, so I try to be honest while softening my opinions. I can be truthful without being a jerk, you know?

But with Deer Life, there wasn’t a single thing I liked beyond the cover. The cover is gorgeous and whoever drew it should be getting a ton of money. One look at the cover and I knew it was a book that I wanted to read, but the story itself didn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Nothing else in the book works for me.

There’s the skeleton of a good story in there somewhere. I can see the imagination that went into writing this, but it never was able to pull together.

So how do I do this without being nasty? Do I just leave my one star score and waltz out the door without saying anything? It doesn’t seem fair, particularly when I’ve been critical of other novels as well and made sure that my opinions were out there in public.

Basically all I’m going to say here on Goodreads is that it’s a bit of a mess. The drawings inside the book seem in direct opposition to the tone, the book didn’t feel like it was edited properly considering that the narrator will switch tenses mid-paragraph, and in the end this feels more like the first draft of a story than a completed novel.

For more negativity, I’ve put the full review up on Trulybooked.com.

Deer Life is a dark fairy tale, with flashes of eerie atmosphere reminiscent of Alan Garner. Sexsmith mentions a number of rejections of the manuscript in his preface. While it's not so bad as to be a vanity project, better editorial direction could have helped this story find focus and become more compelling. The characters lack dimensionality and the world-building could have been more thorough in that the rules of magic in this world and the origins of poor interactions between witches and humans are never satisfactorily explained. The witches of this world are purple-eyed baddies. End of story. P. S. They had a coalition. Even children appreciate complexity.

The book, which has a beautiful cover that caught my eye, is illustrated throughout with vignettes of Sexsmith's pencil drawings which add a certain charm but which are not doing the book any favors by not living up to the beautiful cover. The visual impression left is dissonant.

I was drawn to this book because of the gorgeous cover and the mentions in the description of fairytales, witchcraft and magical realism so I obviously wanted to read it and it turned out to be a really sweet, magical book. It follows the lives of a people in a couple of small rural villages partially the Hedlight and Hinterland families through a series of tragedies involving an evil witch and a story of revenge, family, friendship and love ensue. It does have classic fairytale tropes but it was a fast, endearing read.

I loved the magical realism in this book as well as the sweet characters and overall it was just a very charming and sweet story as well as being a extremely quick and easy read. Apparently the author is a famous singer/song writer in Canada I think - I had no idea but I think it was a fairly good debut. I thought the illustrations would be similar to the cover illustration but sadly they aren't; the illustrations are very simplistic and I didn't think they matched up to the amazing cover illustration.

An Amusing, Big Hearted, Cleverly Crafted Fairy Tale Farce

Don't be put off by the fact that the author is a well known musician/songwriter and recording artist. I'm often disappointed by those Fabio actor/male-model types who think that anyone who can do something else can also write a children's book or a "simple" fairy tale. Well, Sexsmith may be a newbie, but his casual, conversational, and just ever so slightly arch style is perfect for this work.

The structure is very similar to something like Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods" crossed with "Peter and the Wolf". We start with a witch and her dog. Then we add our hapless hero teen boy, Deryn. Then we add a cowardly innkeeper with a sad secret and hero potential. Mix in Deryn's distressed widowed Mom, a local landowner, and the landowner's comely teen daughter. Include a villainous hunter, two pub bouncers, a love sick maid, and various relatives of these people who all apparently disappeared after crossing paths with that especially nasty witch.

All of these characters are turned loose in the dark forest, each searching for a missing relative, revenge, redemption, forgiveness, love, or just a way out. As each character interacts with each other character the plot unfolds neatly and crisply, and the characters take on added depth and appeal. There are many brief set pieces that run from touching to farcical. The whole thing builds up speed and energy and ends quite satisfactorily, with each character ending up exactly where he should be.

The author sometimes tells the tale straight up, and sometimes breaks the fourth wall to confide in or tease the reader. As a consequence the book reads like a transcript of a story that was told to an audience, which I imagine is a bit of a holdover from Sexsmith's day job. In any event the book is loaded with wit and charm and genial good humor, which made this an entertaining delight. A nice reading gamble that paid off.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Hi there, sorry I couldn't get the pdf to work for this one!

Full of delight and whimsy this a beautiful fairy tale. It'll bring out the child in you. The cover is simple stunning as well.

What an emotional journey. Content is appropriate for the age range and deals with a lot of complexities this age group will experience and be able to bond with.