FIERCELY FICTIONAL celebrates fierce, inspiring fictional girls we know you’ll love. To us, “fierce” isn’t just about slaying dragons or solving mysteries. It’s about breaking free from your comfort zone, discovering your confidence, fighting for what you believe in, & discovering your emotional strength. Any girl can shine bright & be fierce, & in this series, we’ll connect you with a new fiercely fictional character every month!
FIERCELY FICTIONAL is back, and we’re highlighting the courageous Rosemary Thorpe from The Graveyard Gift, the first book in the Fern’s School for Wayward Fae series by Fern Forgettable (as told by Piper CJ).
Rosemary has a spectacular but kind of unfortunate gift – she has visions of how others are going to die. It’s not exactly easy to fit in when you’re peculiar, so everyone from her classmates to her teachers were scared of her, and even her own mother doesn’t really like her.
That’s why when Rosemary is invited to attend Fern’s School for Wayward Fae, she’s so willing to take a brave risk escaping to the fae realm. At Fern’s School, she meets cryptids with amazing abilities just like hers, and she starts to feel a little less alone. But just as she begins to settle into her new life, feeling like she’s finally found her place, a student vanishes into thin air, and everyone will need to band together and use their curious gifts to find them and save the world. (No pressure!)
The Graveyard Gift (Fern’s School for Wayward Fae #1):
Hold your breath, make the choice, and step into Fern’s School for Wayward Fae—where students are part human and part magical. A girl with peculiar abilities discovers nothing is what it seems when sinister forces causes one of her classmates to go missing. Perfect for fans of Wednesday.
A girl who knows how you die. Her banshee roommate who knows when it happens. And wishes that sometimes, maybe, come true. . . .
Rosemary Thorpe has always been a bit different. She has the uncanny and unfortunate ability to foresee people’s deaths, which tends to land her in hot water. Well, not actual hot water—where it lands her is a place between worlds called Fern’s School for Wayward Fae, where Rosemary learns that her powers come from being part fae.
At Fern’s School, Rosemary meets others who are part fae—including Trym, her banshee roommate whose screams can kill, and Essie, a djinn who grants wishes. But just as Rosemary settles in, a student vanishes in thin air. And it’s up to all the kids to use their curious gifts to find their missing friend. . . .
The Graveyard Gift (Fern’s School for Wayward Fae #1)
AUTHOR: Fern Forgettable (as told by Piper CJ)
PUBLISHER: Random House Books for Young Readers
DATE: October 8, 2024
The story is narrated by Fern Forgettable, a delightfully cheeky fairy who shares the entire tale in secret. (But don’t worry, she had the help of a human to write the story.) It’s a perfect fantasy read set at a magical boarding school with Wednesday vibes, perfect for spooky season reading! The best part? The Graveyard Gift is the first book in this whimsical and peculiar series, so more adventures
What makes Rosemary fierce? In this case, it’s more like what isn’t fierce about her! She goes from being the peculiar outcast to someone who takes bold risks and shows up for her friends. She discovers that the things that make her different are her greatest gifts and that she should never settle for vague, half-answers when seeking the truth. Bold, confident, and loyal, Rosemary is fierce in all the best ways. Oh, and she’s half fae, which is pretty cool.
We’re excited to share that Fern is here to share a peek between the pages of The Graveyard Gift and all the reasons Rosemary is totally fierce! (With the gracious help of best-selling author and fairy expert – no, really – she has a Masters in Folklore, Piper CJ, of course!)
Five Reasons Rosemary Thorpe is Totally Fierce:
A Note from Fern (with help from Piper CJ): Well, hello there. I hear you’d like to know five things about our twelve-year-old bundle of power and courage. You can call me Fern, if you like. I’m known for my freckles, my traveling power, and my fantastic green wings. I’m a fairy, you see, and we enjoy a good secret. If there’s one thing I love talking about, it’s a graveyard girl named Rosemary Thorpe. (I also like talking about fresh-baked cookies and telling people the horrifying tale of where the second sock goes when it gets lost in the dryer, but that’s a story for another time.) She doesn’t know it now, you see, but she’s something rather special, and I believe she has five brilliant lessons for you.
She Bravely Chooses the Unknown :
If you haven’t been to the fae realm yet, you should go as soon as you get the opportunity. You’ll want a tour guide, though, as there are few places on earth like it. Rosemary grew up in West Virginia and took a huge risk vanishing into thin air and colliding into a ring of mushrooms. If I’m being perfectly honest—and I feel like I can trust you, now that we’re close friends—she probably should have been more cautious about following strangers. Fortunately, I’m pretty much perfect. Probably.
As I was saying, the campus at Fern’s School for Wayward Fae is entirely different from her life in Point Pleasant. It has magical animals, fantastic powers, and cryptids and fae, which, until she met me, she thought belonged only in fairy tales. She made friends with a half-vampire student on her first day and quickly learned whether they drink blood. She courageously explores worlds hidden within our own (though I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you that). And she makes wonderful choices when faced with life-and-death challenges. After all, she can see how people die. What could go wrong?
She Embraces the “Bad”:
I’ve encountered something quite tragic when speaking with humans. Perhaps you’ll know what I’m talking about. For some reason, and I’m not sure why, they all want to be exactly the same. Heaven forbid they wear different clothes or listen to different music or, my oh my, have visions of death! Okay, so that last one is really hard, and perhaps we consider it “bad.” Rosemary saw it as a curse until she arrived at Fern’s. It didn’t help that former classmates were scared of her, human teachers got her in trouble, and her own mother didn’t like her gift one bit. It takes a long time to understand that the “bad” is very, very good.
If you’re reading this and this sounds like you, then there’s a chance you’ve felt similarly confused by human ways. You might not be entirely human, after all. One of the fiercest things I’ve seen in humans and fae alike is a spectacular girl who learns that the “bad” is actually what makes her very, very special.
She Doesn’t Give Up on Herself or Others:
This is a marvelous tale, but I can only write a bit of it. (I go into greater detail when I tell you all of Rosemary’s secrets, but for now, I shall share just two instances of her never-give-up attitude.) Rosemary struggles to fit in at her new school, but she knows her own worth. She befriends classmates with bizarre and spectacular powers. She sticks around for her friends, even when they’re guarded.
And perhaps more important—seriously, don’t tell anyone I told you this—she acts out against the advice of teachers and older students when a friend of hers is in serious danger. I’ve always liked her, and I’m proud to tell you that if you were Rosemary’s friend, she wouldn’t give up on you, either.
She Asks the Hard Questions:
Have you ever gotten in trouble for asking too many questions? My mother (yes, I do have one! Fairies weren’t hatched from an egg! Well, most of us weren’t) used to tell me that I talked to hear the sound of my own voice. While it’s true of me, it’s not the case for our girl Rosemary. She won’t settle for vague answers from grown-ups or half-truths from friends. She digs into the hard stuff, even when it means unpacking some deeply held prejudices against Unseelie fae. (It’s hard to explain an eternity of fighting between Seelie and Unseelie fae in such a short bit of writing, but if it helps: Seelie are what people think of when they picture fairies like me, and Unseelie are the ones they imagine when they think of what may be under the bed at night.)
Rosemary knows that knowledge is the greatest power. (That and flying. And time travel. Maybe mind reading? I’m unsure. I’ll talk to you about it later.) But to know the important things, she needs to raise her hand and ask questions, even when the answers scare her.
She Makes Her Own Family:
Have you ever hugged a best friend and known in your heart that you loved them like they were your own sibling? We call that “found family,” and it’s the most delightful thing in the world. Rosemary didn’t have the best life growing up. She doesn’t know her father, which is too bad because he’s misunderstood but otherwise rather lovely. Her mother doesn’t appreciate her power, nor does she know how to handle a girl as gifted as her daughter. Luckily, we’re all faced with the same choices as Rosemary, and we can always add more to our family—whether ours is lovely or not!
She creates a new family from scratch—people and fae, Seelie and Unseelie—and they love her as much as if they’d spent every holiday with her from her time in the cradle to her final day in Human School. (Is that what it’s called? Yes, it sounds right. Human School.) At the end of the day, creating a found family who loves you, supports you, and sees the good in your “bad” is the fiercest thing of all.
📚Need another fierce read to add to your shelf after The Graveyard Gift? Catch up on our FIERCELY FICTIONAL series!
