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The Bones of Giants by Yoon Ha Lee
Candy and Me by Hilary Liftin
Color is Everything by Dan Bartges
The Dancers' War (in by N. K. Jemisin
Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House #9) by Mary Pope Osborne
Fairy Hunters, Ink. by Sheila A Dane
Falling into the Sun by Charrie Hazard
Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown
The Frequency of Souls by Mary Kay Zuravleff
The Goddamned Tooth Fairy by Tina Kuzminski
Goldilicious by Elizabeth and Victoria Kann
Haunted (Mediator #5) by Meg Cabot
Horrible Harry and the Green Slime by Suzy Kline
Hunchster by Matthew Hughes
I Spy School Days by Jean Marzollo
Icarus Saved from the Sky by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud
I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts by Larry Wilmore
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton
A Matter of Feeling by Janine Boissard
The Navajo (True Books) by Alice Osinski
The Night Villa by Carol Goodman
No Elephants Allowed by Deborah Robinson
On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck
The Others by Lawrence C. Connolly
Painting the Invisible Man by Rita Schiano
Precious Jeopardy: A Christmas Story by Lloyd C. Douglas
Real Sofistikashun by Tony Hoagland
Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
The Secret of the Pink Pokémon by Tracey West
The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright
The Sky Rained Heroes by Frederick LaCroix
Synarchy Book 1: The Awakening by DCS
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène Du Bois
The Wild Wood by Charles de Lint
Winter Walk by Ann Burg

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The Goddamned Tooth Fairy: 10/10/09

Today's story from Fantasy & Science Fiction is "The Goddamned Tooth Fairy" by Tina Kuzminksi. It's the "classic" reprint. I'm putting classic in quotes because this story was first published in 2000. The choice to reprint it came from a forum comment involving someone getting a tattoo inspired by the story. (See notes on pages 94-5)

I'm feeling really ambivalent about this story. I like the main character. I sort of pictured him as Nathan Fillion playing Richard Castle. He's a little goofy but his heart's in the right place. He's a single father (a widower) with a teenaged daughter and he's finally trying to date.

The date involves a day at the races (greyhounds). About a third of the story centers around the dogs and their silly names. It's a musing but not exactly something I'd consider either fantasy or science fiction. Things don't really pick up in that direction until the protagonist meets the title character. Why he's called what he's called is never adequately explained.

There are also horror elements. The Tooth Fairy seems like more of a threat than a friend. Part of that is filtered through the protagonist's own tragic past. Again, I felt that all this information comes too late in the story. By the time things are being explained I was going from confused to frustrated and grateful to only have two or three more pages left.

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