Snotty Saves the Day (The History of Arcadia, #1) by Tod Davies

Snotty Saves the Day (The History of Arcadia, #1) Reviews

• 
  Brian Griffith

  Davies distills a whole imaginary culture's folklore (along with its body of literary criticism) down to one manuscript from Arcadia. The tale is packed with figures of popular myth, some familiar, and others invented on the spot. As for style, it's gotta be a blend of Lewis Carroll, George Orwell, and maybe some others such as Doris Lessing and Dr. Seuss. It's a bona fide work of creative mythology, and Joseph Campbell would approve.
• 
  Cami

  This book begged me not to read it.
  First, it's narrator told me how much I wouldn't enjoy the book, then it told me every negative thing it could about the protagonist, Snotty, and how unappealing he was.
  
  I was very obliging and put it down.
• 
  Meade

  This was a neat idea but the execution was all over the place and the "historical notes" were repetitive and uninteresting. I have the sequel but doubt I'll read it.
• 
  Alison C

  This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
  Snotty Saves the Day, by Tod Davies, is a very difficult book to describe. It is framed as a scholarly retelling of one of the primal myths of the land of Arcadia, complete with footnotes in which the author cites other scholars with whom she profoundly disagrees. It also points out the significant differences between Arcadia and the land of Megalopolis, which appears to overlay Arcadia and to represent, in some ways, our own world. Arcadia, meanwhile, is the land where folk and fairy tales are true and, more than that, contain the laws of the universe, including rules of physics and biology. Our ostensible hero, Snotty, is an unpleasant - no, downright nasty - child from Megalopolis who is removed to Arcadia, where he is first seen as the Sun God of the Giant Garden Gnomes, a war-like race that plans to take over all of Arcadia and make sure everything in it is in its proper box. Later, he meets the Resistance, populated primarily by Teddy Bears, but also including giant dolls, a unicorn and other creatures. How Snotty reacts to and deals with all of these disparate parts of his ever-changing worlds takes up the bulk of the tale, with frequent philosophical input in the footnotes. I found this a very odd book and am not sure how I feel about it. The writing is good, the story is certainly original and intriguing, and some of the footnotes in particular are absolutely hilarious; yet, after finishing it, I'm just not quite sure what it was about. And for whom: certainly the intensity of the story and the density of academese in the footnotes would seem to preclude young children really enjoying it, but adults to whom it might be aimed would really need to be well up on folklore, fairy tales and the structures of myth in order to fully appreciate it. I'm giving it a positive rating because of its originality and thought-provoking philosophy, but I'm not sure to whom I would actually recommend it. A puzzler.
• 
  Kate K. F.

  I picked up this book and its sequel at ALA 2013 and it left me feeling rather unsatisfied. The conceit of the book is that it was left in a package outside the publisher's and is an odd combination of an academic book and a fairy tale. I found both parts of it interesting but the way they fit together was odd. The main story of Snotty began rather like a Damon Runyon story in a dirty city but then halfway through the tone changed to something closer to a George MacDonald story. I found this distracting since the quality of the writing was good but it didn't all hold together. It felt like there was just too much going on with the frame of Megalopolis and Arcadia plus a war occurring in Arcadia.
  
  There were elements of Snotty's story that I found well done, issues of identity but at times the issues of right and wrong and the importance of small and big felt too bluntly put. I have the sequel which I'm going to read as I think the author has a good sense of writing but that they try to do too much in too little space. This isn't a book I would easily recommend to a middle or high school student as it relies too much on referencing styles of writing from the early part of the century, which I think a modern young person wouldn't be easily pulled into. Instead I would consider giving this book to friends who enjoy fairy tales and their history and literature since its an interesting read for what its trying to do less for the story.
• 
  Trisha

  Whatever notions you have of how a book should arrive at conflict and story points, how a fairy-tale should end, or how a plot should flow, take these out of your mind before you read Snotty Saves the Day. This fairytale for adults (or smart kids), took me to places I didn't expect. Everything that happened was a surprise, from beginning to end.
  
  Some people don't like being surprised. They like their stories cookie-cutter. If that's you, you'd best pass Snotty on by, because I don't think you'll like it.
  
  In the book, you read an old story that supposedly got left in the woods behind a publisher's house, left by historians from another dimension. The story follows Snotty, an unlikeable boy, as he journeys away from his city-like home through a land of fairy-tale creatures.
  
  The book wasn't what I was expecting, and it was quite a journey. I didn't particularly enjoy the overly verbose forwards and footnotes from the supposed other-realm historians, but the actual tale of Snotty was interesting enough to keep me reading.
  
  [I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.]
• 
  Kasia Hubbard

  *I won this on Goodreads* I LOVE fairy tales and this book is just that. A magical fairy tale starring Snotty, the brattiest boy who ever lived, from the darkest and poorest neighborhood who rules the streets with a head full of mischief and strong survival skills. A criminal mastermind at the tender age of 12, Snotty longs for a better life and is working hard to save his money to move out of his run down house and deteriorating neighborhood. Just as he's finishing the last job he'll ever have to do (since he thinks he's saved enough money to finally achieve his dreams) things go awry. The customers of his last job plan to rob him, and almost do when the police show up. Snotty gets away from them and runs into the Seventh Garden, only to fall down a hole and magically be transported to another world, where all is not as it seems. I thought this story was a fantastic blend of interesting fairy tales and creative ideas thoughtfully tied together with a startling conclusion. Well done Tod Davies, well done!
• 
  Emily

  This allegorical fable was allegedly left leaning against a tree near the "editor's" home. It has been annotated by a scholar of fairy tales in the allegedly fictional world of Arcadia. The theme seems to be that fairy tales are true and this particular tale explains the origin of the land it comes from. (Some fans of Heinlein's World as Myth series already take this conclusion for granted...) Snotty is an unlikable young narrator, which makes his transformation all the more memorable. A lot of philosophy and morality is crammed into the short book, and it turned rather religious toward the end (in a similar way as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), which I was not a fan of. Up until then, I was planning to rate the book much higher. I appreciated the premise and support most of the messages imparted,and the language is almost British, which I liked as well. Recommended for fans of C. S. Lewis and the like.
• 
  Marissa

  From the blurb in the back of the book: "Tod Davies firmly believes in the truth of fairly tales, and that if you know who you are (and what made you that way), you can change your world."
  
  This story illustrates those beliefs as Davies draws on classic elements of fairy tales and scholarly works, and then upends tradition. Full of heart and humor, the story hits close to home once the reader recognizes the ties between her world and the fictional one. And Snotty, the anti-hero, ultimately becomes an inspiring character worthy of emulation.
  
  Read an interview with Tod Davies in Words With Writers:
  http://wordswithwriters.com/2011/05/1...
• 
  Fallon

  This was a Goodreads first reads win.
  
  First off, I thought this looked like an interesting book; I had high hopes for it. It has an interesting premise and it looked like it would be an odd fairy tale. It was odd & a bit more morbid than I would like to read, it comes off as a kiddish book, but you've got 12 year olds drinking, cutting off fingers and that's just for starters. Other than that it was a bit dull even though it starts with a Douglas Adam's kind of feel it was just a bit lackluster, also the footnotes that gave the 'real' history behind the folklore did not help matters at all. I don't know about this one I do see that some people like it but it just wasn't for me.
  
• 
  Kris

  That was a rough one to finish. And so short, which made my lack of progress so frustrating. A disappointing lack of proper character development, maybe because the book is too in love with its central concept/conceit instead: a moralistic, metaphorical fairy tale pastiche overlaid with a "meta" story that appears in the form of a foreword and footnotes and a bibliography. The meta story isn't even finished, which just says to me that Davies is planning for a sequel/companion book, and I hate when books do that. I guess when you're the publisher, you can guarantee yourself a sequel.
• 
  Lafcadio

  What a strange little book. I think it was trying to be strange in a quirky, fun way, but it was unsuccessful. Every time I thought the main character had learned something important, the lesson didn't seem to stick for very long. Character development was of the one step forward, two steps back variety. Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe it was only one and a half steps back.
  
  In the end, Snotty saves the day (no spoilers; it's right there in the title), but maybe that's not what should have happened. Maybe Snotty didn't deserve to save the day.
• 
  Cyndi

  Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful story. A deep, engaging fairy tale that demands to be read again and again. This is a book that can be enjoyed by all ages and will leave the reader feeling uplifted with a better appreciation for life.
  
  Definitely a book that I will treasure and share with my own children.
• 
  Jami

  Plot: 3 stars
  Characters: 3 stars
  Style: 2 stars
  Pace: 3 stars
  ALA acquisition.
  Strange little book. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't like it either. I wasn't bored by it, but the style is such that I found it hard to follow at times and yet wondered when it would get on with it already.
• 
  Shanna

  I'm a first reads winner..I won this book :)