The Tooth Fairy (novel)

The Tooth Fairy is a fantasy and horror novel by English author Graham Joyce. It was released as a paperback in the UK in 1996 through Signet Books, and as a hardcover in the US in 1998 via Tor Books. The story centers on Sam and his friends growing up in Coventry, England during the 1960s, and a troublesome fairy that haunts Sam. The novel received the 1997 British Fantasy Award for Best Novel (the August Derleth Award) and was a nominee for the 1998 International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel. It also placed third in the 1999 Locus Award for Best Dark Fantasy/Horror Novel. A French translation by Michel Pagel, titled *L'intercepteur de cauchemars*, was published by Presses Pocket in November 1998 and won the Grand prix de l'Imaginaire: Traduction in 2000. A second French translation by Pagel, titled *La fée des dents*, came out from Bragelonne in March 2008.

The plot begins when five-year-old Sam loses a tooth and places it under his pillow. That night, a sprite visits him, which he mistakes for the tooth fairy. In reality, it is a mischievous, foul-mouthed creature that mocks and teases Sam. This androgynous fairy changes gender periodically, becomes fixated on Sam, and is both harmful and protective toward him. Sam grows up in 1960s Coventry alongside his friends Clive and Terry, with the fairy appearing often, frequently disrupting his life and theirs.

Critics generally received the novel well. Don D'Ammassa, writing in the *Science Fiction Chronicle*, called the book "unclassifiable," "totally unpredictable," and "extremely literary," noting that Joyce’s horror writing is "well above the average" for the genre. Charles de Lint, in *The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction*, described it as "one of those near-perfect novels" and praised the fairy as "a truly original creature of the otherworld – an enigmatic being...at once terrifying and pitiable." He said Joyce exposes "all the miserable angst and profound joys of childhood," making the book "utterly riveting" for readers wanting to revisit that emotional period. A starred review in *Publishers Weekly* called it an "exceptional supernatural novel," referring to the sprite as "a fleur de mal from childhood's secret garden," but emphasizing that the story's main draw is the three boys and the "gentle wit" Joyce uses to depict their "charmingly mischievous, naive and hormone-driven" lives.