[3] Some Kind of Fairy Tale was later translated into French by Louise Malagoli and published as Comme un conte in France in February 2015.

But her parents have become elderly and feeble, her brother Peter has become a husband and father, and her boyfriend Richie has led a life of underachievement and substance abuse, unable to recover from Tara's disappearance.

The psychiatrist concludes she has unconsciously fabricated her story as a defense mechanism to avoid confronting some trauma that must have occurred during the period of her absence.

Tara becomes increasingly dissatisfied with life with her parents and boyfriend, finding it pales in comparison to her supposed experiences in the parallel world.

At the novel's conclusion Tara once again disappears, leaving a note for Richie indicating that her departure was voluntary, and done in an effort to protect him from Hiero's revenge.

"[8] Kirkus Reviews described the book as "excellently done; expertly grounded, suspensefully told", but had reservations about Joyce's depiction of Fairy.

[7] Reviewing the novel in The Guardian, American literary critic Jeff VanderMeer said "Joyce's fiction has always displayed a certain generosity of spirit that lifts it above the ordinary.