Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

4/5 Stars
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Flux


Review:

“You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.” ― Maggie Stiefvater, Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception

Ok, as regular readers will know I have a pretty big author crush on Maggie Steifvater. I loved the Shiver series, ADORED The Scorpio Races, and have been eagerly awaiting The Raven Boys. In order to get my Maggie fix prior to The Raven Boys I decided to order Lament from Amazon and I was not disappointed!

Lament begins with Deirdre Monaghan getting ready for a school musical competition when suddenly a mysterious boy, Luke, arrives and the two perform a duet totally on the fly. From there Luke becomes kind of a staple in Deirdre’s life. The reason for Luke’s sudden appearance is because Deirdre is a cloverhand, a human with the power to control the fey.

I really love Steifvater’s way of bringing characters to life. I felt like as the novel progressed I knew exactly who Deirdre was and I understood the choices she made because they are ones that I too would have made had I been in the situation. I also liked that as Deirdre learned more about herself and what she is she grew as a character.

The romance between Luke and Deirdre didn’t feel forced and while it was kind of instant it was still very believable. I think Deirdre pushed the relationship along more then Luke too. It was good to see a strong young woman being in charge of her love life! And boy the ending between the two of them! It definitely made me eager to begin the next book.  

Prior to reading Julie Kagawa’s The Iron fey series I stayed away from anything fey related. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I ‘may’ have looked down on other YA readers who read books about fey. I now see the error of my ways and with Lament I have became a total fairy convert! The fey in this book were very traditional and in line with Celtic lore. I loved that they were spiteful, secretive, and not at all human. In short they were just perfect! One of my favorite Fey characters was Una, although she wasn’t a main character she stole every scene she was in and I hope that in the next book she plays a bigger role.

Overall, I really enjoyed Lament. It was a fresh take on the fey and I was engrossed from the first to last page. I can’t wait to begin the second book and see what Maggie has in store for us next! 

2 comments:

  1. Oh man, I did not love this book. Deirdre drove me CRAZY.

    However, Ballad is the best Stiefvater book (imo) that I've read so far, because it's from the best friend's perspective. And I just love him...so sarcastic and intelligent!

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  2. I think at times Deirdre drove me crazy as well but Maggie's writing more then made up for it! I'm excited to start the next book I had no idea it was written from the best friends perspective!!

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