#Review: BOOKS OF FAERIES SERIES by Maggie Stiefvater

LAMENT

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind . . .

Lament is a dark faerie fantasy that features authentic Celtic faerie lore, plus cover art and interior illustrations by acclaimed faerie artist Julia Jeffrey.

Title: LAMENT

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Series: Books of Faeries #1

Source: Purchased from TBD

Publisher: Flux

Publication Date: October 8, 2008

Rating: 4 stars

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

I am both enthralled with this book and extremely confused with this book. I feel like there was something I was missing while reading it but I also couldn't put it down. This wasn't Stiefvater's best book, but it was still really interesting and definitely a new and invigorating take on fae mythology.

As always, Stiefvater's writing was flawless. I was transported to Deirdre's world and was fully captivated by her life and experiences. I liked that we were in her head because I feel like that gave usa better perspective on what was happening than if we had been in third person, especially when it came to her using her powers. It was really easy to get into this one for me, but I feel like if you think Stiefvater's other books are slow paced, you aren't going to enjoy this one. But LAMENT is a lyrical and beautiful masterpiece that perfectly blends story telling with the riddles of the fae and understanding who you are as a person.

I would have liked more out of some of the secondary characters in this one. I thought some of them were really well developed and others were lacking a bit -- or just didn't have enough screentime to fully develop into the characters they should be. For me, I would have liked a lot more of Sara. I think she was interesting because she was scared of what she saw but she was also quick to believe and very blunt. I think she handled things in a really believable way and I would have liked to see more of her relationship with Dee than what we got. I think James was underused in this one since he had this power and ability but we barely got to see it. And Dee's family knew a lot more than they let on but we never got all their knowledge and I crave it. But there is a sequel so I have high hopes for us to get more information from Dee's family in the future.

I loved the twist on mythology in this one. It was a really fresh take on fae as it was grounded in what is "common knowledge" (if you are as #obsessed as me, at least) but given a bit more depth and woven in with Irish mythology and folk tunes and it was everything I could have ever wanted from this book and more. I think what Stiefvater does best is take what we know and twist it in her own way to make a mythology story character driven and that is phenomenally done in Lament. I think in terms of mythology and making a story more than what meets the eye, Lament does this better than The Raven Cycle.

I was a bit confused throughout though -- it always felt like Dee knew more and less than what she let on and considering we were in her head I had a bit of disconnect in this sense. I felt like there was a couple missing puzzle pieces and I couldn't see the full picture and while this was okay at the beginning when Dee didn't know what was happening either, it started to make less sense for me not to know what was happening as Dee simultaneously knew more and less about what was happening. I feel like there needed to be a couple more scenes of Dee learning things (maybe from her Granna) for me to have it all click into place.

Otherwise, I am really happy with this one. I like that I feel like this story adds more to the fae canon rather than just tells the same story over again. I recommend this one if you are a fan of Stiefvater's other work but would suggest staying away if you aren't a fan of her writing.

BALLAD

Summary:
In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.

Title: BALLAD

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Series: Books of Faeries #2

Source: Purchased from TBD

Publisher: Flux

Publication Date: October 1, 2009

Rating: 2.5 stars 

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

I really enjoyed LAMENT. I thought it was the perfect mix of faerie mythology and Irish mythology that blended together with how great Dee and Luke were together. Therefore, I should have loved the sequel, Ballad. However, I did not.

I didn't like the shift from Dee and Luke to James and Nuala. Their characters and story were not nearly as engaging as Dee and Luke's had been. I was mostly just waiting for the story to be over rather than really enjoying myself. I think most of this stemmed from the fact that Nuala was not likeable and was constantly butting in to where she was explicitly told she was not wanted: James's life. And James, while funny, was too much. I couldn't relate to him at all except when it came to realizing he was better off without Dee in his life because he found better friends who actually cared about him.

The plot for this one was meh. I liked that it brought all the characters together and showed us the darker side to the fae that Stiefvater had created but I was kinda bored with how much time it took to get there. I felt like there were a lot of filler aspects to this one to make it a full novel rather than a novella. I also would have liked actual scenes from Dee rather than her weird text messages (with bad grammar, which is how people texted in 2009 but not how people text now and it drove me up the wall). I felt like Dee was wasted in this one because she was such a huge, important part of James's life and was given cameo scenes at best.

But, Stiefvater's writing was flawless again. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of the plot or characters, I was still engrossed in the writing and the world. I loved the descriptions of both the faerie world and the human world and how they intertwined. I loved that we got to see the faerie world from a faerie who wasn't quite faerie or human because it gave us a different perspective than what we had seen before. This version felt more real than what we saw in LAMENT because it wasn't as romanticized in a sense.

I do recommend this one, still. Especially if you loved LAMENT. You can also read this one as a standalone, but I would recommend reading them both if you are going to read this one anyway. I hope that if there is another book to this series that it shifts its focus back to Dee and Luke because they are much more interesting than James and Naula.