It's fitting that I should start my book reviews with a story involving urban fantasy, but perhaps not so fitting is that it disappointed me.
I would like to first say that this book was recommended to me due to the fact that I enjoyed Holly Black's Ironside Series. That was a false assumption and I hate myself for not just buying the first book in this series, but the second book as well. Review of that one coming shortly after this one.
We have Deirdre, a human teenage girl who runs into a human teenage boy named Luke. Everything seems to happen right away and not much sense is made in the madness. We learn that Deirdre has powers and the extent of those powers are never fully explained. It does, however, make a convenient plot device throughout the book. Faerie dust ex machina.
We then learn that there are some creatures after her, one of them Luke himself, but after hanging out with her for less than twenty-four hours he decides he is going to defy orders and not kill her. Ah yes, the downfall of all YA fantasy, insta-love. It's gross, it's unrealistic, and it has to be stopped!
Don't get me wrong I love love and a well written relationship in a YA novel can be incredible. However, when you constantly have the female protagonist fall for the mysterious guy who might be secretly bad for her, but it's not a secret because he keeps telling her he's bad for her, then it can't be anything other than awful.
Moving on, we quickly learn that Luke is an assassin for the Faerie Queen and when he disobeys his orders she punishes him by sending mental pain that makes him crumble into the fetal position. And we know this because we see it happen exactly once.
Now, why does the Faerie Queen have beef with Deirdre? Well turns out that human Deirdre can take the throne from Queen Deirdre (yes they have the same name, apparently there is a reason that I totally did not fully catch because it was something else that didn't make sense). She is able to do this due to her Freak powers, because she is a Freak and between her and her Best Friend James they will start a Freaks Fan Club and call it the Freakometers.
I wish I had the patience to go back and count all the times the word freak is used in this book, but I don't so I won't.
Yes, I almost forgot the BFF. The third cog of the YA romance triangle that is required in every book in this genre. James, sweet, understanding, cute, lovable, friend-zoned James. He gets Deirdre, like really gets her. He always answers her calls and knows the right thing to say. Honestly the way this kid was written I was so confused why Deirdre hadn't jumped on that yet.
GOOD POINT: We now come to the first good point in this book. Trust me there aren't many so enjoy this. We never ever have the awkward "I'm sorry, but I love the mysterious guy and it doesn't matter that we've always been together, but your still my best friend" moment. I thank you for this author. To be fair it was mainly because James is unconscious for a fourth of the book, but I still say it counts.
There are other faerie characters involved, Eleanor, Aodhan (or Freckled Freak as Deirdre lovingly calls him), Brendan, Una...I think that is all of them. They play parts, they do things, the plot moves forward. Honestly, they do kind of become relevant at the end.
Anyway, the Queen has Luke's soul and in a fit of rage kidnaps James and Luke in the hopes to lure Deidre out. Now mind you, she is still just human who only a few days ago discovered these powers, which include, but are not limited to Telekinesis, mind reading, playing the harp really freaking great, etc. She still does not have control of them and yet it was necessary to set an elaborate trap that brings Deirdre face to face with the Queen.
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| Luke's soul is a dove by the way |
GOOD POINT: Time for the second good point for this book. The entire time Deirdre is forced to be on her own and figure out how to get James and Luke back; it was the best part of the book. Reading it, I wished that James and Luke didn't even exist. This is the part where the minimal research the author did into faerie lore shined through. We also got to see the only character development had by the protagonist. I actually started to enjoy the book, but then the boys came back.
James is on the brink of death and Luke is acting weird because the Queen wants him to love her, but he's rejecting her for Deirdre. It's a mess. Some Faerie that Deirdre just happen to save moments before shows up and stalls the battle between her and the Queen. Deirdre then name drops which is HUGE in Faerie lore and it is basically brushed aside as if it means nothing. How dare you! *Shakes fist*
Deirdre says that the Queen subjects don't love her and is proved correct when the Queen gets a bit full of herself and her entire court devours her. Seriously, they just rip her to shreds, it was pretty awesome.
Now the canon set by the author dictates that Deirdre should be the new Queen, but for some reason Eleanor is chosen instead, but everyone seems okay with this. Eleanor promises not to kill Deirdre and she and Luke just go, "Sounds good." Luke gets back his soul, but there's the whole thing that once it's returned he'll grow old super quick and die.
Deirdre thinks she has a plan to fix that by using up her gift from the Faerie she saved, but OH NO James is still freaking dying because he was all but forgotten during this weird exchange. So begrudgingly (She's such a good BFF) she asks the Faerie to spare James's life.
So BFF is saved, but oh wait, because Luke is pretty much a Faerie at this point he'll just continue to be a faerie once his soul is returned. No extra work required, it just happens. So now he'll live and they dance the night away because it's the Solstice.
GOOD POINT: The third and final one. The writing was easily readable. I find most books that frustrate me are made even harder by horrible writing. I would have to say this was not the case with Lament. While the story was the worst, the writing was nice.
BAD POINT: I could have done with less vomit.
1.5 Stars out of 5
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