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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
This is one of my favorite books, all by itself. When I picked it up I didn't realize that it was part of a series, and I didn't even notice until after I was done. It only relates a little bit to Lament (which I read later) and you don't even need much of the backstory.
I loved they way this book was written, with all of James' wittiness and snark. I didn't like Dee much, having started with James' pov, which is probably why I didn't like Lament as much as Ballad.
Having James play the pipes was a very original concept, because not many people like bagpipes and even fewer people play them. The Celtic-ness of this whole world was very well done, in my opinion.
This story is dark and magical, and I have read it many a time and will continue to read it!
I loved they way this book was written, with all of James' wittiness and snark. I didn't like Dee much, having started with James' pov, which is probably why I didn't like Lament as much as Ballad.
Having James play the pipes was a very original concept, because not many people like bagpipes and even fewer people play them. The Celtic-ness of this whole world was very well done, in my opinion.
This story is dark and magical, and I have read it many a time and will continue to read it!
Easily my favourite of Maggie Stiefvater's books, with Shiver and Scorpio Races being close contenders. Probably my love of music and empathy with the characters that had me gripped. Absolutely love James' character, would love if this became a film!!
Well, this was do much better than the first one! Dee really annoys me with her unsent texts, but I like Nuala and I love James' character even more! I am so happy that this book was in his and the new character's point of view. If you didn't like the first one, still read this one as it is much better!
I gave this book a lot of chances but it the end it was not the Maggie Stiefvater book I wanted or expected. It did not deliver to me as a reader and I know she has done way better. It just wasn't as good as the first one.
What I loved about this series were the faerie. It wasn't the classic good faerie that went around giving everyone their happily ever after and all that mumbo jumbo. It was the faerie that delighted is messing with human lives, whether that means playing pranks on them, like in Midsummers Night Dream by Shakespeare, or luring them away to cut their hearts out. This is the kind of faerie that I like, the kind that I find more realistic. The one thing that I didn't like about this series was the swearing, which was nearly every other page. Besides that, it was a thrilling series that swept me away.
Enjoyed this quite a lot. Lovely prose as I've come to expect from the author, and I adored James and Nuala, both as independent characters and together. I also liked round-faced Paul and Sullivan quite a lot. Plotwise I found the conclusion very satisfying. Definitely recommended for those who enjoyed LAMENT!
I found it interesting that this books made me actually dislike a character (Dee) I had actually liked and been sympathetic toward in the previous book (it didn't help that her involvement in this book consisted largely of a series of text messages, and I loathe textspeech). I'd like to re-read LAMENT and see what I think of it now...
I found it interesting that this books made me actually dislike a character (Dee) I had actually liked and been sympathetic toward in the previous book (it didn't help that her involvement in this book consisted largely of a series of text messages, and I loathe textspeech). I'd like to re-read LAMENT and see what I think of it now...
My feelings on Ballad are rather mixed. It's got a wonderfully eerie and satisfying ending - but the road to get there is decidedly less so.
James and the Problem of Unrequited Love
Look, unrequited love—specifically that particular brand of unrequited love between best friends that leads to the ruination of the friendship (especially when the one in love seems to feel—entitled—to being loved in return)—is pretty high on my list of least favorite tropes. I hate it. And for probably two-thirds of Ballad, it felt like James' defining character trait was that he was unrequitedly in love with Dee and that he kinda hated her for not loving him back in the same way.
That basic dislike for James' character definitely made Ballad a difficult sell for me. It definitely got a lot better in the last third of the book—after James fell for Nuala and sort of gave Dee up (though I didn't necessarily get much chemistry from the James/Nuala relationship) —but Ballad never managed to make me forget my initial dislike of him.
Where's the Magic?
One of the things I loved about Lament was the strangeness of it all. The way the magic and the eerie beauty/danger of the faeries permeated the whole book, coloring even the most mundane scenes with a sense of otherness.
All that is missing from most of Ballad.
Theoretically, the faeries are front and center in Ballad. Nuala, our second narrator, is a faerie herself and both Elenor—the new queen of Faerie—and the king of the dead are major players in the book. But despite the greater inclusion of faeries, there's something very - mundane - about Ballad. All the magic—all the strangeness and wildness that characterized and colored Lament—is missing up until the last fifty or so pages.
In a lot of ways, it feels like all the magic—or at least the potential for magic and strangeness—was subsumed by the love triangle-ish dynamic between James, Nuala, and Dee and the general smallness of James struggling to find his place at a new school. (The fact that there's not a strong/clear plot for most of the book doesn't help matters.)
Sequel? Companion Novel? Who Knows
Ballad doesn't really seem to know how it relates to Lament.
In theory, Ballad is a direct sequel to Lament. That's what the cover copy calls it, at least - and there's definitely some truth to that. Ballad picks up shortly after the end of Lament, and the events of Ballad pretty obviously spin out of what happened in Lament. It definitely doesn't seem like it does/could stand alone in the way a companion novel ought to.
But Ballad also almost entirely ditches the cast of Lament. We've got entirely new narrators in James and Nuala, and for the most part, an entirely new cast. (James was obviously a side character in Lament, but besides him, I think the only returning characters are Dee and her evil aunt, neither of whom is in more than a handful of scenes.) That, for me, meant it wasn't really a satisfying sequel either.
Ultimately, I think Ballad feels like one-half of a sequel to Lament. James' part of the story is important (and interesting where it's not padded with trivial sh** to bring up the word count)—but so is Deirdre's. Because the thing is this: at the end of the day, the story of the Books of Faerie series is Deirdre's.
It feels like the majority of Ballad's plot happens off page, with Deirdre. She spends the whole book in the background, off doing all these interesting (dangerous) things and getting more and more entangled with the faeries—she even murders someone, apparently —and we only get little glimpses of that through these (kinda incomprehensible) texts she writes—but doesn't send—to James. It means there's no build to Ballad; the events of the climax kinda come out of nowhere and have no real weight behind them.
If Ballad had paired (the important parts of) James' POV with chapters from Deirdre's that carried the more faerie-heavy aspects of the plot, I think it would have been a much sturdier and more fulfilling sequel (and I wouldn't have walked away disliking all the characters quite so much).
Overall
Ballad is...messy. It doesn't really live up to the bar set by Lament. There are good moments, good stretches—like I said at the top, the ending is wonderfully eerie and largely satisfying—but the book as a whole feels twice as long as it needs to be and also like it's missing most of the story.
However, Maggie Stiefvater is still a phenomenal writer, even with her worst books. For all that I didn't like most of Ballad, her prose is still gorgeous and I can still see (and admire) her knack for creating distinctive characters (even if I ended up disliking most of them). It's largely thanks to her skill as a writer (and a very well done ending) that I didn't give Ballad a much lower rating—and why I would probably still read the third book if that ever materializes.
Book: 3.25/5
Series: 3.5/5
James and the Problem of Unrequited Love
Look, unrequited love—specifically that particular brand of unrequited love between best friends that leads to the ruination of the friendship (especially when the one in love seems to feel—entitled—to being loved in return)—is pretty high on my list of least favorite tropes. I hate it. And for probably two-thirds of Ballad, it felt like James' defining character trait was that he was unrequitedly in love with Dee and that he kinda hated her for not loving him back in the same way.
That basic dislike for James' character definitely made Ballad a difficult sell for me. It definitely got a lot better in the last third of the book—
Where's the Magic?
One of the things I loved about Lament was the strangeness of it all. The way the magic and the eerie beauty/danger of the faeries permeated the whole book, coloring even the most mundane scenes with a sense of otherness.
All that is missing from most of Ballad.
Theoretically, the faeries are front and center in Ballad. Nuala, our second narrator, is a faerie herself and both Elenor—the new queen of Faerie—and the king of the dead are major players in the book. But despite the greater inclusion of faeries, there's something very - mundane - about Ballad. All the magic—all the strangeness and wildness that characterized and colored Lament—is missing up until the last fifty or so pages.
In a lot of ways, it feels like all the magic—or at least the potential for magic and strangeness—was subsumed by the love triangle-ish dynamic between James, Nuala, and Dee and the general smallness of James struggling to find his place at a new school. (The fact that there's not a strong/clear plot for most of the book doesn't help matters.)
Sequel? Companion Novel? Who Knows
Ballad doesn't really seem to know how it relates to Lament.
In theory, Ballad is a direct sequel to Lament. That's what the cover copy calls it, at least - and there's definitely some truth to that. Ballad picks up shortly after the end of Lament, and the events of Ballad pretty obviously spin out of what happened in Lament. It definitely doesn't seem like it does/could stand alone in the way a companion novel ought to.
But Ballad also almost entirely ditches the cast of Lament. We've got entirely new narrators in James and Nuala, and for the most part, an entirely new cast. (James was obviously a side character in Lament, but besides him, I think the only returning characters are Dee and her evil aunt, neither of whom is in more than a handful of scenes.) That, for me, meant it wasn't really a satisfying sequel either.
Ultimately, I think Ballad feels like one-half of a sequel to Lament. James' part of the story is important (and interesting where it's not padded with trivial sh** to bring up the word count)—but so is Deirdre's. Because the thing is this: at the end of the day, the story of the Books of Faerie series is Deirdre's.
It feels like the majority of Ballad's plot happens off page, with Deirdre. She spends the whole book in the background, off doing all these interesting (dangerous) things and getting more and more entangled with the faeries—
If Ballad had paired (the important parts of) James' POV with chapters from Deirdre's that carried the more faerie-heavy aspects of the plot, I think it would have been a much sturdier and more fulfilling sequel (and I wouldn't have walked away disliking all the characters quite so much).
Overall
Ballad is...messy. It doesn't really live up to the bar set by Lament. There are good moments, good stretches—like I said at the top, the ending is wonderfully eerie and largely satisfying—but the book as a whole feels twice as long as it needs to be and also like it's missing most of the story.
However, Maggie Stiefvater is still a phenomenal writer, even with her worst books. For all that I didn't like most of Ballad, her prose is still gorgeous and I can still see (and admire) her knack for creating distinctive characters (even if I ended up disliking most of them). It's largely thanks to her skill as a writer (and a very well done ending) that I didn't give Ballad a much lower rating—and why I would probably still read the third book if that ever materializes.
Book: 3.25/5
Series: 3.5/5
this is definitely more stiefvater-ish but still retains an air of immaturity that really grinded my gears
Great original story line, but writing not as great as her later works. Wondering if there will be a third book...