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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Muy pocos libros han logrado balancear los paranormal/fánstastico con personajes bien caracterizados hasta ahora. The Demon's Lexicon no es la excepción.
Si bien el libro cuenta con una trama paranormal/fántastico interesante no esta muy bien desarrollada. Llegan partes en las no me acuero cual era la trama porque se enfocaba mucho más en los personajes. No voy a negarlo lo disfrute mucho.
Amo a Mae como personaje y preferiría que el tercer libro fuera de su punto de vista para ver como avanza su relación con Nick.Pero no es de un personae que no me interesa para nada, Sin.
Si bien el libro cuenta con una trama paranormal/fántastico interesante no esta muy bien desarrollada. Llegan partes en las no me acuero cual era la trama porque se enfocaba mucho más en los personajes. No voy a negarlo lo disfrute mucho.
Amo a Mae como personaje y preferiría que el tercer libro fuera de su punto de vista para ver como avanza su relación con Nick.Pero no es de un personae que no me interesa para nada, Sin.
I thought this book was even stronger than the first. It complicates the ideas of love, human emotion, and the romance is addictive in the best soap-opera kinds of ways, but still meaningful. I really was captivated by this book, even if at the beginning I wasn't sure how I'd like Mae as the main character. I really loved seeing the characters grow.
I think, as a story about demons and love that is so common these days, Brennan is probably one of the strongest (cough cough I hate to say it but I like these books MORE than the Mortal Instruments series).
I think, as a story about demons and love that is so common these days, Brennan is probably one of the strongest (cough cough I hate to say it but I like these books MORE than the Mortal Instruments series).
Excellent book! So many things happened, both good and bad, and every character had to make a very difficult choice.
I was less pleased by this book than by its prequel. I thought it was more polished in some ways, but it didn't give me that visceral, heart-pounding, tingling excitement that I get from books that I really like (and that The Demon's Lexicon gave me).
Part of that is due to the ending, which isn't quite a cliffhanger, but which very much has a feeling of unfinished business about it. And I feel like a stereotypical pre-teen boy for even mentioning this, but there is way too much kissing in this book! I'm as much a fan of kissing as anyone, but it gets ridiculous pretty fast here.
Still, it was an enjoyable read (I especially loved that the shift to Mae's pov allowed for more scenes in which female characters interacted with each other), and I'm looking forward to the final book in the trilogy.
Part of that is due to the ending, which isn't quite a cliffhanger, but which very much has a feeling of unfinished business about it. And I feel like a stereotypical pre-teen boy for even mentioning this, but there is way too much kissing in this book! I'm as much a fan of kissing as anyone, but it gets ridiculous pretty fast here.
Still, it was an enjoyable read (I especially loved that the shift to Mae's pov allowed for more scenes in which female characters interacted with each other), and I'm looking forward to the final book in the trilogy.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this book. It was so spectacular I don't even know where to start. WOW...just WOW!
First read on release day 2010
Read again 2011
First read on release day 2010
Read again 2011
by Sarah Rees Brennan
Okay, I'm kind of taking a deep breath here, because I've got two different reactions going on. On the one hand, I am someone who's religious and pretty traditionally religious at that. Which is to say, if someone told me that they didn't want to read this series because of the demon thing, I would totally understand that. But, oh man, these books are good.
Demon's Covenant is a sequel, following The Demon's Lexicon, which I didn't tell you about. I enjoyed the first book, despite figuring out the twist about fifty pages in. Well, it's a little bit obvious. And then I read the second book. And there was much laughter and tears and confetti. And as a warning, there will be some spoilers for the first book in this review. So go read that first, if you're so inclined.
Opening line: "'Any minute now,' Rachel said, 'something terrible is going to happen to us.'"
The first line brings up one of the things that I loved: Mae has friends. Actual real friends who she does things with. This is nothing short of amazing. And I think it's fabulous.
So, we're a month or so after the end of the first book. Mae is in trouble with her mother. Jamie is hanging out with Gerald--yes, THAT Gerald. Alan and Nick have a mysterious issue that they can't seem to work through.
This book was told mostly from Mae's point of view and I loved that switch. Mae is honestly one of the most fabulous heroines I've come across in a long time. She's strong and scary at times, without having to prove that she's just as good as anyone else. She's just plain awesome as is. It was great to see Nick and Alan as she did. I almost wished that she could have narrated the first book as well, although actually it wouldn't have worked nearly as well. I do think that her emotional response helped me to feel this book more than I did the first. Which makes sense, given Nick and all.
So Nick. Nick is heartbreaking. Something about him, about his hopeless attempt to become more human, about his deepest fear just makes me want to cry. (In fact, this book did make me cry. Four times.) Brennan is walking a fine line here, trying to emphasize his alienness while at the same time keeping him sympathetic enough to care about. I think she manages it very well indeed.
The interactions between Jamie and Nick were amazing. Hilarious. I already knew that Brennan could be really funny* but the first book wasn't quite so amusing so I wasn't entirely prepared. This time I laughed out loud several times. But Jamie isn't just there to be the comic relief. In his own way he's as heartbreaking as Nick. And the end...oh the end.
I haven't said anything about Alan yet, which isn't because I don't like Alan. FAR FROM IT. Alan is awesomeness. Alan is swoonable. There is no argument. In fact, I've been trying to come up with something else to say to prove his awesomeness and can't.
And this book has so much to say about love and the stupid, wonderful things we do for it. I was really impressed by the fact that the most unconditional bonds in both books are between family members. Romantic bonds, at least so far, are more...fraught. (I have opinions about these romantic bonds. Strong ones.) It has a lot to say about the cost of decisions as well. Each character makes a difficult decision, one which is not without consequences. There are things which happen which are irreversible, which will not be solved with the wave of a wand or all the magic in the world. Brennan isn't pulling her punches here, and as much as it breaks my heart, I also totally respect her for it. So yes. These will be books that stay with me for awhile, for all the right reasons.
Book source: public library
Book information: Simon & Schuster, 2010
* She did write the best summary of the Attolia books EVER. (Scroll down a bit, although the rest are great too.)
------
After waffling over reading the series for awhile, I read the first book and liked it, despite calling some of the twists. Then I read the second book and fell into a pile of mushy goo. Mae is wonderful. Jamie and Annabel are heartbreaking (I cannot think of the end of the book without choking up). Nick is infuriating. Alan is swoonable, if somewhat evil. And I actually kind of have a soft spot for Seb and Gerald too. I am fearful for my favorite characters, but I also am hyperventilating at the thought that there are still 5-6 months before the third book comes out. I think a re-read is in order SOON. [2010 in books]
Okay, I'm kind of taking a deep breath here, because I've got two different reactions going on. On the one hand, I am someone who's religious and pretty traditionally religious at that. Which is to say, if someone told me that they didn't want to read this series because of the demon thing, I would totally understand that. But, oh man, these books are good.
Demon's Covenant is a sequel, following The Demon's Lexicon, which I didn't tell you about. I enjoyed the first book, despite figuring out the twist about fifty pages in. Well, it's a little bit obvious. And then I read the second book. And there was much laughter and tears and confetti. And as a warning, there will be some spoilers for the first book in this review. So go read that first, if you're so inclined.
Opening line: "'Any minute now,' Rachel said, 'something terrible is going to happen to us.'"
The first line brings up one of the things that I loved: Mae has friends. Actual real friends who she does things with. This is nothing short of amazing. And I think it's fabulous.
So, we're a month or so after the end of the first book. Mae is in trouble with her mother. Jamie is hanging out with Gerald--yes, THAT Gerald. Alan and Nick have a mysterious issue that they can't seem to work through.
This book was told mostly from Mae's point of view and I loved that switch. Mae is honestly one of the most fabulous heroines I've come across in a long time. She's strong and scary at times, without having to prove that she's just as good as anyone else. She's just plain awesome as is. It was great to see Nick and Alan as she did. I almost wished that she could have narrated the first book as well, although actually it wouldn't have worked nearly as well. I do think that her emotional response helped me to feel this book more than I did the first. Which makes sense, given Nick and all.
So Nick. Nick is heartbreaking. Something about him, about his hopeless attempt to become more human, about his deepest fear just makes me want to cry. (In fact, this book did make me cry. Four times.) Brennan is walking a fine line here, trying to emphasize his alienness while at the same time keeping him sympathetic enough to care about. I think she manages it very well indeed.
The interactions between Jamie and Nick were amazing. Hilarious. I already knew that Brennan could be really funny* but the first book wasn't quite so amusing so I wasn't entirely prepared. This time I laughed out loud several times. But Jamie isn't just there to be the comic relief. In his own way he's as heartbreaking as Nick. And the end...oh the end.
I haven't said anything about Alan yet, which isn't because I don't like Alan. FAR FROM IT. Alan is awesomeness. Alan is swoonable. There is no argument. In fact, I've been trying to come up with something else to say to prove his awesomeness and can't.
And this book has so much to say about love and the stupid, wonderful things we do for it. I was really impressed by the fact that the most unconditional bonds in both books are between family members. Romantic bonds, at least so far, are more...fraught. (I have opinions about these romantic bonds. Strong ones.) It has a lot to say about the cost of decisions as well. Each character makes a difficult decision, one which is not without consequences. There are things which happen which are irreversible, which will not be solved with the wave of a wand or all the magic in the world. Brennan isn't pulling her punches here, and as much as it breaks my heart, I also totally respect her for it. So yes. These will be books that stay with me for awhile, for all the right reasons.
Book source: public library
Book information: Simon & Schuster, 2010
* She did write the best summary of the Attolia books EVER. (Scroll down a bit, although the rest are great too.)
------
After waffling over reading the series for awhile, I read the first book and liked it, despite calling some of the twists. Then I read the second book and fell into a pile of mushy goo. Mae is wonderful. Jamie and Annabel are heartbreaking (I cannot think of the end of the book without choking up). Nick is infuriating. Alan is swoonable, if somewhat evil. And I actually kind of have a soft spot for Seb and Gerald too. I am fearful for my favorite characters, but I also am hyperventilating at the thought that there are still 5-6 months before the third book comes out. I think a re-read is in order SOON. [2010 in books]
PLEASE NOTE: This novel is the second in a series. While I will try not to spoil anything from Book 1, The Demon's Lexicon, if you're really concerned you might want to avoid reading this review until you've read the first book.
I must admit, there are times that I don't really know what to make of these books.It somehow feels like Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series got smushed together with Holly Black's Tithe, yet the series is completely original. All I know is, my first reaction upon finishing The Demon's Covenant was immediately wanting to reread both books in the series, and that's a very good thing. Partly that's due to Brennan's gift for surprising the reader (particularly well done in the first book in the series); I want to go back and see exactly what hints she laid when as to how the novel would turn out. But most of it is just the beauty of Brennan's writing--there are scenes that are so heart-wrenching, and so gorgeous that I just can't wait to experience them again.
The Demon's Lexicon first introduced us to the Ryves brothers, Nick and Alan, and to the siblings Mae and Jamie, who sought their help when Jamie was demon-marked. The Demon's Lexicon introduced a fascinating secret world of magic hovering just beneath our own, but while the world-building was strong, stronger still to me was the characterization, particularly of the viewpoint character, Nick. It's difficult to write a character who is sympathetic while not being especially nice, and that Brennan managed to do so while telling the story through Nick's eyes was particularly impressive. So when she switched to Mae's perspective for the second book in the series, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had enjoyed her in Lexicon, particularly in scenes featuring the Goblin's Market, but could she carry an entire book? Mae doesn't have an impressive cachet of supernatural powers, nor a great deal of folkloric knowledge to fall back on; you could say she has "heart," which a less skilled author might treat as an informed ability or useless trait.
As it turns out, Mae's completely mundane nature makes her an excellent viewpoint character, not only because she's easier to relate to, but also because her acts of courage seem that much braver with no magic to fall back on. When the novel begins, several weeks have passed since the events that transpired in Lexicon, and Mae is trying to resume her lifestyle: heading back to school, grounded thanks to her two week unexplained absence, and thinking about dating a new guy. She still feels protective of her younger brother Jamie, especially when she notes that a magician of the Obsidian Circle seems to have set his sights on Jamie. Mae needs help, and turns to the Ryves brothers, who come running to her aid. Soon Mae finds herself in the midst of a love quadrangle (I visualize it as a pyramid, really, with Mae at its apex), while Jamie may be turning into his own worst enemy, and Alan finds out just how much he may be willing to do for his brother.
Mae, like The Demon's Covenant as a whole, is not perfect but managed to win me over despite her flaws and sometimes because of them. I liked that she didn't play it safe; that she made mistakes sometimes even with her eyes wide open, although that sometimes made me angry with her as well. For example, one of her romantic prospects, Seb, is a character who, before expressing interest in Mae, has been bullying Jamie at school. Charming as Seb was when it was just the two of them, I couldn't understand why Mae would have anything to do with him--unless she thought she could curtail the bullying by doing so. As for the novel as a whole, it could have lost me with the love triangle aspect--not my favorite plot device, as I've said time and time again. There were definitely times when I felt an eye roll coming on--but I sensed that Brennan was well aware of prevalence of the love triangle in YA fiction, and was having fun with it. Plus the romantic tanglements--and subsequent expressions of YA friendly sensuality--never overwhelmed the rest of the plot, nor was it treated as at all superior to the non-romantic relationships, such as between siblings or parent and child.
The YA fantasy genre is really booming right now, and I think that The Demon's Lexicon has a lot to offer those who are already fond of the genre; a strong heroine, sexy guys (depending whether you prefer the nerdy or bad boy type), and lots of interpersonal drama. But it should also appeal to those not in love with the stereotyped teen romance, paranormal or not, with its solid world-building, touches of humor, and characters to root for. I can't wait to see what Brennan comes up with next!
I must admit, there are times that I don't really know what to make of these books.It somehow feels like Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series got smushed together with Holly Black's Tithe, yet the series is completely original. All I know is, my first reaction upon finishing The Demon's Covenant was immediately wanting to reread both books in the series, and that's a very good thing. Partly that's due to Brennan's gift for surprising the reader (particularly well done in the first book in the series); I want to go back and see exactly what hints she laid when as to how the novel would turn out. But most of it is just the beauty of Brennan's writing--there are scenes that are so heart-wrenching, and so gorgeous that I just can't wait to experience them again.
The Demon's Lexicon first introduced us to the Ryves brothers, Nick and Alan, and to the siblings Mae and Jamie, who sought their help when Jamie was demon-marked. The Demon's Lexicon introduced a fascinating secret world of magic hovering just beneath our own, but while the world-building was strong, stronger still to me was the characterization, particularly of the viewpoint character, Nick. It's difficult to write a character who is sympathetic while not being especially nice, and that Brennan managed to do so while telling the story through Nick's eyes was particularly impressive. So when she switched to Mae's perspective for the second book in the series, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had enjoyed her in Lexicon, particularly in scenes featuring the Goblin's Market, but could she carry an entire book? Mae doesn't have an impressive cachet of supernatural powers, nor a great deal of folkloric knowledge to fall back on; you could say she has "heart," which a less skilled author might treat as an informed ability or useless trait.
As it turns out, Mae's completely mundane nature makes her an excellent viewpoint character, not only because she's easier to relate to, but also because her acts of courage seem that much braver with no magic to fall back on. When the novel begins, several weeks have passed since the events that transpired in Lexicon, and Mae is trying to resume her lifestyle: heading back to school, grounded thanks to her two week unexplained absence, and thinking about dating a new guy. She still feels protective of her younger brother Jamie, especially when she notes that a magician of the Obsidian Circle seems to have set his sights on Jamie. Mae needs help, and turns to the Ryves brothers, who come running to her aid. Soon Mae finds herself in the midst of a love quadrangle (I visualize it as a pyramid, really, with Mae at its apex), while Jamie may be turning into his own worst enemy, and Alan finds out just how much he may be willing to do for his brother.
Mae, like The Demon's Covenant as a whole, is not perfect but managed to win me over despite her flaws and sometimes because of them. I liked that she didn't play it safe; that she made mistakes sometimes even with her eyes wide open, although that sometimes made me angry with her as well. For example, one of her romantic prospects, Seb, is a character who, before expressing interest in Mae, has been bullying Jamie at school. Charming as Seb was when it was just the two of them, I couldn't understand why Mae would have anything to do with him--unless she thought she could curtail the bullying by doing so. As for the novel as a whole, it could have lost me with the love triangle aspect--not my favorite plot device, as I've said time and time again. There were definitely times when I felt an eye roll coming on--but I sensed that Brennan was well aware of prevalence of the love triangle in YA fiction, and was having fun with it. Plus the romantic tanglements--and subsequent expressions of YA friendly sensuality--never overwhelmed the rest of the plot, nor was it treated as at all superior to the non-romantic relationships, such as between siblings or parent and child.
The YA fantasy genre is really booming right now, and I think that The Demon's Lexicon has a lot to offer those who are already fond of the genre; a strong heroine, sexy guys (depending whether you prefer the nerdy or bad boy type), and lots of interpersonal drama. But it should also appeal to those not in love with the stereotyped teen romance, paranormal or not, with its solid world-building, touches of humor, and characters to root for. I can't wait to see what Brennan comes up with next!