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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Pretty freaking amazing book. I'm hoping there's going to be another book. I stayed up pretty late finishing this one.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
I will never ever get bored of Maggie's writing style! It's gripping, emotional and utterly addictive!
Well, first off, it would have been nice if somewhere on this book it indicated that it was book #2. As I began the book, there once an immense amount of backstory that I kept waiting for the author to explain. Once I got more than half way through the book, I took a look at the About the Author page and learned that the back story was really a book #1 and I was out of luck.
Regardless, I very much enjoyed this book. James is a witty, intelligent, and compassionate young man who I hope to follow into more exciting adventures. Nuala, Sullivan, and Paul were also very well drawn out and I also hope to get to know them better, especially Paul.
However, I have no intention of reading #1, Lament, as the character of Dee, who seems to have a major role in Lament, is weak-willed and extremely annoying and I hope not to spend more time with her.
Regardless, I very much enjoyed this book. James is a witty, intelligent, and compassionate young man who I hope to follow into more exciting adventures. Nuala, Sullivan, and Paul were also very well drawn out and I also hope to get to know them better, especially Paul.
However, I have no intention of reading #1, Lament, as the character of Dee, who seems to have a major role in Lament, is weak-willed and extremely annoying and I hope not to spend more time with her.
Not nearly as good as the first but not a complete disappointment.
Okay, I'm gonna be real honest, I'm mostly cutting and pasting the Ballad parts of a review I gave for both this book and Lament on this blog. Because I'm lazy. Sorry xD.
Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie focuses on Deirdre’s best friend, James. He and Dee are now students at Thorn-King Ash, a music academy established to protect students who are gifted enough in music to potentially draw the attention of faeries. James is an incredibly gifted piper, so much so that Thorn-King Ash doesn’t seem to have much to teach him, and catches the attention of Nuala, a leanan sidhe who inspires artists…while feeding on their life force until they die. Nuala’s never been turned down before, but James is determined to make his own way in his music career and even without knowing the catch, has little interest in Nuala’s help. Meanwhile, faeries who spend a considerable time with humans are being killed off under the command of the new queen. It’s obviously all part of some larger plan, and while no one knows what it is, it seems like it will happen right at the school’s doorstep.
The world-building is still great, the faeries are still beautiful and terrifying and ruthless, and Maggie Stiefvater's writing is still Maggie Stiefvater's writing, which is to say it's gorgeous. One thing I really liked was the social divisions between them, which is explored a little more in this book than the last. The leanan sidhe, for instance, are seen as the lowest of the low to faeries, because they’re the most human kind of fae. I loved the tie-in with music. They love music, and they’re drawn to incredibly talented musicians. Several of the musicians at Thorn-King Ash have abilities linked to Them. Dee is a cloverhand. James is vaguely psychic (think about Pete’s vibes in Warehouse 13). Paul can hear the king of the dead singing the names of the dead.
I also sort of loved that Thorn-King Ash was sort of like the Hogwarts of Especially Gifted Musicians. The settings and the imagery was, of course, beautiful. Maybe even moreso than in The Raven Cycle, because it was enhanced by the fey aesthetics. I loved the characters. I liked Dee in Lament, even if she was a little bit of a tried type as far as YA heroines go. I LOVED James from the start, and thought he was even better when he had his own POVs in Ballad, although he was occasionally given to self-pity and sometimes his egotism could be a bit much. Nuala grew on me tremendously, so that by the end of Ballad, she was one of my favorites. Even Luke and Paul started to grow on me. It was gripping. I could never accuse these books of moving too slowly. If anything, there were parts that felt a little rushed, and I’ll get to that in the next paragraph. But it held my interest all throughout, and I remember in the last hundred pages, thinking, “Oh, no, how are they going to get out of this one?” Which is always a fun–-and increasingly rare–-feeling to have towards the end of a book.
The one thing that really got me in these two books was how tropey the romances were, with very little to make them stand out from the stock of the trope, particularly Dee and Luke in Lament. Ballad was slightly better in this respect. While Nuala still had that too-dangerous-for-u-and-was-actually-s’posed-to-kill-you-but-falling-in-love-anyway thing going on, she and James seemed to actually fall in love because of each other and the time they spent around each other. I believed that they genuinely fell in love, rather than just got swept up in all the magic and forbidenness of it all. But there was a bit of a love triangle for a while between Nuala, James, and Deirdre (despite the fact that Dee still didn’t like him that way), and again, towards the end, even if in a somewhat different way, James has to ~choose. It still followed the predictable sort of pattern. From the moment he turned her down, I knew, “This is the first human who’s ever turned her down, now she’s going to be upset and unable to let it go and then she’s going to fall in love with him.” It was just a somewhat more enjoyable trope.
This also gets kind of a failing grade in diversity, as well. All of the characters were either heterosexual or their sexuality wasn’t stated or even hinted at. Even the faeries are only seen in different-sex relationships. All of the principle characters were white and none of even the side characters were described as being anything other than white. Mind you, even of The Raven Cycle, Stiefvater has stated that she can’t be credited with much racial diversity in the series. She seems to be aware of this now, and hopefully, things will improve, but they certainly hadn’t when she wrote these books. Dee’s anxiety (seen more in Lament than this book) is certainly inhibiting, but that’s the closest we come to any representation of disabilities.
Overall, if you want a good series about faeries with overarching plots that keep you in a vicegrip and generally enjoyable characters and writing, I would recommend this series. If you want a flip from a lot of the typical too-easy romantic tropes in YA fantasy, I might suggest Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr instead. Maybe more of a 3.7 than a 4?
Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie focuses on Deirdre’s best friend, James. He and Dee are now students at Thorn-King Ash, a music academy established to protect students who are gifted enough in music to potentially draw the attention of faeries. James is an incredibly gifted piper, so much so that Thorn-King Ash doesn’t seem to have much to teach him, and catches the attention of Nuala, a leanan sidhe who inspires artists…while feeding on their life force until they die. Nuala’s never been turned down before, but James is determined to make his own way in his music career and even without knowing the catch, has little interest in Nuala’s help. Meanwhile, faeries who spend a considerable time with humans are being killed off under the command of the new queen. It’s obviously all part of some larger plan, and while no one knows what it is, it seems like it will happen right at the school’s doorstep.
The world-building is still great, the faeries are still beautiful and terrifying and ruthless, and Maggie Stiefvater's writing is still Maggie Stiefvater's writing, which is to say it's gorgeous. One thing I really liked was the social divisions between them, which is explored a little more in this book than the last. The leanan sidhe, for instance, are seen as the lowest of the low to faeries, because they’re the most human kind of fae. I loved the tie-in with music. They love music, and they’re drawn to incredibly talented musicians. Several of the musicians at Thorn-King Ash have abilities linked to Them. Dee is a cloverhand. James is vaguely psychic (think about Pete’s vibes in Warehouse 13). Paul can hear the king of the dead singing the names of the dead.
I also sort of loved that Thorn-King Ash was sort of like the Hogwarts of Especially Gifted Musicians. The settings and the imagery was, of course, beautiful. Maybe even moreso than in The Raven Cycle, because it was enhanced by the fey aesthetics. I loved the characters. I liked Dee in Lament, even if she was a little bit of a tried type as far as YA heroines go. I LOVED James from the start, and thought he was even better when he had his own POVs in Ballad, although he was occasionally given to self-pity and sometimes his egotism could be a bit much. Nuala grew on me tremendously, so that by the end of Ballad, she was one of my favorites. Even Luke and Paul started to grow on me. It was gripping. I could never accuse these books of moving too slowly. If anything, there were parts that felt a little rushed, and I’ll get to that in the next paragraph. But it held my interest all throughout, and I remember in the last hundred pages, thinking, “Oh, no, how are they going to get out of this one?” Which is always a fun–-and increasingly rare–-feeling to have towards the end of a book.
The one thing that really got me in these two books was how tropey the romances were, with very little to make them stand out from the stock of the trope, particularly Dee and Luke in Lament. Ballad was slightly better in this respect. While Nuala still had that too-dangerous-for-u-and-was-actually-s’posed-to-kill-you-but-falling-in-love-anyway thing going on, she and James seemed to actually fall in love because of each other and the time they spent around each other. I believed that they genuinely fell in love, rather than just got swept up in all the magic and forbidenness of it all. But there was a bit of a love triangle for a while between Nuala, James, and Deirdre (despite the fact that Dee still didn’t like him that way), and again, towards the end, even if in a somewhat different way, James has to ~choose. It still followed the predictable sort of pattern. From the moment he turned her down, I knew, “This is the first human who’s ever turned her down, now she’s going to be upset and unable to let it go and then she’s going to fall in love with him.” It was just a somewhat more enjoyable trope.
This also gets kind of a failing grade in diversity, as well. All of the characters were either heterosexual or their sexuality wasn’t stated or even hinted at. Even the faeries are only seen in different-sex relationships. All of the principle characters were white and none of even the side characters were described as being anything other than white. Mind you, even of The Raven Cycle, Stiefvater has stated that she can’t be credited with much racial diversity in the series. She seems to be aware of this now, and hopefully, things will improve, but they certainly hadn’t when she wrote these books. Dee’s anxiety (seen more in Lament than this book) is certainly inhibiting, but that’s the closest we come to any representation of disabilities.
Overall, if you want a good series about faeries with overarching plots that keep you in a vicegrip and generally enjoyable characters and writing, I would recommend this series. If you want a flip from a lot of the typical too-easy romantic tropes in YA fantasy, I might suggest Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr instead. Maybe more of a 3.7 than a 4?
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Ballad is best described as the companion book to Lament, the first book by Maggie Stiefvater that introduces the world of the faeries. While it leaves off following the tragic events that occurred at the end of Lament, Ballad is told from the voice of James Morgan, that funny, witty, best friend of Dee’s who was undoubtedly my favorite character in Lament. And of course from the point of view of Nuala, a faerie muse that is at first determined to bargain her abilities for years of James’ life. At first James is resistant to Nuala’s offers of help, and as Nuala gets to know James she inspires his musical talent into beautiful creations at no cost to him. Sullivan, one of James’ teachers at Thornking-Ash, the school James and Dee have enrolled in, is concerned about Nualas influence over James. Add in a wacky roommate Paul and James has a lot going on his first year at the conservatory. As James spends more time with Nuala, his feelings for her deepen. And with the approach of Halloween, James will have to decide between helping Nuala or saving Dee’s life. Spoiler alert: At the beginning of the book, I was so excited by seeing the world through James’ eyes as he was my favorite character in Lament. I love his sense of humor and personality and devotion to Dee. And to be honest I didn’t even like Nuala at the start, I thought her pesky and annoying and just wanted her to go away. I kind of only find her redeeming in the fact that she makes James happy, and because of him learned compassion and of human nature. Once I finished the book, I was confused about whether or not the ending suited. I’m unhappy that Dee’s alone (she got the short end of the stick in this series) and not much of her was mentioned other than sparsely strewn unsent text messages to James following some of the chapters. Although it did suit that Sullivan became king of the dead, I almost wanted something more tragic to happen to Dee, just so the faeries wouldn’t be tied down and drawn to her and the school, and so I wouldn’t worry so much about what becomes of her. Maybe there's a relationship for her and Paul on the horizon? Although, I do feel like that may be settling a bit. Even though I was a bit unhappy with the outcome, this book is a good follow up to Lament and a beautiful contribution of writing by Maggie Stiefvater. I love her sense of humor and she has a lyrical style in describing the faerie world and her imagery haunts your thoughts after emerging from her world. I recommend this book if you liked Lament or even Shiver.
In this intense sequel to Lament, Nuala, a faerie who feeds off of the creativity of others, is drawn to James. She is as dangerous as she is beautiful. The music she inspires in him is haunting and fierce. Faeries are known for many things but human emotions like love are not among them so it is with fear and amazement that Nuala and James begin to realize that love is what is growing between them. This has not gone unnoticed by the Others. As the situation escalates and James realizes that the faeries are hunting both Deidre and Nuala and to save them and his own soul, he will have to do battle with the Queen of the Fae.
Not as good as lament I wished Luke would come back and honestly I don't really care about James