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A review by booksandladders
Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater
3.0
Actual Rating: 2.5*
I really enjoyed [b:Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception|3112850|Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265410418s/3112850.jpg|3144132]. 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 [b:Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception|3112850|Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265410418s/3112850.jpg|3144132] because it wasn't as romanticized in a sense.
I do recommend this one, still. Especially if you loved [b:Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception|3112850|Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265410418s/3112850.jpg|3144132]. 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.
Books and Ladders | Queen of the Bookshelves | Books Are My Fandom | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin'
I really enjoyed [b:Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception|3112850|Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265410418s/3112850.jpg|3144132]. 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 [b:Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception|3112850|Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265410418s/3112850.jpg|3144132] because it wasn't as romanticized in a sense.
I do recommend this one, still. Especially if you loved [b:Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception|3112850|Lament The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1265410418s/3112850.jpg|3144132]. 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.
Books and Ladders | Queen of the Bookshelves | Books Are My Fandom | Twitter | Instagram | Bloglovin'