A review by lizzderr
Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier

3.0

I would give the first half of the book two stars and the second half three, if I could. It takes a while for things to really get started, and while I appreciate dramatic irony, I think a little goes a long way -- or, if nothing else, when the reader finds herself wanting to bop the narrator on the head for being such an easily manipulated twit and thinking longingly of the strong, self-assured heroines from the previous novels, then I wonder if perhaps the author has gone a bit far. I can understand why Marillier created Fainne the way she did (though the whole "my mom fell in love and had me with her mother's half-brother, and all I got was this lousy deformed foot" thing strikes me as a questionable choice...), but she built up a great deal of good will for the folks of Sevenwaters in the first two books of the trilogy, and so having the protagonist in the third book acting in opposition to those folks was frustrating.

All that said, though, I was happy to see the way all the various threads got tied up (except I feel a little bit like Eamonn got better than he deserved, but I'm bitter that way), and how the prophecy worked itself out. I would still recommend the trilogy as a whole, though it ends nowhere near as strong as it begins. Ah well.