A review by rebecca_3
The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce

3.0

Above all, this is a high fantasy adventure. In all three books, the heroine, Aerial, is traveling across an extremely fantastical landscape, collecting magical objects that will help her accomplish her goal.

The bulk of the books is spent on world-building and describing the landscape, and strange creatures and characters Aerial comes across. It is extremely descriptive and spends a lot of time using old-fashioned English that is hard to understand. Call me spoiled, but I much prefer the way YA books are written today--spending a large portion of the book in internal monologue, exploring characters and their motives, and expanding the story. But if you love the strange new worlds of high fantasy, this definitely has that in abundance.

I didnt feel that I really knew Aerial or Irrylath, or what was really going on in the story. And I did not find the relationship between them believable.

Spoiler

At the end of the first book, after Aerial released Irrylath from the curse, he was a completely different person. He didnt even look the same. I have trouble seeing how Aerial could love him before, and after. One or the other version of him, but not both. And I also had a problem with the fact that they were first cousins. I know back in the day people used to marry their cousins (and still do today in some countries). I believe the heroine from Austen's [b:Mansfield Park|45032|Mansfield Park|Jane Austen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309203298s/45032.jpg|2722329] even married her cousin and that was only 200 years ago. Also, this series is set in a completely different world where that may be acceptable. But the book was only written 30 years ago, in America. Why try to force us to accept something that she knows would be completely foreign and uncomfortable compared to our way of life? The fact that they were cousins served no purpose. And not only was Aerial Irrylath's cousin, so was the other woman who was in love with him--his first cousins from the other side of his family. The ending totally sucked. It didnt have an HEA. If I had known that ahead of time, I probably wouldnt have read it. But as I said, I wasnt really attached to the characters too much, so I'll get over it.