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A review by sparklemaia
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
2.0
I saw the "twist ending" coming from a mile off, and I'm normally TERRIBLE at predicting what's going to happen at the ends of books. Also, I just... don't care about heterosexual white boys as characters. Especially emotionally stunted ones. (Mae and Jamie as supporting characters were marginally more interesting, but Nick's dismissive attitude towards them made it difficult to connect with them.) And I HATE when a character's disability (in this case, dyslexia) turns out to have a magical explanation instead of being presented as an actual facet of human diversity.
The worldbuilding felt shaky, both in terms of premise ("demon world we can't understand but that demons hate so much they'll do anything to escape it") and in execution (the demons' and magicians' magics probably have rules, but they're not really articulated or given boundaries). In terms of the world (demons, magicians, magic) it reminded me of the Bartimaeus trilogy, but Bartimaeus' world is much more thoroughly and complexly fleshed out, plus the characters in Bartimaeus (esp. Bartimaeus himself) are WAY more interesting. If you want to read a book with corrupt magicians who summon demons to do their bidding, read Bartimaeus instead.
The worldbuilding felt shaky, both in terms of premise ("demon world we can't understand but that demons hate so much they'll do anything to escape it") and in execution (the demons' and magicians' magics probably have rules, but they're not really articulated or given boundaries). In terms of the world (demons, magicians, magic) it reminded me of the Bartimaeus trilogy, but Bartimaeus' world is much more thoroughly and complexly fleshed out, plus the characters in Bartimaeus (esp. Bartimaeus himself) are WAY more interesting. If you want to read a book with corrupt magicians who summon demons to do their bidding, read Bartimaeus instead.