Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: Books of Faerie (#1)
Publisher: Flux
How Received: bought
Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind...
Buy | Borrow OR Brush Off
I'm under the impression that you can't go wrong with homicidal fairies.
Stiefvater's Lament doesn't have the same lyrical prose that her later novels do; however, the world is just as original and brilliantly created as all of her others. She once again manages to capture the essence of a mythology and twist it just a bit to make it new again.
I loved the way the fey were presented in this novel. Some are deadly and some are evil and some really aren't evil and some don't know any better but none of them are the innocent frolicking folk that you find in some other retellings. Una and Brendan were absolutely fantastic to read about. They're definitley my favorite characters from the entire story.
Though I normally dislike love triangles, the one in Lament is set up in such a way that it was unavoidable. (The parallels between Diedre and another character seem to twist and bind the fate of Diedre, so in the end, she really couldn't escape falling for Luke.) I can only hope that James get a chance in Ballad, the sequel.
At the beginning of the book, I kept getting distracted by parallels of this and The Iron King - Puck and James are awfully similar, as are Ash and James. Luckily, it veered off in another direction very quickly a few chapters in, so I didn't have to worry about that for too long. But fans of The Iron King should definitley pick this up.
Overall Rating & Final Comments: 8/10. I loved the fey and the world, though I missed the beauty of the prose that I find in Stiefvater's later novels. Though I won't forget the fey and the world, I don't think I'll be rereading it, either.
Stiefvater's Lament or Kagawa's The Iron King?: My vote depends on what you're in the mood for. Lament is darker and I love the fey. The Iron King is a bit more fun and dramatic (and you get Grimalkin!), but focuses much more on the love triangle.
Has anybody else read Lament? What do you think of it compared to other Stiefvater books?