Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

I finished this book back at the beginning of October and an just getting around to reviewing it now.

 

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception

    by Maggie Stiefvater

 

This is the first of two books in The Books of Faerie series by Maggie Stiefvater. I bought this book sight unseen and description unread, simply because I loved reading Ms. Stiefvater's other two books. She has a great way of writing that first person perspective that just gets you wrapped up and involved in the story. In this book she uses a lot of Celtic Faerie lore that I just love. If I was more of a nerd than I am, I'd know all sorts of stuff regarding faeries and the worlds they inhabit, but since there is a limit to my nerdiness I only know little bits of faerie lore, but I always just suck it in when it's handed to me in any sort of novel form.

I really loved this book. This is the story of a teenage girl, who is a little strange, that dreamed of a boy and he appeared. This is the story of a thousand year-old boy who is a mortal faerie assassin who falls for his prey. This is the story of a best friend bagpiper who loves a girl who doesn't see him. The whole book is pretty great.

I loved Dee, she was smart and sassy and as a YA heroine she was pretty tough and had her head on straight. She fought for what she wanted and was willing to make sacrifices. Luke's character was okay. He was just the standard type of boy for these types of novels. The mysterious boy who wants to be with the girl but there is some insurmountable secret that makes it nearly impossible, but he's willing to try to be there for her no matter the consequences. Then there is James. I loved James from his first brief appearance and every time he appeared on the pages of this novel. I wanted him to get what he wanted. I wanted him to be the one she would choose. I wanted him to be more involved. I wanted James to win, I wanted Dee to get her head out of her butt, and I wanted Luke to be able to live the life he deserved.  But we don't always get what we want, and this book had that as an ongoing theme.

There were several parts that made me tear up a little or a lot. There were points in the book where I just wanted to smack all the characters for various reasons, but in the end I guess it worked out as much as it could. I liked that this book had a good ending, but not necessarily a happy ending. I mean, really, how happily could this have ended after all that happened to the characters.

There is some Kissing and some killing. There are some difficult choices and some broken hearts. This is your standard good vs. evil vs. not so evil YA novel. I recommend this book for those of us who love YA paranormal romances, for those who have a sappy teenage hearts, and for those of us who just love the naive love stories that these books offer to us.