Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater [Review]

  3 out of 5 Robots
            

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception
by Maggie Stiefvater

Series: Books of Faerie #1

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Paranormal

Release: October 8, 2008

Hardcover: 325 Pages

Publisher: Flux

My Copy: Purchased

Reviewer: Shannon

Buy the Book: Amazon

Book Summary:

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 . . .

Lament is a dark faerie fantasy that features authentic Celtic faerie lore, plus cover art and interior illustrations by acclaimed faerie artist Julia Jeffrey. (Courtesy of the Publisher)

 
Shannon's Thoughts:

I have been a fan of Maggie Stiefvater for awhile now.  The first book of hers that I read was The Scorpio Races, which is probably one of my favorite books now.  It spurred me to read her other books (she is very prolific!) and I have really enjoyed them.  My quest has finally lead me to Lament.  Lament is Stiefvater's debut novel and unfortunately, it shows.  Lament has a lot of the same pitfalls that plague many YA books.  The characters are hard to know and understand.  I couldn't get a sense of their motivations at all.  There is also the dreaded insta-love.  Within the first 10 pages. On top of that, I also found some of it just confusing.  Things were just accepted (Deirdre, you just found out faeries exist, look alive.) or glossed over when more explanation would have been good.  But amidst of all of that, I can definitely see Stiefvater's signature lyricism.  It really makes me appreciate how far she has come as an author.

Books in the series in the order they should be read:
1. Lament
2. Ballad