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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

GIVEAWAY + Review: Lament by Maggie Stiefvater @mstiefvater

Book Title 
Pages: 325
Publisher: Flux
Genre: Fantasy
#1 in Series
Source: Purchased
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 . . .
Quick Thoughts

Full disclosure, this book took me a year to finish reading. I kept picking it up and putting it down, picking it up, putting it down. It wasn't bad, just didn't hold my attention the way Maggie's other books do. That being said, I did enjoy the story and am glad I (finally) finished it!

Review

Lament is actually Maggie Stiefvater's first book, and one of her lesser known ones. She's best know for her Shiver series, which is exactly how I found out about her. Admittedly, I bought Lament a very long time ago, and only just last year started reading it.

What I liked:
Fae stories have completely saturated the market, although at this point, what hasn't? But I did like the idea that incredibly talented humans could unknowingly call the fae to them, and how there was power in their humanity even up against the power of the fae. Faerie lore is so rich and lush as it is, and I love it when authors take those threads and weave something even more interesting out of it.

As always, Maggie Stiefvater creates an incredibly fleshed out set of characters. My favorite character was Deidre's best friend James who brought the most amazing sense of humor to the story and really helped to anchor Deidre. Luke as a love interest was sensual and I certainly bought the romance aspect, although I didn't feel the deep intensity that the characters themselves did.
“When did you get so smart?"
He tapped his forehead. "Brain transplant. They put in a whale's. I'm passing all my classes with my eyes closed now, but I just can't get over this craving for krill." He shrugged. "And I feel sorry for the whale that got my brain. Probably swimming around Florida now trying to catch glimpses of girls in bikinis.”
Maggie Stiefvater is known for her writing style that I don't quite know how to describe. But, if you've ever read one of her books, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's like someone took the essence of poetry and turned it into regular prose. It's not poetic per se, but it's got a certain cadence that isn't just regular narrative. That is hands down one of the reasons why I enjoy reading her work.
“You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again.”
What I Didn't Quite Like:
I want to clarify, I didn't hate anything about this book. I didn't even truly dislike anything. There were just some aspects I liked less than I probably should have to have a full enjoyment of this book.

The romance didn't come across as ground breaking as I had hoped. For example, the romance in the Shiver series was... wow. But, I could overlook that because it was nice enough to read and explore with the characters.

The plot also felt as though it meandered for awhile without a clear direction. I understand that some of the characters were purposely vague and veiled because they needed to be, but that left me as the reader wondering exactly where the plot would go for a good part of the first half of the book.

Overall, I felt Lament was a good read, and it was actually a decently short novel. In hindsight, I'm kicking myself in the butt for taking so freaking long to finish it, but alas, we can't change the past.


About the Author
New York Times bestselling author of The Shiver Trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Artist. Driver of things with wheels. Avid reader.

All of Maggie Stiefvater's life decisions have been based around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you're a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical editor (all of which she's tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists. She's made her living as one or the other since she was 22. She now lives an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with her charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, two neurotic dogs, and a 1973 Camaro named Loki.
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GIVEAWAY
I'm giving away my paperback copy of Lament to a lucky reader!

US only. Must be 18 or older.

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