Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: The Demon's Lexicon

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Awards: British Fantasy Award for Top Ten (2010), Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2009), TAYSHAS High School Reading List (2010), ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2010)
Adult Content: mild
Keywords: demons, adventure, magic, brothers
Series: The Demon's Lexicon #1
Goodreads Synopsis: 

Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick's mother stole -- a charm that keeps her alive -- and they want it badly enough to kill again. 


Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon's mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase...and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is desperate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long.

Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians' Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all.

This is the Demon's Lexicon. Turn the page.

My Thoughts:

Subject/Originality: This book immediately brings you into a world of dark, evil magic, demons, really very nasty magicians, and, at the heart of it all, a mystery and adventure that brings it all together. The Demon's Lexicon is extremely refreshing. The evil is real, people. Proper evil. And Sarah Rees Brennan's well thought-out and wonderfully detailed magical world makes this book a great and original read.

Subject/Originality: * * * *

Storyline: Not only is this a great world, but the story is well structured and full of twists and turns to keep you interested. It's not Sherlock Holmes, but it's complex and exciting and just generally good. I suppose that's the best way to describe this book: good.

Storyline: * * * *


Characters: I love all the characters in this book, especially Nick. They're all interesting and clever (as in their characteristics, not that they're all Einsteins!) and well rounded. And I love Nick. He's perfect and strange and probably one of the best characters I've ever had the fortune to find in a book. I love him to pieces. He's dark, violent and uncaring, and when he's trying to be nice, it never quite goes right. He's really very sweet and endearing, despite his love of violence. A triumph of characterisation!

Characters: * * * * *


Writing Style: I love Sarah Rees Brennan's mixture of quirky sarcasm ('They thougth I was a baby bat' 'Oh yes, of course - most people think I'm a blueberry scone' !!), dark humour, chilling descriptions, and emotional realism. Seriously, this book is hilarious, but it's got a depth to it that a lot of funny books don't. Sarah Rees Brennan is a hit with me. Absolutely.

Writing Style: * * * * *


Enjoyability: This was one of my favourite books from the moment I read it. The copy I have now is stained, with dog-eared pages, pages that were soaked by my leaking boiler and dried out weirdly, a broken spine -  and just generally loved. A lot. I've probably re-read this book more than any other on my shelves, and I'm going to keep re-reading it till the cows come home. Does that say something for its enjoyability levels?!

Enjoyability: * * * * *


Overall: A fantastic read, on all counts. If you haven't got a copy already, get one. And then read it! And then tell me what you think =]

Word Rating: a good-good book

Star Rating:

Don't forget... !

Review: Feed by Mira Grant (AC)

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant
Publisher: Orbit
Adult Content: mid-gore, sustained swearing
Keywords: zombies, apocalypse, blogging, news, truth, action, dystopia
Series: Newsflesh #1
Goodreads Synopsis:

In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as "Marburg Amberlee"—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.

It raised the dead.

Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed "The Rising," and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.

Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all:

When will you rise?

My Thoughts:

Subject: Well, I don't normally do zombies. Er, at all. Ever, really. I'm not particularly squeamish, but still...  So anyway, just looking at this cover would usually have been enough to polish me off, and you can forget about going so far as to actually read the thing. But I was very pleasantly surprised. This is more of a novel about news, blogging and the truth than zombies. It's about how society continues, even when the dead don't stay dead. Which is something I'd never considered before. So, while this isn't the kind of book I'd usually go for, I was certainly excited to read it, and it definitely fulfilled my expectations!

Subject: ****


Storyline: Feed is halfway between an action novel, a mystery, and goodness only knows what else. You can always tell a good storyline, I think, when you don't notice it. I felt I was completely safe in Mira Grant's hands, and I never stopped to think 'I wonder where she's going with this', or even 'what'll happen next', because I was too busy being in the moment, legging it from zombies or trying to work out just who was the bad guy. It's not a complicated storyline, but this book isn't about the storyline. It's about people, and how they cope with zombies. So it's all good =]

Storyline: ****


Characters: Here's where it all gets much more interesting (although it's been pretty good so far already). The characterisation in this novel should be a role-model for all aspiring authors. I honestly couldn't have asked for better. You can just tell that Grant has thought about her characters really carefully, but, like the storyline, I never stopped to think about them as characters. They were real people. And they were my friends. And I feel pretty bereft now I've finished the book and they've left me behind...  Newflesh #2, here I come!

Characters: *****


Writing Style: Georgia Mason narrates Feed, and I couldn't have asked for a better narrator. She's fun and witty and full of dry sarcasm. There are some serious laugh-out-loud moments (as well as some sob-out-loud ones - have a hanky ready!). Grant really got inside the head of Georgia. Definitely role-model for the witty, sarcastic type of narration and writing style! I love it =]

Writing Style: *****


Enjoyability: If you haven't worked it out for yourself already, then here's what I thought: I loved it. I fell in love with absolutely everything about it - Grant's meticulously planned and detailed world, her wonderfully human characters, the sarcastic way she writes - just everything. If it tells you anything, this book has gone to the top of my 'favourites' list. And that's a pretty long list.

Enjoyability: ***** (I would give it another, but that would be cheating)

Summary: A well-written, well-thought-out book by a great author about great characters. What more could you ask for? One of the best books I've read this year.

Word Rating: a good-good book


                                                            Star Rating: