Sarah Rees Brennan
The Demon's Lexicon #1
Nick and Alan have been on the run their whole lives. After magicians killed their father, they learned to survive on their own, their mother being no help at all. They've been safe for a few months this time when the magicians find them again. Preparing to run, they find Jamie and Mae looking for their help with removing a demon mark. Nick doesn't care about the strangers, but agrees to help for Alan's sake. Their quest to remove the marks will become ever more dangerous and reveal family secrets that never should have seen the light of day.
The Demon's Lexicon was a pretty good story. I like being surprised, and while I predicted some of the plot twists, a few of them were less obvious, which is always fun. The world of The Demon's Lexicon featured evil magicians and good...um...I'm not quite sure what they were, but the people in the Goblin Market. I was a little skeptical of the idea that all magicians are bad and all the Goblin Market people are good, but there were hints in this book that that's not always true. I wish we had learned more about the nature and origins of the demons, who kind of seemed more interesting than the humans in this book.
The Demon's Lexicon is told from the perspective of Nick Ryves, who is not going to be winning any Miss Congeniality awards. I understand why he was depicted that way and I even agree with it, but I just didn't really enjoy his point of view. I wonder if I might have liked this book more if it had been told from Mae's or Jamie's perspective. On the other hand, Brennan did a good job writing Nick because he was so unsympathetic, so I give her credit for that.
I found the ending not entirely believable, though once I finished I could see how Brennan had set up all the pieces to fall into place. It just didn't click for me possibly partly because the writing overall isn't amazing, though I didn't have any major problems with it. However, I definitely liked the story, and it's different enough that I wasn't bored.
Plot: 3 cupcakes
Characters: 3 characters
Style: 3 cupcakes
Overall: 3 cupcakes
If you liked The Demon's Lexicon, try:
Nightlife by Rob Thurman
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