The Demon's Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan)
Jun. 10th, 2009 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahnSo I was terrified I wasn't going to like this book, because I like ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sarahtales very much indeed. I should not have worried, as it turns out.
So, first: This is a book about family! Siblings! I cannot even describe how happy I am to read a YA novel that does not revolve around romance, because you know how many couples I know who were serious about romance at that age? Two.
I was very, very pleased -- and I should really not have been surprised by this, given SRB's book reviews -- that the book didn't fall into any of the cliche traps that I exceedingly hate. In particular, Nick takes some risks, but they're reasonable ones that don't blow up in his face and bring Danger and Doom upon them All! (Oh, man, am I tired of that one. Look, *coughHarryPotter* if your protagonist is more-or-less capable, he's probably not going to screw up too badly, and if he's not, I may not really want to read about his screwups.)
The characters are lovely, not cliched or retreads from other fantasy at all. (Jamie bears the marks of a typical mild-mannered SRB hero, but even so transcends those roots.) All four major characters are distinct, non-Mary-Sues, and far more interesting than their first categorization upon appearance (the way that real people are almost always more interesting once you've known them for a while). The mythology seems fairly well-grounded (and I loved the Goblin Market... Christina Risotto, hee!) which is a huge compliment coming from me, as I routinely abandon books in the middle because I don't think they're being consistent or reasonable with the system of magic.
The style I found slightly off-putting at first (by which I mean that I was not immediately grabbed by the first couple of chapters). I can't exactly put my finger on what it is; I think it has to do with having to get used to Nick's stylistic voice, and that being slightly jerky (the paragraphs being very short and choppy, for instance). By the third chapter or so, it is clear that this is mostly a reflection of Nick's personality, and did not bother me subsequently.
The thing that was pretty much just phenomenally awesome about it, to me, is SRB's plot management. Now, I already knew from reading her fanfic work, and from some comments on her agent's blog, that there was going to be an Earthshattering Surprise. How is it possible to pull this off when someone knows there's going to be a Surprise? (The Sixth Sense, for example, was ruined for me because I watched it knowing there was a Surprise Ending, which I then proceeded to guess about ten minutes into the movie.) Here's how: there is the Small Earthshattering Surprise which is not really that surprising at all-- I saw it coming many chapters in advance (Alan using the name Olivia, for instance, is a dead giveaway) -- and I was all congratulating myself for being so observant, which, of course, was playing right into her hands, and while I was caught off guard, of course, the LARGE Earthshattering Surprise came in and knocked me down. Just totally. Didn't see it coming at all. (Though she plays totally fair: there are all sorts of hints, things that don't quite make sense though I thought a lot of them (like Olivia's hatred of her own kid) were there for atmosphere (wrong!), and times where Nick is clearly jumping to conclusions, but while I noticed Nick was doing that, I could not figure out what the true conclusion was. It should really be obvious after the Small Reveal, but that kind of erased the possibility of a Big Reveal from my mind.) Well done!
(Edited to put more of that under cut, as reading other reviews has shown me that apparently others can figure out these things better than I, so as not to give meta-spoilers. All I can say is, I'm impressed you figured it out.)
Also, I felt really sorry for Alan. Poor Alan! What a great guy, and, my gosh, the kid has had to deal with (among other things!) the loss of basically every adult figure in his life. He's almost unbelievable in how saintly he is about it all. Also, I kind of love the Japanese cover and wish I had that instead of the American one, not least because I love its depiction of Alan (who looks very much like a similarly mild-mannered and witty-- though not traumatically demon-haunted-- friend of mine in college).
And the title! I've always thought the title was an amazing one (had I not known SRB at all, I would've still picked it up based on the title alone). I read the book pretty much in one sitting, so I didn't have time to wonder what the title meant (especially by midway through the book when a lexicon had yet to appear), and yet when one gets to the end the title makes complete and total sense.
And when Alan says, "I call on the one I gave the name Nicholas Ryves!" I completely lost it, would've bawled like a baby if I hadn't been in public at the time (and even then it was lucky no one was looking at me at that precise moment). Not even because I saw what was coming (which I think was technically possible, but I'd lost the capacity for thinking ahead at this point), but because that line, all by itself, so perfectly encapsulates the emotional heart of the book: words and names and family and love and brothers looking after each other-- how we name and define the ones we love every day.
Anyway: yeah. I liked it exceedingly. Go read it. (with the caveat that, should you find it slow at first, you should push through at least three chapters before giving up.) Can't wait to see what she does next!
sarahtales very much indeed. I should not have worried, as it turns out.So, first: This is a book about family! Siblings! I cannot even describe how happy I am to read a YA novel that does not revolve around romance, because you know how many couples I know who were serious about romance at that age? Two.
I was very, very pleased -- and I should really not have been surprised by this, given SRB's book reviews -- that the book didn't fall into any of the cliche traps that I exceedingly hate. In particular, Nick takes some risks, but they're reasonable ones that don't blow up in his face and bring Danger and Doom upon them All! (Oh, man, am I tired of that one. Look, *coughHarryPotter* if your protagonist is more-or-less capable, he's probably not going to screw up too badly, and if he's not, I may not really want to read about his screwups.)
The characters are lovely, not cliched or retreads from other fantasy at all. (Jamie bears the marks of a typical mild-mannered SRB hero, but even so transcends those roots.) All four major characters are distinct, non-Mary-Sues, and far more interesting than their first categorization upon appearance (the way that real people are almost always more interesting once you've known them for a while). The mythology seems fairly well-grounded (and I loved the Goblin Market... Christina Risotto, hee!) which is a huge compliment coming from me, as I routinely abandon books in the middle because I don't think they're being consistent or reasonable with the system of magic.
The style I found slightly off-putting at first (by which I mean that I was not immediately grabbed by the first couple of chapters). I can't exactly put my finger on what it is; I think it has to do with having to get used to Nick's stylistic voice, and that being slightly jerky (the paragraphs being very short and choppy, for instance). By the third chapter or so, it is clear that this is mostly a reflection of Nick's personality, and did not bother me subsequently.
The thing that was pretty much just phenomenally awesome about it, to me, is SRB's plot management. Now, I already knew from reading her fanfic work, and from some comments on her agent's blog, that there was going to be an Earthshattering Surprise. How is it possible to pull this off when someone knows there's going to be a Surprise? (The Sixth Sense, for example, was ruined for me because I watched it knowing there was a Surprise Ending, which I then proceeded to guess about ten minutes into the movie.) Here's how: there is the Small Earthshattering Surprise which is not really that surprising at all-- I saw it coming many chapters in advance (Alan using the name Olivia, for instance, is a dead giveaway) -- and I was all congratulating myself for being so observant, which, of course, was playing right into her hands, and while I was caught off guard, of course, the LARGE Earthshattering Surprise came in and knocked me down. Just totally. Didn't see it coming at all. (Though she plays totally fair: there are all sorts of hints, things that don't quite make sense though I thought a lot of them (like Olivia's hatred of her own kid) were there for atmosphere (wrong!), and times where Nick is clearly jumping to conclusions, but while I noticed Nick was doing that, I could not figure out what the true conclusion was. It should really be obvious after the Small Reveal, but that kind of erased the possibility of a Big Reveal from my mind.) Well done!
(Edited to put more of that under cut, as reading other reviews has shown me that apparently others can figure out these things better than I, so as not to give meta-spoilers. All I can say is, I'm impressed you figured it out.)
Also, I felt really sorry for Alan. Poor Alan! What a great guy, and, my gosh, the kid has had to deal with (among other things!) the loss of basically every adult figure in his life. He's almost unbelievable in how saintly he is about it all. Also, I kind of love the Japanese cover and wish I had that instead of the American one, not least because I love its depiction of Alan (who looks very much like a similarly mild-mannered and witty-- though not traumatically demon-haunted-- friend of mine in college).
And the title! I've always thought the title was an amazing one (had I not known SRB at all, I would've still picked it up based on the title alone). I read the book pretty much in one sitting, so I didn't have time to wonder what the title meant (especially by midway through the book when a lexicon had yet to appear), and yet when one gets to the end the title makes complete and total sense.
And when Alan says, "I call on the one I gave the name Nicholas Ryves!" I completely lost it, would've bawled like a baby if I hadn't been in public at the time (and even then it was lucky no one was looking at me at that precise moment). Not even because I saw what was coming (which I think was technically possible, but I'd lost the capacity for thinking ahead at this point), but because that line, all by itself, so perfectly encapsulates the emotional heart of the book: words and names and family and love and brothers looking after each other-- how we name and define the ones we love every day.
Anyway: yeah. I liked it exceedingly. Go read it. (with the caveat that, should you find it slow at first, you should push through at least three chapters before giving up.) Can't wait to see what she does next!
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Date: 2009-06-10 08:57 am (UTC)Her hints and plot are so much fun the *second* time through, I'm willing to vote that I didn't mind the slow first three chapters-- on the other hand, that's make it a tough reccomendation to my pickier friends. :\
And the title: AWESOME.
What's up with the Japanese cover disappearing all over the internet? I can barely find a tiny version of it (but was lucky enough to grab a relatively hi-res one from marmalade fish back when it was first posted.)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-11 06:03 pm (UTC)(I love your icon!)
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Date: 2009-06-11 07:30 pm (UTC)