Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater
Jul. 16th, 2011 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
When his best friend, Dee, fell in love with a faerie, James realised she’d never feel the same way about him.
Trying to escape into music, James finds himself, surrounded by more faeries than ever. Before he knows it James is trapped in a dangerous game. One where the only way to win is to betray the one you love …
James has had a rough year. His best friend, Dee, fell in love with a faerie and he realised that she would never be in love with him while his experiences with the faeries resulted in a car crash that left him seriously injured. Now he and Dee have started at the Thornking-Ash School of Music, but the faeries haven’t left them alone. James can hear strange music coming from near the school and then Nuala, a faerie girl, starts visiting him, keen to make him accept her offer of music in exchange for his life force.
Although James knows better than to accept Nuala’s offer, he nevertheless finds himself drawn to her just as his friendship with Dee is beginning to fall apart. Unbelievably, Nuala also seems to be developing genuine feelings for him. However Nuala, James and Dee all find themselves pawns in the faeries’ latest deadly plan, which will see James forced to decide whether to betray Nuala or Dee ..
BALLAD is a sequel to LAMENT, which you probably need to read first. I hadn’t and although I followed the plot events, much of BALLAD focuses on the changed relationship between Dee and James. Having not known what that relationship was, I lost some of the character development.
That said, this is a deftly written novel told in strong alternate first person chapters from James and Nuala’s POVs. I particularly liked the cynical James, who’s struggling to come to terms with his feelings for Dee and Nuala, who should be his enemy. With his quirk of constantly writing things on his hands, his smart mouth and his sharp sense of humour, he’s a likable guy and his supreme talent with the bagpipes (not the most obvious instrument) drives him. Nuala is also interesting as she becomes more conflicted over her feelings for James and the knowledge of what her half-faerie/half-human heritage means for their relationship.
The weak link for me is Dee, mainly because her story with Luke happens off-age and she’s passive, constantly writing text messages that she doesn’t send. As a result, it’s difficult to see what James sees in her (but again this might make more sense if you’ve read LAMENT).
All in all, I found it an absorbing read that had me rooting for the main character from start to finish and I’ll check out the first book.
The Verdict:
Maggie Stiefvater’s sequel to LAMENT is a deftly written character-driven novel but it’s a story that I think benefits from having written the first book (which I hadn’t). While the voices are strong and I liked both main characters, Dee’s storyline never really caught fire for me and I didn’t see what James saw in her (although this is probably because I hadn’t read the first book). It’s worth checking out and I’ll definitely be looking out for LAMENT.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
When his best friend, Dee, fell in love with a faerie, James realised she’d never feel the same way about him.
Trying to escape into music, James finds himself, surrounded by more faeries than ever. Before he knows it James is trapped in a dangerous game. One where the only way to win is to betray the one you love …
James has had a rough year. His best friend, Dee, fell in love with a faerie and he realised that she would never be in love with him while his experiences with the faeries resulted in a car crash that left him seriously injured. Now he and Dee have started at the Thornking-Ash School of Music, but the faeries haven’t left them alone. James can hear strange music coming from near the school and then Nuala, a faerie girl, starts visiting him, keen to make him accept her offer of music in exchange for his life force.
Although James knows better than to accept Nuala’s offer, he nevertheless finds himself drawn to her just as his friendship with Dee is beginning to fall apart. Unbelievably, Nuala also seems to be developing genuine feelings for him. However Nuala, James and Dee all find themselves pawns in the faeries’ latest deadly plan, which will see James forced to decide whether to betray Nuala or Dee ..
BALLAD is a sequel to LAMENT, which you probably need to read first. I hadn’t and although I followed the plot events, much of BALLAD focuses on the changed relationship between Dee and James. Having not known what that relationship was, I lost some of the character development.
That said, this is a deftly written novel told in strong alternate first person chapters from James and Nuala’s POVs. I particularly liked the cynical James, who’s struggling to come to terms with his feelings for Dee and Nuala, who should be his enemy. With his quirk of constantly writing things on his hands, his smart mouth and his sharp sense of humour, he’s a likable guy and his supreme talent with the bagpipes (not the most obvious instrument) drives him. Nuala is also interesting as she becomes more conflicted over her feelings for James and the knowledge of what her half-faerie/half-human heritage means for their relationship.
The weak link for me is Dee, mainly because her story with Luke happens off-age and she’s passive, constantly writing text messages that she doesn’t send. As a result, it’s difficult to see what James sees in her (but again this might make more sense if you’ve read LAMENT).
All in all, I found it an absorbing read that had me rooting for the main character from start to finish and I’ll check out the first book.
The Verdict:
Maggie Stiefvater’s sequel to LAMENT is a deftly written character-driven novel but it’s a story that I think benefits from having written the first book (which I hadn’t). While the voices are strong and I liked both main characters, Dee’s storyline never really caught fire for me and I didn’t see what James saw in her (although this is probably because I hadn’t read the first book). It’s worth checking out and I’ll definitely be looking out for LAMENT.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the ARC of this book.
