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A review by janina_reads
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
4.0
This book probably isn't going to end up on my all-time favourites shelf, but I did enjoy reading it a lot and am definitely interested in the sequels. It isn’t the strongest in terms of world building, but it definitely is full of suspense, surprising twists and engaging characters. Every one of them actually had a certain something that made him or her stand out. And boy, what an ending. Never ever did I expect something like that. It totally took me by surprise. And that happens rarely. Actually, for the first half of the book, I thought this would be a solid three star read. Good, but nothing too special. But the second half definitely deserves the extra half-star. I was literally glued to the pages.
Nick certainly is an unusual main character. He doesn’t like people – and he doesn’t pretend to. It was kind of hard to relate to him because he himself doesn’t relate to anybody. The only person he is loyal to is his brother Alan. Everything he does is centred on him. Despite all that, I found myself caring about him. Alan comes across as rather harmless at first, but later on he clearly shows that there is something else in him – both on the positive and the negative side. I liked to see how the brothers’ life was turned upside down by Mae and Jamie. Those two had a great relationship and I loved how Mae stood up for herself and her brother and didn’t let herself be irritated by Nick – at least not too much. Nevertheless, (and this goes for all the characters) I didn’t really feel with them or for them at the beginning. They only grew on me as the story progressed.
The only thing I didn’t buy: Nick is often described as cruel and able to scare others with his menacing look. But [a:Sarah Rees Brennan|836009|Sarah Rees Brennan|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1254149255p2/836009.jpg] didn’t really make me buy his badass-attitude. Not once did Nick seem frightening to me although she clearly intended him to be that way. He is more like a boy who has shut himself away because of his past and now tries to scare others off from coming close to him, not letting himself feel anything for them. I felt sad for him because he wasn’t able to make friends or even love, but he did not scare me with his behaviour. Actually, he sometimes came across as a little brat. Nevertheless, I liked him.
As I said before, the world building isn’t too strong; the reader only gets thrown little pieces of information every now and then. Basically, we have this setting: Evil magicians are able to call demons and make them possess humans, being granted powers to conjure up strong illusion in return. I didn’t really understand why all magicians were supposed to be evil – the reason given is that the demons’ power is addictive and they can’t live without getting more at some point – but it felt weird to me that no one should be able to counter this addiction.
But the world is based on an original idea and the premise does make for an interesting story with a lot of twists, secrets being revealed and battles being fought. Also, I loved the atmosphere of the Goblin Market; it had something very engaging and colourful, yet mysterious and dangerous about it.
The writing sometimes read a bit awkward to me, especially at the beginning. There were passages where it flowed extremely well, but then there would come a sentence that would make me frown and that didn’t really fit. Also, when past events were retold, the narrative felt very distant, almost like the narrator didn’t care at all about what happened – it had this grocery list feel to it that didn’t really go well with traumatic experiences. And – seriously – the name Nick was all over the place. I didn’t count, but there were a few paragraphs that made me wonder: Why doesn’t the author use a personal pronoun every now and then?
But, I have to admit, after the first few chapters, it got better. Maybe also because I had become engrossed in the story and didn’t feel like nit-picking anymore.
All in all, not a book I regret spending money on (Although the cover is beyond ugly. I was always trying to hide it from peoples’ glances when reading on the train.) Will be checking out the sequel soon.
Nick certainly is an unusual main character. He doesn’t like people – and he doesn’t pretend to. It was kind of hard to relate to him because he himself doesn’t relate to anybody. The only person he is loyal to is his brother Alan. Everything he does is centred on him. Despite all that, I found myself caring about him. Alan comes across as rather harmless at first, but later on he clearly shows that there is something else in him – both on the positive and the negative side. I liked to see how the brothers’ life was turned upside down by Mae and Jamie. Those two had a great relationship and I loved how Mae stood up for herself and her brother and didn’t let herself be irritated by Nick – at least not too much. Nevertheless, (and this goes for all the characters) I didn’t really feel with them or for them at the beginning. They only grew on me as the story progressed.
The only thing I didn’t buy: Nick is often described as cruel and able to scare others with his menacing look. But [a:Sarah Rees Brennan|836009|Sarah Rees Brennan|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1254149255p2/836009.jpg] didn’t really make me buy his badass-attitude. Not once did Nick seem frightening to me although she clearly intended him to be that way. He is more like a boy who has shut himself away because of his past and now tries to scare others off from coming close to him, not letting himself feel anything for them. I felt sad for him because he wasn’t able to make friends or even love, but he did not scare me with his behaviour. Actually, he sometimes came across as a little brat. Nevertheless, I liked him.
As I said before, the world building isn’t too strong; the reader only gets thrown little pieces of information every now and then. Basically, we have this setting: Evil magicians are able to call demons and make them possess humans, being granted powers to conjure up strong illusion in return. I didn’t really understand why all magicians were supposed to be evil – the reason given is that the demons’ power is addictive and they can’t live without getting more at some point – but it felt weird to me that no one should be able to counter this addiction.
But the world is based on an original idea and the premise does make for an interesting story with a lot of twists, secrets being revealed and battles being fought. Also, I loved the atmosphere of the Goblin Market; it had something very engaging and colourful, yet mysterious and dangerous about it.
The writing sometimes read a bit awkward to me, especially at the beginning. There were passages where it flowed extremely well, but then there would come a sentence that would make me frown and that didn’t really fit. Also, when past events were retold, the narrative felt very distant, almost like the narrator didn’t care at all about what happened – it had this grocery list feel to it that didn’t really go well with traumatic experiences. And – seriously – the name Nick was all over the place. I didn’t count, but there were a few paragraphs that made me wonder: Why doesn’t the author use a personal pronoun every now and then?
But, I have to admit, after the first few chapters, it got better. Maybe also because I had become engrossed in the story and didn’t feel like nit-picking anymore.
All in all, not a book I regret spending money on (Although the cover is beyond ugly. I was always trying to hide it from peoples’ glances when reading on the train.) Will be checking out the sequel soon.