Double Feature: An Intro and Review

            Reading has always been my favorite pastime. There is just something so great about words. Actions may speak louder, but words make the world seem okay, especially if those words come together to form a great book. The reason I love the fantasy genre so much is because it takes you into different worlds that help you escape from your reality. The funny thing is that most of these places aren’t messed up too. Take Panem for example. I’m sure no one would want to compete in the Hunger Games, yet it’s a book and place many of us love. Or take Harry Potter for example. Throughout the whole story there are multiple attempts made to kill the main character. Harry Potter, “the boy who lived” almost dies. And although his world is full of chaos, pain, and destruction, many of us would trade places with him. Their worlds seem better than ours because they are full of magic and possibility. And I think Harry Potter speaks for all of us when he says “I love magic”.

Click Read More for Review on Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner


Book: Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

Genre: Fantasy, obviously

Reading Level: Young Adult, 12+

Overall rating: 3.5/5 

Comments: Very easy read. Sometimes too childish to be a young adult novel. Plot gets irritating and drags sometimes. Could have been better, but overall worth the read. Very enjoyable.

             
            Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner was a great choice for an easy read. It is the first novel of a trilogy of young adult books with a reading level of age 12 and older. Twenty-one is older than 12, I should be fine. With the first two novels of the trilogy already published, the third and final book in the series is set to be released in the spring of 2013, and since we already sprang forward-daylight savings joke-the book should be coming out soon.

            Bones of Faerie is a novel about a young girl named Liza living in a world that has been plagued with magic. Twenty years ago, a passage between the faerie world and the human world was opened. The Fey-the faerie-came into the human world, but when a war broke out between the faerie and the humans the faeries were forced to retreat back to their world. The war left both sides devastated and although the faerie left the human world, traces of their magic were left behind. Nature had become bewitched. Trees and vines moved on their own and they were hostile, attacking the humans. Major cities and technological advances of the modern world were destroyed and villages were surrounded by forests where those threatening forces of nature lurked. At first it seemed as though the trees were the only things with magic in them but soon children were born with faerie magic. They were deemed as threatening as were killed by Liza’s father, an authority figure and bad guy.

            Liz knows how her father feels about magic, and she too has been raised to hate and fear it. But when Liza discovers that she has faerie magic of her own her world is shattered. Leaving her home and village in the fears that her magic will harm them, Liza wanders into the forest. She soon discovers the truth about the war, about magic and reasons why her mother abandoned her. 

*Spoiler Alert*Spoiler Alert*Spoiler Alert*

Embracing her magic she overcomes her hardships, eventually bringing her mother back from Faerie. The book ends with the realization that all human children have been born with magic. Liza ends up confronting and banishing her father using her magic as a Summoner to push him away. 

*Spoiler Alert Over*

            The plot of the story was very interesting and packed with action but in a book where so much is going on, I felt that a lot of details were left out creating holes in the plot. There are so many questions left unanswered, such as why the passage from Faerie to the human world was opened, and what happened during the war. The idea of the novel is amazing and I feel that if the book was longer, Simner would have been able to elaborate on some of the details and background stories of the novel. There is so much that is left unanswered regarding magic, different types of magic and even parts of the plot are very vague leaving the reader unsure of what they just read. I loved the premise of the book but had it been a little longer and more thought out, it would have been so much better. The book is filled with action and suspense, although it does get a little frustrating to read. It seems that at every turn something goes wrong, Liza and her company of friends are always being attacked. Her company is made up of Matthew, a boy from her village who happens to be a shape shifter, Allie, a young healer from different village, and Liza’s cat Tallow *spoiler*(and the spirit of Liza’s dead baby sister who was killed for being born with magic)*spoiler over*

            With the company always being attacked and injured, there is little devoted in the novel to explaining this world we are thrown into. We know very little about the fey and their magic. We know very little about everything. Although the plot of the story was great, my experience with this novel fell flat. Had the author given me further explanation about this world and about magic, I may have been able to understand and enjoy the novel more. It is written for young adults and I can’t expect every book about magic to be as well written as J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter. Still the author could have done a better job writing this book so that the reader isn’t left with questions and confusion. This story needs more clarity and insight to the fantasy worlds created in this novel.
~ Sarina T

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images used in this blog post. The views and opinions in this post do not reflect the opinions of the other two bloggers. They are just views and opinions that everyone is entitled to and they are not facts.