Sunday 18 November 2012

The Demon's Lexicon review

The Demon's Lexicon
Sarah Rees Brennan
June 2nd 2009
Simon & Schuster Children's

Nick and his brother Alan are on the run with their mother, who was once the lover of a powerful magician. When she left him, she stole an important charm - and he will stop at nothing to reclaim it. Now Alan has been marked with the sign of death by the magician's demon, and only Nick can save him. But to do so he must face those he has fled from all his life - the magicians - and kill them. So the hunted becomes the hunter...but in saving his brother, Nick discovers something that will unravel his whole past...

The Demon's Lexicon was... Weird. And I mean that in the best possible way. I've always been meaning to read one of Sarah Rees Brennan's books, and I kind of have (Team Human), but this is the first book I've read of hers that is, well, completely written by her. I'll be honest here, I mainly picked it up because Supernatural has had a great influence on my life of late and as soon as I saw the words 'brothers' and 'demons' in the same blurb as each other, I knew I had to read it. It was nothing like Supernatural, of course, but I really enjoyed it nevertheless. 

It took me a while to get into it, but I don't think that was the book's fault. I've just been in a bit of a slump lately (if you couldn't tell already with me posting what one review a week, sometimes not even that), but I'm getting better. I've realised that spending all my time between new tv eps pining for those new eps isn't going to make them air any faster, and I may as well spend my time reading in the mean time (though seriously, two weeks for the next episode of SPN? *cries*) Anyway, yeah, I did think it was a little slow at first, but once I became settled into the world I actually started to really like it. This has always been one of those books that I've picked up, read the first chapter of and put back down again without really knowing why, so I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

This is a weird book for me to talk about the characters for, though, because my perception of them changed so much throughout the book that I realised about halfway through I was never going to know whether I trusted them or not, or if they were lying, until the end, and even then I wasn't sure. I will say this though; I loved Nick. I don't really know why... I mean, he was kind of an emotionally non-existent psychopath, but I still think that he was a really compelling character, and I think I'll miss his narration (it's 3rd person, but it's all from his POV) in the next two books, because I know that they're both from Mae and Sin's point of view. Also, I thought the thing about him at the end was really interesting. I genuinely had no clue that that was what the big reveal was going to be, and that made him just so much better to me. 

I still have no idea how I feel about Alan, so sorry Alan fans! I just don't know if we can trust him. That being said, though I was really wary of him for a lot of the book, I think he proved himself in the end and his reasons were good enough. But he could always be up to something and we'd never know! I don't trust anyone who is explicitly described as being an excellent liar and is generally adorable and charming. They MUST be hiding something. That's another reason why I like Nick; he's a terrible liar! I liked Mae a lot as well, actually, which surprised me. I don't know why, but I kept on feeling like I should be finding her annoying, but I just couldn't (by this, I don't mean that I think SRB intended her to be annoying, I just think that she's the kind of person that I would usually find annoying but in this instance, did not.). I'm looking forward to reading the next book and getting to see more of her, even if it means we don't get as much of Nick.

The world and Magicians and the Demons were all interesting, and can I just say how glad I was to read an urban fantasy type thing set in modern day England? I don't think I've read very many that are, and there should be more! Britain has scary things too, you know. We're pretty famous for them. Just throwing that out there. I really liked the ideas about how Magicians needed to use demons to get more power and the demon marks and the Magicians Circle's, and the Goblin Market! I really hope that there's more about that in the next two (which I figure there is because Sin is one of the POV characters and she, like, works there). God, you can really tell it's been two weeks since I last wrote a review. 

The Demon's Lexicon was a book that after a bit of a slow start really picked up and I think it's going to end up being one of my favourite series, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. (Though let's face it, it's Sarah Rees Brennan. Of course it's going to be one of my favourites.)


*Sidenote: Apologies for any bad grammar/sentences that kind of go on too long. I've been on Tumblr a lot lately. A LOT. It does bad things to your writing ability. Terrible things. 

5 comments:

  1. This is one of my favorite series of all time :) I love all the characters and the grow so much over the series. Great review and I hope you enjoy the rest of the series. :) xx

    ps, i found it difficult to get in to as well :)

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  2. Hm, good to know it picks up. We had a hard time getting into it (as it seems many readers have?) so we put it down, which was torture because we ADORED Sarah Rees Brennan when we met her at a reading a few months ago. Maybe we'll pick it up again over the holidays. Thanks!

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  3. I was really surprised by how much I adored this book! I have the second book in the series waiting for me, but I keep puttng it off because I get nervous about narrator changes within a series!

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  5. ooo I have this one my tbr and now I'm so excited for it!! Thanks Cicely!

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