Saturday, May 15, 2010

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer

Title: Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy
Page Count: 437
Why I read it: fairies!
Grade: A+

Synopsis:
When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries. While her kind live in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she's devoted her life to tracking down and recapturing devils escaped from their ancient bottles, just as her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. With her faithful gang of crows, she travels the world fighting where others would choose to flee. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself—the creator of the world—she may be in over her head. How can a single faerie, even with the help of her friends, hope to defeat the impenetrable darkness of the Blackbringer?

My review:
I wish I was a good enough writer to convey exactly how much I loved this book. But I'm not, so I'm left with writing a review that will never do it justice. I think there are rare times in life when you read a book and you feel like it was written just for you. I can recognize that this book will never be as popular as some of the other juvenile or YA fiction out there, but it was perfect for me. I loved everything about it, and I can't think of one thing I didn't like.

For starters, this is what fairy stories should be like. The fairies were not humans with wings like I see so much of in stories now--they were small, completely different, exactly how fairies should be and so rarely are. Anyone who really knows me knows how much I love fairies. I have a fairly large collection, including a collection of warrior fairies, which made this book even better for me, because the main character in this is a warrior fairy. And she's so very likable and strong. This is what I've been missing in YA fiction. I'm sick of the simpering, man-obsessed girls, and this was exactly the opposite of that.

The other characters were wonderful. I loved the crows, more than I ever thought was possible to love animal characters. I loved the language, the writing, and the artwork--oh my goodness, I want to hang it on my walls; I just wish there would have been more! And I'm so excited that there's another book in this series for me to read. I would highly recommend this to YA fantasy fans--this will go on my very small list of all-time favorites.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the beautiful review, Brenda! I'm so glad to Blackbringer found one of its *perfect readers* in you!

    :-)

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  2. I've heard such great things about this author and need to pick up one of her books. Thanks for the review, I think I'm going to like this one too!

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  3. Mmm, yes! I felt the same way about what I wanted to say. I think it has to do with the extraordinary writing skill of Laini Taylor. Makes me feel inadequate :)

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