The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Breennan

[lightreads]

The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Young adult urban fantasy with teenaged brothers running from evil magicians and demons.

All right, this impressed me. I classified it in the first chapter as 'YA urban fantasy with demons: species generic,' but then the protagonist just kept happening. He's fifteen and a sociopath, not to put too fine a point on it, who would see the whole world burn without a qualm as long as his brother is safe. The close POV on him in all his disfunction, and the emotional nuances he does and doesn't get, is mostly deftly handled (except when it's clumsy), and he totally made the book for me.

Observation: It's really strange how a relationship that's deliberately slashy – the author clearly intended the homoerotic subtext and deliberately coded brothers as lovers – just isn't as engaging as unintentional homoeroticism. Perhaps I really do slash for subversion, after all, because when it's spoon-fed so obviously on every page, it's just not as fun.

Criticisms: were the plot twists supposed to be that transparent? Because, well, duh. Also, I'm pretty sure her witty banter in her fanfic was a lot more, um, witty (she wrote Harry Potter back in the day).

Still, when the sequel comes out, I'm there.

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Comments

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Well, you're still way more clever than I; I didn't get anything about the demon. Though clearly I should have.

The really hilarious bit is that -- and I remember I've told you not to read this before -- Cassie Clare, or whatever she calls herself, uses basically the same completely obvious twist in City of Bones (I think? Was that the first book? I am way too lazy to look it up)-- except that, as far as I can tell, it is THE Big Plot Twist. And even I got it way back in the first chapter.

My favorite line... oh, well, before I recap my entire post at you, here it is... though you'd have to put up with more burbling about how I liked the plot more than you did (http://charlie-ego.livejournal.com/32325.html#cutid1) :)