Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Terrible... but Terribly Disappointing, June 9, 2009
Sarah Rees Brennan is immensely talented. She has extraordinary gifts: she can craft true and compelling characters, write clever, believable dialogue, and suddenly twist a humorous moment into a shockingly sharp tug at your heartstrings. She just managed not to do any of that here, in her first published work.
The elephant in the review-room is this: she's been writing fan-fiction for years, and most of us who ran out to acquire her book are longtime fans. While it may not be fair on some level to compare original work to fan-fiction, it's possible, and necessary, to compare mediocre writing to fantastic writing.
This novel is awash in the cliches of the genre: there's a spunky love interest teen girl with spunky dyed hair and not another character trait in sight but her irrepressible spunk; there's an OMG-my-secret-parentage plotline; and there's an embarrassingly shiny-lipped emo boy on the cover making it clear that much brooding is to be found inside. Only one character is remotely lovable, and even he treads dangerously near the Comic Relief Sidekick stock cut-out character. The rest are wood. Brennan has demonstrated her ability to breathe life into the roughest sketch of a minor character, but the minor characters in Lexicon are less than one-dimensional -- they're naked plot-pushers. And that's not the end of the world; the plot is kind of interesting, once it gets going in the last hundred pages. But it's nothing special.
I desperately wanted to like this book. Brennan has been -- no exaggeration -- my favorite author for years. She's brightened my life countless times, and I will buy every book she ever publishes because I owe her for all that joy. But I'd looked forward to buying copies for everyone I know. I wanted to be able to recommend her. And I honestly don't know what went wrong with this book -- whether her genius was somehow edited away, or whether her body was taken over by aliens (sophomoric, purple-prose-prone aliens!), but it is a tremendous let-down either way.
Here's hoping sincerely that Sarah comes back for Book Two.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice departure from the norm, May 1, 2009
Nick Ryves is used to running. Ever since he was young, his family has been on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of the deadly Magician's Circle that is bent on retrieving the talisman Nick's mother stole from them. Nick has always relied on his older brother Alan to make the right choices and protect them, but when it becomes evident that Alan may be keeping secrets from him, Nick is set on a path that will lead him to the startling truth about his family and himself.
Quite imaginative and unique, The Demon's Lexicon is a nice departure from the norm of YA supernatural fiction. Brennan tells the story in Nick's point of view, highlighting his struggle to trust others and control his emotions, which is an interesting complication. The book moves rapidly, and some readers may find Brennan's brisk style a little hard to make sense of in the very beginning, but it doesn't take long before the story evens out and clicks into place. The paranormal world and the way magic works in The Demon's Lexicon is unique in the sense that any and all magicians are corrupt, and Alan, Nick, and their friends can only protect themselves using magical objects and their own wits, creating a stirring and intriguing mystery with a startling twist that will ensure Brennan's status as a talented new voice in YA lit.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 29, 2009
Nick and his brother, Alan, have been on the run for Nick's entire life - and when they're not running, they're fighting the vicious magicians pursuing their mother and the powerful charm she stole. Magicians who trade lives for power. Who killed their father and left Alan with a permanent limp. And who show up yet again as soon as Nick has started to get comfortable in their new home.
This time, everything's different. A demon marks Alan, and Nick can't rest until he knows his brother is safe. Especially after one of the most powerful magician's circles delivers a warning that leaves Alan more shaken than Nick's ever seen. But the harder Nick tries to protect him, the more he realizes how many secrets Alan's been keeping from him.
No longer able to trust the one person he thought he could count on, Nick sets out to find the truth.
Unfortunately, this truth is more dangerous than most...
THE DEMON'S LEXICON is a dark, fast-paced story filled with equal parts of action and emotion - and incredibly difficult to put down once you've started. The narration, from Nick's point of view, is stark but comes with plenty of biting humor.
All of the characters have more to them than it appears at first glance, and it's easy to believe the vivid world of magicians and the Goblin's Market could truly exist amidst our own. The many twists will keep readers guessing and glued to the page, but ultimately the story rests on Nick and Alan and the intense yet tenuous bond between them. It's this relationship that gives the novel its heart, and raises it above the many other paranormal and urban fantasy offerings hitting the shelves.
Highly recommended to all!
Reviewed by: Lynn Crow
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