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attackfish) wrote2009-06-02 09:18 am
attackfish) wrote2009-06-02 09:18 am
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Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon: Lemons of Sorcery
Because I have a very cosy relationship with the people at the local independent bookstore, I got a call as soon as the shipment with Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon came in and I got to pick it up a few days early. Rees Brennan, known online as sarahtales (formerly mistful or maya), had already shown herself to be a master writer through her howlingly funny blog and her fanfiction, so I rushed right over.
Nick and his older brother Alan have been running ever since their father died. Their mother, a former magician, stole a charm from her former lover, another powerful magician, and he and his followers have been chasing them ever since to steal it back and take their revenge. When a girl Alan fancies comes to the brothers with her own brother, asking for their help in taking a demon's mark off her brother, the magicians close in, and Alan's lies lead them all into terrible peril.
Sometimes it's really really hard to review a book, either because I hated it so much I threw it into a wall and the only intelligent thing I can say to anything wanting to know if they should read it is "Don't" and sometimes because I loved the book so much and it hit me just where it hurt that every time I want to say anything about the book, it comes out "Eeheehee, you must buy it now!" The Demon's Lexicon is definitely the latter. Oh my God, this book is amazing! I've been looking forward to this book's release for a while now, ever since I found out Rees Brennan was going from fanfiction to original novels, because this woman is the one who got me to like a HP/DM veela fic, which given my distaste for creature fic and Draco Malfoy is nigh impossible. Also, hers was the first blog I read other than my sister's after I realized I liked the posts she made between new chapters almost as much as I liked new chapters. With such a mental build up, it would have been easy for even a really fantastic book to have let me down and let me down hard, but The Demon's Lexicon didn't. It was much better and much more moving than even I expected.
Every line had me either laughing, or shivering, or crying, frequently at the same time. It's hilarious, and witty, and really really dark, and the further in you go, the darker it gets. It sucks you in, and the plot just roars along until it skids to a brilliant, horrifying finish. I didn't see that finish coming, and I already knew there was a surprise finish, but once it came, I turned the book over and over in my mind and found a thousand different ways Rees Brennan led up to it,and it made so much sense.
Alright, so the last two paragraphs can be mostly condensed to incoherent squeeing into the vastness of the internet, and from here on out I will try to do better. Rees Brennan wrote a fantastic interpersonal dynamic between our four intrepid heroes. I loved the way Mae called Alan "Bookshop Guy" and the way he mooned over her, the way Nick used her to hurt Alan and how she refused to be used. I loved Jamie's wise cowardice and explanations at all turns to keep suspicion off the group, and mostly I loved the way the brothers took care of each other, with Nick taking care of everything physical, protecting his brother and worrying over him, and Alan making sure his brother went to school, and lying to him to keep him happy. The reveals at the end only served to make their brotherly bond all the more poignant.
Every time I had a question about the narrative, or thought something needed more explanation or it would throw me out of my suspension of disbelief, the book answered it so deftly that I sped right along to the end in awe of how complete the world Rees Brennan crafted really was.
And the twist at the end just threw everything into a new light and half the brilliance of the book is how both lights work so well.
Besides, Alan's got a disability and he isn't either a weakling or a saint. I got to love that!
There were of course things that I didn't like (there always are). The torture scene in the middle of the book almost had me throwing it across the room and it was only a mark of Rees Brennan's skill as a writer and my emotional investment in the book that I didn't. Somehow though, even that made sense and was right in the story, so it's more I feel I should give readers fair warning.
The Demon's Lexicon also contained a bit of very targeted nightmare fuel. Rees Brennan went straight into my psyche and pulled out some of my nasty experiences and scared me to pieces. I don't think she intended such a pointed attack, because I'm not that paranoid yet (though I don't think she'd mind, given that she's writing about demons and possession) but she still left me in the dark, clutching my pillow and sobbing. See, the first thing that happens when a person is possessed is they go mute. I was a tremendously verbal child. My parents were absolutely thrilled when I started talking in complete paragraphs as soon as I started talking, even if I was a bit late to speak, but soon they became disenchanted. I followed them around all the way until I hit puberty, talking and chattering, and babbling on about everything I saw or thought about, or felt. I told them fantasy stories I made up and about the life cycle of dandelions until they just stared at me and wondered when I'd stop. I did stop, right before a seizure. Then, suddenly the words would abruptly stop tumbling out of my mouth, and I wouldn't comprehend anything anyone else was saying. I'd stare back at the rest of the world, fighting what I knew was coming until something inside snapped and I wouldn't remember anything until it was all over. When I had these, I would run around, completely silent, trying to find a place to hide, but because I was dangerous, a thing to be rightly afraid of, the teachers and my parents would corner me and try to hold me. My mother would hold me in her lap, trapping my arms and pinning me down until the seizure passed, sometimes hours later, telling me she loved me, that I was a good girl, that everything was alright, and I would come out of it hearing that. So when Rees Brennan put that scene in her book, the one with the possessed man and his wife, with her desperately telling him she loved him as he stared back uncomprehending and struggling against the chains, she scared me down to my deepest darkest memories. And really, I think she meant people to be a lot more freaked out by the beetles coming out of his eyes.
This book deliciously subverts the "True Name" trope and shows the misery inherent in the "orphaned child" one. With only a madwoman left in the house, Nick and Alan are forced to be adults for themselves, and Alan works so that Nick can go to school. Alan and Nick are not just alone in the world, they're lonely and unprotected. The way they live their lives, scrambling from place to place, constantly fleeing magicians' circles, causes them to resemble frightened rats more than daring adventurers (not that I didn't love them, oh no). Likewise, Mae rebels and shows off either to punish her parents or to get their attention.
Rees Brennan throws all sorts of gothic elements (no not goth) into The Demon's Lexicon and then either subverts them or makes them her own. Olivia, the madwoman, acts as the secret monster locked away in the house and as a foreshadowing of the big reveal. Nicks secrets and Alan's and the little supernatural family drama is so classically gothic and so brilliant at it that I just wanted to crawl all the way into this book and explore it.
Rees Brennan also takes us readers right into the uncanny valley in a way I've been trying to do with my novel and failing utterly. Puts a whole new spin on that conversation about the ravens in the first chapter.
Oh God, I'm tearing myself up waiting for the sequel, and as soon as that's out and read, I'll be going crazy for the last! Today's the release date, buy it so I can squee in company!
Nick and his older brother Alan have been running ever since their father died. Their mother, a former magician, stole a charm from her former lover, another powerful magician, and he and his followers have been chasing them ever since to steal it back and take their revenge. When a girl Alan fancies comes to the brothers with her own brother, asking for their help in taking a demon's mark off her brother, the magicians close in, and Alan's lies lead them all into terrible peril.
Sometimes it's really really hard to review a book, either because I hated it so much I threw it into a wall and the only intelligent thing I can say to anything wanting to know if they should read it is "Don't" and sometimes because I loved the book so much and it hit me just where it hurt that every time I want to say anything about the book, it comes out "Eeheehee, you must buy it now!" The Demon's Lexicon is definitely the latter. Oh my God, this book is amazing! I've been looking forward to this book's release for a while now, ever since I found out Rees Brennan was going from fanfiction to original novels, because this woman is the one who got me to like a HP/DM veela fic, which given my distaste for creature fic and Draco Malfoy is nigh impossible. Also, hers was the first blog I read other than my sister's after I realized I liked the posts she made between new chapters almost as much as I liked new chapters. With such a mental build up, it would have been easy for even a really fantastic book to have let me down and let me down hard, but The Demon's Lexicon didn't. It was much better and much more moving than even I expected.
Every line had me either laughing, or shivering, or crying, frequently at the same time. It's hilarious, and witty, and really really dark, and the further in you go, the darker it gets. It sucks you in, and the plot just roars along until it skids to a brilliant, horrifying finish. I didn't see that finish coming, and I already knew there was a surprise finish, but once it came, I turned the book over and over in my mind and found a thousand different ways Rees Brennan led up to it,and it made so much sense.
Alright, so the last two paragraphs can be mostly condensed to incoherent squeeing into the vastness of the internet, and from here on out I will try to do better. Rees Brennan wrote a fantastic interpersonal dynamic between our four intrepid heroes. I loved the way Mae called Alan "Bookshop Guy" and the way he mooned over her, the way Nick used her to hurt Alan and how she refused to be used. I loved Jamie's wise cowardice and explanations at all turns to keep suspicion off the group, and mostly I loved the way the brothers took care of each other, with Nick taking care of everything physical, protecting his brother and worrying over him, and Alan making sure his brother went to school, and lying to him to keep him happy. The reveals at the end only served to make their brotherly bond all the more poignant.
Every time I had a question about the narrative, or thought something needed more explanation or it would throw me out of my suspension of disbelief, the book answered it so deftly that I sped right along to the end in awe of how complete the world Rees Brennan crafted really was.
And the twist at the end just threw everything into a new light and half the brilliance of the book is how both lights work so well.
Besides, Alan's got a disability and he isn't either a weakling or a saint. I got to love that!
There were of course things that I didn't like (there always are). The torture scene in the middle of the book almost had me throwing it across the room and it was only a mark of Rees Brennan's skill as a writer and my emotional investment in the book that I didn't. Somehow though, even that made sense and was right in the story, so it's more I feel I should give readers fair warning.
The Demon's Lexicon also contained a bit of very targeted nightmare fuel. Rees Brennan went straight into my psyche and pulled out some of my nasty experiences and scared me to pieces. I don't think she intended such a pointed attack, because I'm not that paranoid yet (though I don't think she'd mind, given that she's writing about demons and possession) but she still left me in the dark, clutching my pillow and sobbing. See, the first thing that happens when a person is possessed is they go mute. I was a tremendously verbal child. My parents were absolutely thrilled when I started talking in complete paragraphs as soon as I started talking, even if I was a bit late to speak, but soon they became disenchanted. I followed them around all the way until I hit puberty, talking and chattering, and babbling on about everything I saw or thought about, or felt. I told them fantasy stories I made up and about the life cycle of dandelions until they just stared at me and wondered when I'd stop. I did stop, right before a seizure. Then, suddenly the words would abruptly stop tumbling out of my mouth, and I wouldn't comprehend anything anyone else was saying. I'd stare back at the rest of the world, fighting what I knew was coming until something inside snapped and I wouldn't remember anything until it was all over. When I had these, I would run around, completely silent, trying to find a place to hide, but because I was dangerous, a thing to be rightly afraid of, the teachers and my parents would corner me and try to hold me. My mother would hold me in her lap, trapping my arms and pinning me down until the seizure passed, sometimes hours later, telling me she loved me, that I was a good girl, that everything was alright, and I would come out of it hearing that. So when Rees Brennan put that scene in her book, the one with the possessed man and his wife, with her desperately telling him she loved him as he stared back uncomprehending and struggling against the chains, she scared me down to my deepest darkest memories. And really, I think she meant people to be a lot more freaked out by the beetles coming out of his eyes.
This book deliciously subverts the "True Name" trope and shows the misery inherent in the "orphaned child" one. With only a madwoman left in the house, Nick and Alan are forced to be adults for themselves, and Alan works so that Nick can go to school. Alan and Nick are not just alone in the world, they're lonely and unprotected. The way they live their lives, scrambling from place to place, constantly fleeing magicians' circles, causes them to resemble frightened rats more than daring adventurers (not that I didn't love them, oh no). Likewise, Mae rebels and shows off either to punish her parents or to get their attention.
Rees Brennan throws all sorts of gothic elements (no not goth) into The Demon's Lexicon and then either subverts them or makes them her own. Olivia, the madwoman, acts as the secret monster locked away in the house and as a foreshadowing of the big reveal. Nicks secrets and Alan's and the little supernatural family drama is so classically gothic and so brilliant at it that I just wanted to crawl all the way into this book and explore it.
Rees Brennan also takes us readers right into the uncanny valley in a way I've been trying to do with my novel and failing utterly. Puts a whole new spin on that conversation about the ravens in the first chapter.
Oh God, I'm tearing myself up waiting for the sequel, and as soon as that's out and read, I'll be going crazy for the last! Today's the release date, buy it so I can squee in company!
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I guess I'll have to just wait until it comes here. :S
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Like I say I'd wait and wish for some editorial to bring it here. Like right effing now.
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I've been interested in this book since I heard about it... but I'm a bit worried now that I've read your review and heard mention of possession - I generally avoid possession stories like the plague. I don't even like the Doctor Who ep with it in! They creep me out more than just about anything else in fiction. So I think I probably won't be buying this after all :(
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