Friday, May 18, 2012

"Wicked Lovely"—Melissa Marr


Urban fantasy isn't my favorite genre, but I'd heard Wicked Lovely praised, so I decided to read it.  I liked Melissa Marr's creative take on faeries, and enjoyed the vivid imagery.  The story fits so well with the beautiful cover

However, the excessive repetition and over-explanation sometimes bogged down the story.  Example:  Beira (evil queen who's not quite as frightening as she needs to be) touches Keenan (her son and enemy) and bruises him with cold.  Aislinn (the chosen one, who hasn't quite admitted she's the chosen one) kisses his cheek and takes away the bruises.  It goes on for a page or so about this, and both their wonder at her power.  Then someone comes up and asks what happened.  "Aislinn healed the Winter Queen's touch," Keenan says.  Four lines later, "She kissed Beira's frost, and it's gone.  She unmade Beira's touch.  She offered me her hand—by choice—and I was stronger."  In case we didn't get it yet, another character asks, "What?"  Keenana says—and I kid you not—"She healed me with a kiss, shared her strength with me."  Four pages later she tells her boyfriend about it.  Yes, it's a pivotal plot point, because it convinces everyone, including her, that she's The One, but for heaven's sake WE GOT IT.

I also didn't like that there are all these rules for the faery world and this epic "game" of theirs, which we hear about over and over, yet we never learn who set the rules, or why, or what will happen if the rules are disobeyed.

As for the characters, Keenan was interesting enough, though whiny.  I liked Donia and her inner struggles.  Seth seemed too perfect to be real (except for his former promiscuity).  And Aislinn, the main character…well, I didn't have strong feelings one way or the other about her.

It has a great tag line, though:  "Rule #3:  Don't stare at invisible faeries.  Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries. Rule #1:  Don't ever attract theirattention."  That's probably how it got the attention of agents and publishers. 

My rating:  3 minus

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