starlady | The Demon's Lexicon (Reply)

~~I told you I was going to post again.~~

Rees Brennan, Sarah. The Demon's Lexicon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009.

I didn't love this book as much as

bookshop did, but I did like it very well. Also,

bravecows has some comments on the book and other books by authors who have written fanfic.

In passing and for the record, I write up my thoughts on the books I read both to share and because in my life I don't have enough time to reread many books any more; the first pass is all I get, and my memory can't hold all my thoughts about the books I read. So I suspect that my reaction to this book is not quite as appreciative as Aja's upon reread. C'est la vie; I have more books on my list.

That said, I did like this book, particularly after the ending, which revealed a lot of the characters to be (Secretly) Awesome. I do like Secretly Awesome characters revealing their awesome at the opportune moment.

The plot of The Demon's Lexicon is fairly simple; young British brothers Alan and Nick live their lives on the run, with their mother Olivia, from the magicians who used to be Olivia's cohorts and who are hunting them to get back something she stole from them. Magicians are people who can use magic, but they don't naturally have much magic themselves; what they do to get power instead is sacrifice their fellow human beings to demons in trade. The demons get a few scraps of existence on the mortal plane, and the magicians get power. When two of Nick's classmates in Exeter, pink-haired Mae and her brother Jamie, show up at Nick and Alan's door asking for help to remove Jamie's demonic marks, Nick and Alan's life gets very borked very quickly.

On the one level the Supernatural comparison is so obvious as to not bear commenting, particularly early in the book when scenes are set in the car. What's far more interesting is that the book is told from the viewpoint of Nick, who is dyslexic and also a borderline sociopath. Nick doesn't really understand feelings and has real trouble with words, but girls love him anyway; Nick is the bad-boy antihero of YA. Most authors would write the book from Mae's viewpoint, or even Jamie's (who is fairly clearly fay); Rees Brennan's choice to go with Nick is, I think, courageous, both an exploration and an explosion of the Byronic hero. Nick is anything but perfect, and Rees Brennan makes that painfully, painfully clear. I thought Nick's dyslexia was also dealt with sympathetically (and then later on it becomes a brilliant plot point; double points).

Also, the ending? Is so amazing, not so much for the reveal but as for how the other characters--Mae, Jamie, and especially Alan and Olivia--step up to the plate and do their parts to save themselves and each other. Apparently there are sequels in the works, and I will read them happily.

P.S.

bookshop talks about how awesome Mae is here (with spoilers).