You give me “Fever”…
I’ve definitely caught the “fever” for Karen Marie Moning’s series. Seriously. Darkfever is the first book for this series which follows the supernatural adventures of MacKayla Lane. She’s very a girly-girl caught in a world that she never anticipated existed nor would have imagined herself deeply entwined with. We’re talking Juicy Couture and OPI Nail polish in various shades of Pink–the names of which any loyal patron to a decent nail salon will recognize.
I’ve never read a book about the world of the Fae, or faeries. But I am not talking Tinkerbell here. I am talking something resembling the bizarre and sometimes frightening creatures seen in Pan’s Labyrinth. There are two Faery factions: Seelies (or the Light) and Unseelies (or the Dark). There is a glossary in the back which is the glossary that MacKayla (aka “Mac”) kept in her journal. As an avid journal writer myself, I was delighted to see a character that committed herself to journal writing in order to document the drastic changes her life takes after the death of her older sister.
She keeps her journal at first to give her tumultuous journey from her provincial hometown in Georgia to Dublin, Ireland some focus and direction. Something about the green landscape and the Celtic heritage has always made Ireland seem very magical, and there she is in Dublin, discovering with every moment that nothing is as it seems. Later, her journal becomes her lodestone, a place to keep track of all the new truths that she is learning regarding our world and the world of the Fae. Information is coming at her fast and without someone in whom to confide, she, like all females her age [22], needs to just get stuff out of her head and off her chest.
Mac’s counterpart in this story is an enigmatic fellow named Jericho Barron. He is the proprietor of Barrons Books and Baubles. Which incidentally is literally a beacon of light on the borders of an encroaching and desperate Darkness. Aren’t most book stores that way, though? Maybe not a mega-store like B&N or the ones you find in malls, but certainly the smaller Mom and Pop shops, and the obscure little holes in the wall where you can find out-of-print books and other curious Tomes of Old.
We don’t know much about him; he is full of contradictions, and he is a protector and a user all in one. Whose side is he on? Is he just using Mac or is he helping her? If he is helping her, why? Jericho creates more questions than his presence answers!
There is so much tension between Jericho and Mac that the jury is still out whether or not I want them to get together. She is on the hunt for her sister’s killer. Jericho’s agenda and his plans for helping Mac remain mostly elusive and one minute I think he’s her white knight, and another I am wholly convinced that he is out to get her. It’s definitely gripping and has me hooked! I didn’t know what to expect, and though they don’t hook up (cause again, I don’t even know if that would be a good idea for safety’s sake) there is plenty of danger in the sexual sense.
But whereas the dangers of the Dark side (Unseelie) are obviously sinister, even the world of the Seelie (Light) is fraught with inherent yet disguised menace. Anything extremely beautiful can also be terrifyingly deadly. V’lane is a Prince of the Seelie, and he is a Fae of extreme sexuality. As he [V’lane] put it “I am every erotic dream you’ve ever had and a thousand more you’ve never thought of. I am sex that will turn you inside out and burn you down to ashes.”
Mac obviously has her work cut out for her. She progresses surely from her Georgia Peach persona, wearing the latest fashions and labels, carefully coiffed blonde hair, and manicured nails ,to a darker, more mysterious image, the longer she is in Ireland. But it’s all part of her progression into this world of the Fae and the danger that now lurks in every moment for our heroine.
Darkfever lays down the groundwork for what is bound to be a super-exciting ride, and I can’t wait to take the next trip with the follow-up Bloodfever.
One Comment
Flash
Great post!