Quickie Review: Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Format: read as ebook, print version is a hardcover
Pub Date: January 18, 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Press
FTC: Purchased myself

I'm definitely in the minority on this one. I didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Just feel kind of...meh. There may be spoilers below (although I'll try to keep this both short and vague).

Main observations:
1. Tense and POV. The book switches between 1st person past and 1st person present. With a little of Dani's POV thrown in. I found this extremely annoying. I am NOT a fan of 1st person present. And I honestly don't think Karen Marie Moning (KMM) does a good job with it. She does much better with 1st person past.

(For those wondering, 1st person present is : I walk to the store and open the door. 1st person past is I walked to the store and opened the door.)

But mainly, I wish she'd pick a tense and stick the hell with it. It yanked me out of the story each time she switched. 

2. Barrons. According to Katiebabs, Barrons is a douche. I wholeheartedly agree with that description. He's an ass. And while I don't get the appeal, I appreciated that KMM kept him consistent until the very last book. When, apparently, he turns from annoyingly taciturn to irritatingly loquacious. I didn't buy that he'd open up that quickly and thoroughly after all that time keeping Mac in the dark.

3. Pacing. Part of my problem with the book comes down to pacing. And I think this goes directly back to the switching of tenses, POVs etc. It throws off the entire stride of the book. It made some parts drag so badly, I skimmed.

Overall, I was disappointed in this book. It answered most of what I wanted answered, but didn't hold my attention as well as it should have. The tenses shift really affected my enjoyment of the book. And the lack of consistency with the characters seemed odd. It felt like KMM compromised some of the essence of the characters to finagle the ending she did. Her loyal fans will probably be happy with this, but as someone who only sometimes liked the series, this just wasn't that great.

My Grade: C+*

*I'm in the minority on this one. Everyone else seems to love it.

Shadowfever: Yeah, you can't escape it. Not even here.

Everyone should know that today is Shadowfever release day. Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning is the long awaited conclusion to the Fever series.

I hadn't read the Fever series before last month. And while I don't have the OMG mad love that so many others seem to for this series, I can see why it is so compelling. The concept is highly original. The story is gritty. And the plot is intricate. Oh, and KMM is the queen of cliffhangers.

I feel for those who have been waiting for this book. I really do. Nothing sucks more than being left hanging, not knowing the fate of characters you're rooting for (or against).

I don't think I'm going to be hanging out on Twitter or Facebook today. Or visiting blogs. Because I am in the I Hate Spoilers camp. I don't expect readers to keep silent post-release about the book, but I want to find out what happens on my own.

Happy Reading!

Review: Darkfever and Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

With the upcoming release of Shadowfever on January 18th, Twitter has been, well, atwitter with references to the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning.

Until last week, I had ignored this author. Largely because I'm not a fan of fairy stories (thank you very much Laurell K. Hamilton) and because I can't help but go Jr. High and start giggling over the author's last name. Moning? Seriously?  *ahem*

But, seeing how many people know and love this series, I decided I needed to read at least one of them to understand the various references made.

There are a few things to know before starting this series.

1. This is not a romance series. I'm not quite sure what it is (I suck at classifying books by genre) but it's not a romance. I'd go with Urban Fantasy, but that brings to mind more Urban and less Fantasy, whereas this book is primarily fantasy with a little urban Dublin thrown in for color. There is some minor tension between some of the main characters, but this is grittier, more violent and lacks a Happily Ever After. Or any real relationship. At least in the first two books.

In fact, the publishers have rebranded the covers to remove the romance-y elements. The original cover for Darkfever looked very much like a BDB cover.

2. The books end with cliffhangers. Very little is resolved at the end of each book.

3. It's told in the first person. Some hate this POV, so ye are hereby warned.

4. There's lots of fairy/Gaelic words and terms. So many, in fact, that our lead character, Mac, has created her own glossary at the end of the book.

5. The characters are not "likable." Any of them. Not even Mac.