Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Like many of you, children, I am currently on vacation. I am happy to report that I’ve escaped the cold, gray that is New York and am in Florida. Guess what I am doing in Florida. Swimming, you say? Yes, I am swimming. Sunning, you say? Well, not really. I’m Irish, so forget that. Was that reading you guessed next? No? How foolish of you: of course I am reading.

Since I am always yakking about how much I loved Shiver and it’s main character, Grace Brisbane, I decided to try another Maggie Stiefvater title: Lament. It was awesome!

Speaking of being Irish, this one is full of Celtic overtones: harps, singing, depressing stories. It also focuses on fairies. Happily for the reader, however, these are not the benevolent sort of fairies who leave quarters under your pillow and frolic tra-la under mushrooms. Now that would be lame. No, these fairies prefer murder and mayhem to frolicking - which is how this story idea goes from lame to awesome.

While I do not love Deirdre Monaghan, Lament’s main character, as much as I love Grace, at least this time it’s not far off. Deirdre has all of the traits I like best in women, both real and imagined: she’s smart, she’s talented, she’s a hard worker. What’s not to like?

Unfortunately for Deirdre, she is a “cloverhand,” someone who can see fairies. That would be amazing if these were the kind of fairies that cleaned your room and did your homework for you. It might even be cool if they were the type to, say, take your younger sibling’s voice away when he/ she is being annoying. It is definitely not cool when the fairies, - oh, I don’t know - try to knock off your friends. It’s always so much more complicated when the fairies have homicidal tendencies.

Like I said, however, Deirdre is very intelligent and quite resourceful. You can rest assured that this is one cloverhand who can handle herself. She might even find true - if not somewhat supernatural - love along the way.

LAME FACTOR: Deadly fairies? Need you ask? A big zero for lameness.

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: The only way your parents will freak is if they’re those people who object to supernatural kinds of things - in which case you have my sympathy.

BRAIN POWER: Ooh. Big words. You’ll be fine.