Book #26 - The Demon's Surrender, by Sarah Rees Brennan

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Weird Thing: for whatever reason, I kept thinking this book was called "The Demon's Voice". Possibly because when rj_anderson told me about it, it didn't have a title yet? And featured Alan prominently? And I just...made up my own? I have no idea. But it's not called "The Demon's Voice", and once I started remembering that, the book made more sense.

I have had a troubled relationship with these books. I mean, I really wanted to adore them to pieces. But I didn't. Possibly because Nick is exactly the kind of character I don't connect with, Jamie is exactly the kind of Mastermind that I find personally frustrating, Mae got sidelined a lot, and I never knew whether Alan was going to be awesome or INSANELY AND GLORIOUSLY dumb. It's not that any of the characters are bad. They are in fact very, very good. I just didn't adore any of them to pieces.

I adore Sin to pieces. And she narrated this book.

From here on out, THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE END!

I think my only extreme frustration with the book is that Mae and Sin, though they did an awesome job remaining friends in spite of Merris's plotting, never sat down and decided to be co-Leaders of the Goblin Market. It was pretty clear from the beginning that Mae was the head and Sin was the heart, and I wish they'd both inherited it together. At least they didn't get catty about it though. That would have been REALLY ANNOYING.

I also really liked Alan a lot in this book, which was a twist because while I certainly like him better than Nick, I never really knew what to make of him, because he would always pick Nick first. Watching him finally get to be his own person was really great.

Jamie makes the least convincing criminal mastermind IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. I'm just saying. HE IS SO ADORABLE! *pets him* He falls squarely into my "GOD, WHY DON'T THEY JUST TALK!" category, of course, but it seemed that this book the only person out of the loop was Sin (and us, because she was narrating), so it didn't bother me as much as any of Alan's Genius Plans in the "The Demon's Covenant".

Nick...I just...he's a great character, okay? Brilliantly conceived and brilliantly written, but GOD, I do not care for him. I get that he's made progress but "I want to set the world on fire" is not the healthy side of love, and it makes me profoundly uncomfortable for all the reasons Mae said, and I AM CONFLICTED, BECAUSE HE IS WELL WRITTEN. Which might be the point? I don't know.

AND THEN SIN! OH, SIN! I love her. I can't believe she doesn't get to be on the cover (in the US/Canada). I love her family, the kids, and the way she reaches out to her dad, and the way her grandmother finally reaches back once Sin tells her the truth. And I love her independence and her INSANE self-reliance. And I may have had to to check the back of the book to make sure she ended up with Alan, because I wanted it SO BADLY and I was VERY AFRAID at certain points in the story that it wouldn't happen. And then it did! *twirls*

Matthias the Piper, who accidentally stole his parents' voices was also hilarious. I think the Pipers might be my favourite randomly terrifying thing in the Goblin Market.

I really, really liked the end of this book. It wasn't super neat, all bows and neatly tied off ends, but it was solid and real and hopeful, and I love that.

I think, when it comes right down to it, I'll never be a fan of Nick Ryves. I'm barely a fan of Alan Ryves. So the first two books in the trilogy don't resonate with me. But the third one I JUST ADORE, and so I am actually sort of looking forward to re-reading the first two again with the third in mind. It's a very well constructed series. SRB did an amazing job putting it all together.

So it gets a 9/10 for giving me the 'ship I wanted, for Sin being TOO AWESOME FOR WORDS, for Mae being brilliant, and for the dancing.

Comments

[sholio]

I just kinda skimmed this to avoid getting too spoiled, though I'm still not sure if I'm going to press on in the series past the first book, but I'm glad I'm not alone in my reactions to Nick and Alan! Especially Nick! I agree with you, he's a well-written and well-conceived character, but I can't stand him. That was my biggest problem with the first book -- I find Nick utterly unlikable (understandable, but completely unlikable), and while I also understand why Alan loves him, I mostly just wanted to see Alan stop spending all his time in Nick's orbit and go have a life of his own. And since I really loved Mae and Jamie -- but couldn't stand Nick and was very lukewarm on Alan -- I wanted the whole book to be about them instead. *g*

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Book 2 (The Demon's Covenant) is narrated by Mae. My chief annoyance with it is that it makes me crazy when the good guys don't talk to each other. ;)