The Demon's Lexicon
The Demon’s Lexiconby Sarah Rees BrennanI read and finished this book on the train to NYC a week ago. I brought a couple of books with me on the train thinking that I would get through them in the 11 hours I had to travel. In the end it took me 13 hours and I only just completed this one novel!Now I picked up The Demon’s Lexicon because I read and adored the sequel, The Demon’s Covenant which I received for review. When this book came out a year ago I didn’t really have any interest in it and since it was hard cover I stayed away completely. Here’s the thing... had I read this book last summer I would not have picked up the sequel this summer. I did not like the book very much at all. All the things I loved about the sequel (read: Mae and Jamie) were just not as present. Lexicon focuses on Alan and Nick, two brothers who know about magicians and demons. Mae brings her brother Jamie to them for help when she finds out he had a third tier demon’s mark. I don’t like Alan or Nick very much and I found Nick to be much more interesting in Covenant when he asks Mae to teach him how to be human.Having read the second book first, of course I knew the big surprise at the end of this book, however where I could understand feeling like I had jumped into the middle of a story reading book two (which I did) I do not understand why I felt like I missed a bunch of chapters while reading book one. The story just STARTS with Mae and Jamie showing up at Alan and Nick’s door and bam, instant trust and whatnot.The relationship building I was hoping to see in book one was not there. It was not what I expected. And I think perhaps I liked the sequel much more because I much prefer the characters that it focused on. At least in the first book Mae’s pink hair is explained at the start and I wasn’t as confused by where the heck the story was taking place. But Mae and Jamie were such 2-dimensional characters in Lexicon and to be honest, so were Alan and Nick even though they were the focus.In both books there was the “mentioned, but not really a part of the story” mother-figure. Olivia (Nick & Alan’s mum) is kept locked away in a room and only mentioned as background noise. Even in the end of the story her appearance and disappearance aren’t worth noticing (or mentioning I guess). In book two, Mae and Jamie’s mum is set up similarly and only when she becomes a potential interesting character it changes. So, what the heck is up with that? These are KIDS I know not everyone has a Family Ties sort of family, but both of these books played into the “convenient missing parents so we don’t have to explain things too much” category. I am so sick of that. Can’t there be a decent parental relationship in teen books for once? I’m not asking for Disney Family here, I’m just asking for some truth, some consequences to actions. I mean these kids hardly went to school at all and just drove all over tarnation and stayed away and didn’t leave notes and the mother didn’t look for them or get worried. Come ON now.The dialogue is still humourous in this first book, although I much preferred the second for laughs. It’s all Jamie. He’s the best.There will of course be a third and final book, as this is a trilogy, and I will wait for it to publish in paperback before picking it up. I suppose that means I’ll be reading and reviewing it in the summer of 2012. At least it should be out before 12-12-12 and should the world end then, I’ll have had the review up with ample time to spare.Demon's Lexicon trilogy