Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

One-sentence summary: A high school girl’s eyes are slowly opened to a new world that has been hidden all around her including the world of love and her own supernatural abilities.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 5

Our favorite thing about it: We liked that we learned a little bit about faeries and we liked the idea of a book about that hidden world.

Our least favorite thing about it: Probably the worst thing about this book is the extremely under-developed story line and character development.

Main Topics of Discussion: Faeries, Love, Writing, Story-telling, Character development, fantasy

Our “favorite” quote: “Delia was an overbearing cake with condescending frosting, and frankly, I was on a diet.” (Wow.)

Notes: Well, we unanimously thought this book was lacking. While we liked the idea of a book about the fantasy world of faeries, we agreed that this particular story was poorly executed. This may be one time that we would have liked for a book to be longer so that it could have included all the plot-points and information about characters that it needed to be a truly well crafted story with characters a reader can enjoy.

We felt that the characters were very under-developed and we would have liked much more background and/or details about many of them. Luke’s character, for example, became so much more real to us when we finally learned about his past. But for the majority of the book, he was too much of a mystery and we didn’t feel like we connected with him until the book was almost over. And he was a main character. As for James, we felt like we understood his role as the faithful friend / possible love interest, but he too was not fleshed out as a character very well in our opinion. We all thought that Diedre’s parents and aunt could have been better served with more details. The relationship between Diedre’s mother and her aunt Delia was almost interesting, especially when you find out that they have a past with faeries. Too bad that past is shrouded in mystery and never really explained or detailed. And the evil villain of the novel – the Faerie Queen – is only spoken of for the majority of the book and never seen by Diedre until the end. When we finally do meet her, it is only briefly, we find out nothing about her, and then the book is over.

In addition to sketchy characters, there were several plot holes that made the story confusing instead of compelling. What happened between Diedre’s mom, her aunt, and the faeries? What happens on that last night that Luke and Diedre spend together? How do they part / say goodbye? Why does Diedre have special powers…is it hereditary, just a coincidence? Why does Delia betray Diedre to the faeries? Who are Brendan and Una really? And what is their past with Luke? Why the heck does Eleanor become queen instead of Diedre? What’s the deal with the faerie dogs?

And finally, the climax of the story was anti-climactic and rushed. The book ended abruptly, in our opinion. We all thought that the ending was appropriate, but could have taken another chapter or so.

Ultimately, we felt like this book elaborated when it was unnecessary and was tight-lipped when it should have given more details. So, it was a frustrating and dissatisfying read for all of us, despite the potential that was there with the concept for the story.

Memorable Meeting Moments: We played Scattergories and listened to 90s music.

What We Ate: Josh made a wonderful meal for us, including the winning recipe from the crepe episode of Bobby Flay’s Throwdown show: Cuban Crepes. We also had Fresh Mango Batidos, Texmati Rice, and Salad. For dessert, Dara made us some decadent Sprinkles Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!