Wicked Lovely [Book Review]

I have to admit I was skeptical when my wife gave me a copy of Wicked Lovely for Christmas a couple of years ago. The cover art and the general subject matter ("faeries") made me think this was going to be the tweeist teen book ever.

And of course, it's actually pretty decent. Maybe even "good."

The faeries in this book's world are not the two-inch tall cute things famously "photographed" by English schoolchildren and made famous by Arthur Conan Doyle. Instead, they're full-size, invisible, and quite malevolent entities that torment unsuspecting mortals for the sheer joy of it. The plot, standing alone, is a bit on the twee side, as it involves a faerie ruler, the Summer King, seeking to have a curse undone by finding his one true mortal love who will reign beside him as the Summer Queen. But standing in the way is the evil Winter Queen, and etc. It's better in execution than in concept, as the main characters have believable, interesting personalities, the dialogue is well-written, and the outcome is by no means predictable.

A sequel called Ink Exchange is now out, and I could probably be talked into reading it . . .