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Book Review: The Demon's Lexicon
Aug. 2nd, 2009 03:53 pm[I've been meaning to write this up for weeks, but alas, the last month has been a case of overworked, sick, overworked, underslept. However, better late than never!]
This is the version of The Demon's Lexicon that Australian importers saw fit to release first:
The last time I was this wrong-footed by a cover, it was Quentin Blake's cheery illustrations for a Joan Aiken book, which turned out to be a darkly twisty tale that saw a 1970s version of me (about the same height, skinnier, more pinafores) sitting wide-eyed through half the night waiting for something awful to happen. I was few chapters into TDL before I realised it had happened again. There I was half-expecting a normal-ish Young Adult fantasy in which a romance would percolate below the surface and we would be encouraged to personally identify with at least one of the characters, and instead I was in the middle of another darkly twisty tale that was in fact quite deliciously Aiken-y.
( At length, why I liked it, with a small quibble or two ... )
This is the version of The Demon's Lexicon that Australian importers saw fit to release first:
The last time I was this wrong-footed by a cover, it was Quentin Blake's cheery illustrations for a Joan Aiken book, which turned out to be a darkly twisty tale that saw a 1970s version of me (about the same height, skinnier, more pinafores) sitting wide-eyed through half the night waiting for something awful to happen. I was few chapters into TDL before I realised it had happened again. There I was half-expecting a normal-ish Young Adult fantasy in which a romance would percolate below the surface and we would be encouraged to personally identify with at least one of the characters, and instead I was in the middle of another darkly twisty tale that was in fact quite deliciously Aiken-y.
( At length, why I liked it, with a small quibble or two ... )
