Book Review: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Book: The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2009.

Summary:

The Demon's Lexicon takes place in present day England. Nick, who is sixteen years old and has a HUGE chip on his shoulder, and his older brother Alan, along with their insane mother, Olivia, are on the run from magicians who want to kill them because Olivia stole a charm from one of the most powerful magicians, Black Arthur, years ago. These same magicians killed their father, so Nick and Alan have to take care of each other. Their mother will only talk to Alan and wants nothing to do with Nick, though he doesn't know why.

All of this becomes more complicated when brother and sister Jamie and Mae show up asking for help. Jamie has been demon marked, which means he will die, but Alan agrees to try and help them anyway. Nick is furious; he and Alan have enough problems without taking on any more. And, in the process of helping Jamie, Alan gets himself demon marked. Then they find out that Black Arthur has had enough of chasing the brothers and is going to track them down in earnest and take back his property. During their quest to run away and defend themselves, Nick learns that Alan has been lying to him and covering up some big secrets.

My Thoughts:

I picked up The Demon's Lexicon because I had read great reviews about it, though I'll have to admit, it is not one I would normally read. The cover, with its pouty teenaged boy, did not appeal to me, but I thought I'd better not judge the book by its cover.

In some ways, this is a difficult book for me to review. There certainly were some exciting parts, interesting plot twists, lots of hints, interesting development between the two brothers, and some great descriptions. However, I am not a fan of books where the main character has a big chip on their shoulder the whole time, which Nick certainly does. His anger and angst just seem to go on and on and it gets tiring and is difficult to read. In fact, I nearly did not finish the book because of this. In the end, I did enjoy it enough to keep reading, and am glad that I got to the end, because the ending made the book. Overall, however, I found Nick's pouty behaviour and machismo to be repetitive and off putting. I imagine that if you are a fan of the Twilight series, that you would enjoy this book.