Wicked Lovely Review - Melissa Marr

Whoa, what to say? I just finished WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr and am sitting here, my eye twitching, as I stare at Ink Exchange. I want to pick it up, continue in the wonderful world that Marr has created, but I know that what I want to say about WICKED LOVELY will get muted as I fall into the story of Ink Exchange. So, I'll continue twitching and write up my WICKED LOVELY thoughts first.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages:328
My Recommended Age Group: Any age
Released: May 31, 2007
Other books in series: Ink Exchange (Book 2), Fragile Eternity (Book 3)

Back of the book:

Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries. Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries. Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention. But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything. Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in this 21st century faery tale.

My thoughts:

I had heard a lot of hype surrounding WICKED LOVELY, mainly because of the recent release of Fragile Eternity. Even if I hadn't heard a single thing about it, the cover would have been enough to get this book on my bookshelf. My favorite winter colors surrounded by darkness makes this cover just absolutely gorgeous. I have said before, and I'll say again, I want some posters of Marr's covers. Yum!

WICKED LOVELY is the story of Aislinn, Seth, Keenan, Donia and Beira mainly. There are some side characters thrown in there, girlfriends of Aislinn, Aislinn's Grams and various guards that play a part in the book, but they are too many to discuss here. Aislinn is a strong girl, almost a woman really. She faces the usual teenage drama but on top of it has to deal with the fact that she has the Sight. She can see Faeries. Every girl's dream, right? Well, not when the Faeries might gouge your eyes out just for being able to see them. Her relationship with Seth is one part that I loved about the book. It's very realistic, seems very normal; at least to me. Seth isn't your perfect guy, he's got his issues and that makes him just that much more lovable. Every book needs to have a bad boy and Seth provides that for us. He's our mental eye candy.

Marr created finely detailed characters with just the right amount of development, especially for the first book in her Faery world. She leaves us with questions surrounding pretty much all of the characters, but not enough so that it makes the book difficult to read. The relationships that Marr builds are realistic and easily pull the reader in. Who will Aislinn end up with? Will she destroy both relationships in order to preserve them?

Tension is what makes the world go round and what makes a fantastic book. Really, it's difficult to push a storyline ahead without tension. In WICKED LOVELY we get tension in multiple forms. The tension between Aislinn and Seth is obvious. In any circumstance there comes a point where it's difficult for a girl and guy to stay "just friends." When one party is unwilling risk their friendship to experiment with becoming more, will it do just that? Next we get Aislinn and Keenan. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but you get the idea. One girl, two guys. That's always going to end up with a juicy little romantic triangle. There are other story-driving points of tension here, but I won't detail them all. That's the great part about being a reader; getting to discover the unknown, experience the moments for yourself. I won't take that from you. What I will do is applaud Marr for using tension to create a masterpiece.

There are dozens, possibly hundreds of Faery stories out there. Most of them about cute, winged beings flitting about starting up the seasons. The Tinkerbell movie comes to mind. What there are not a whole lot of (or maybe I haven't come across them) are Faery stories like the one Marr presents to us. If you want a Tinkerbellesque story, this isn't it. I won't say that you should read another book, because I think you should definitely read this one, but I should warn you; this is not your grandmother's Faery tale. Marr creates a world that, as the title suggests, is WICKED LOVELY. Beauty is everywhere, but just as there is light, there must be darkness. Along with the magic we get danger. Marr's Faeries are darker, more destructive than the happy, twinkling little beings we are accustomed to. I found this a pleasant change as we get to explore the other side of what magic can offer.

Fair warning time: There is one intimate scene. Marr is vague enough that I would still recommend this book for young adults, but use your own judgment. Parents, if you're concerned I suggest scanning the book yourself. If you have specific questions, as always, email me using the contact link above or comment here with your contact information and I will email you privately.

Writing:10
Interest:10
Passion:10+
Originality:10+
Characters:10
Pace:9

Overall: 59/60 - A

Book Cover:3/3

The world is coming to an end! Oh, hush now. Quit getting so excited because something finally got less than a perfect score. As you might notice, I have slightly changed my scoring scale. Awarding a maximum of five points to each category just simply wasn't enough for me to feel like I had any leeway with the scores. If I loved the book, the category gets a five. If I mostly loved the book, it wouldn't earn a five but four seemed too low. Using a scale of 10 for each category with a total of 60 points allows me a little more wiggle room. Also, since I love covers so much, I'm adding a Book Cover score with a maximum score of three. Either I love it for three points, I like it for two points or meh, it's okay for one point. I doubt I'll award a zero in this category as really, I'm easy to please.

So, WICKED LOVELY earns a nice big A with a score of 59/60 and top marks for the cover. I took one point off of Pace because something hiccuped near the end. Perhaps it's unfair to take the point out of Pace, but really, I couldn't think where else to pull it from. Marr does a fantastic job of pulling us along, engaging us in the story. Then, we get to the end. We're so close to getting the answers that we want, the tension on the rope is tightening, you can hear the threads about to snap....and then someone drops the rope. Seriously. It just kind of fell for me; fairly anticlimactic. I mean, it was still great, came back up again with action and strength, but for that one moment, about ten pages from the end, everything just dropped like a spewage of words out onto the page instead of a delicately created masterpiece.