So, one of the earlier posts here was a re-read of The Demon’s Lexicon since I intended to read The Demon’s Covenant and wanted to re-familiarize myself with the first book. Well, turns out that the libraries didn’t have the second book so it was only recently that I actually got a chance to read it (and I only looked around for it after I read a snippet of the third book which had a pretty big spoiler for this one).
The Demon’s Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan
Again, I think I like the UK cover more than the US cover, probably because it features Mae (the narrator of this book) on the cover instead of Sin (who is the narrator of the next book). Not sure why the US publishers did that, anyone who has read the first book would notice, but I suppose graceful, biracial girls sell more books than curvy pink haired girls books.
Summary: Drawing on the revelations of the last book, Mae narrates what happens next in the clashes between magicians and her friends, her brother’s growing (romantic) relationship with one of the magicians, her own love life, and trying to teach Nick how to be human.
The Good: Definitely liked this book better than the last one and I think it’s because of the change in narrators. The last book had Nick narrating and, while snarky, it’s hard to sympathize with him since he is so emotionless and the actions that set him off are very random at times (and this carries over into this book as well). Mae however is a completely normal girl who has willing gotten involved in these affairs and is well aware of the limits of what a non-magical person can do yet still manages to be awesome. It’s hard to define what exactly makes her awesome* but her persistence in doing something useful and doing whatever she can to be useful is a nice change from Nick and I really like normal characters in abnormal situations which sums her up pretty well.
The Bad: Like I said, I liked this book more than the first book but I’m not sure why. It wasn’t any more snarky or action filled, had more romance, and I could even make a good argument for why Mae isn’t really needed in the story at all (many of the things she did could’ve been done by Sin instead, my point being that there wasn’t anything Mae did that had to be done exclusively by her which makes her role feel a bit weaker). Also wondering a bit where the story is headed in the end (it doesn’t sound like they can defeat all the magicians in England and that more will come after them if they defeat this one group that is bothering them so then what? What is our main goal?) and I always get worried when I’m this far through a series and can’t find the central reason for it.
Hoping that one of my many libraries gets the third book closer to the release date this time but in the meantime I will track down that short story narrated by Jamie (apparently I wasn't the only one who was sad he didn’t get a book to narrate, the third one is done by Sin, by the way) and hope that I remember everything important in the meantime!
*I think the pink hair has something to do with it but clearly I’m biased towards pink-haired heroines.
