Author: Melissa Marr
Series: Untitled #1
Genre: fantasy, supernatural
Pages: 400
Published: expected March 1 2016
Source: publishers via edelweiss
Rating: 1/5
Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal.
Her guilt lies in her DNA. Lily is half human, half fae, and since the time before she was born, a war has been raging between humans and faeries. The Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of the fae courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir—a death that was the fault of reckless humans.
Lily’s father has shielded her from the repercussions of her ancestry, but when she’s sent to the prestigious St. Columba’s school, she’s delivered straight into the arms of a fae sleeper cell --the Black Diamonds.
Mysterious, glamorous, and constantly at odds, the Diamonds are planted in the human world as the sons and daughters of the most influential families, and tasked with destroying it from within. Against her will, Lilywhite’s been chosen to join them … and even the romantic attention of the fae rock singer Creed Morrison isn’t enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the familiar world she knows.
Melissa Marr returns to faery in a dramatic story of the precarious space between two worlds and the people who must thrive there.
My issues with Seven Black Diamonds are numerous and summed up pretty easily: too slow, too confusing, too infodumpy, too predictable, too many POVs, too little depth to anything -- characters, world, magic systems, romantic relationships. I really liked the premise of this -- vaguely akin to Holly Black's Curseworker's series but more of a fantasy slant than supernatural -- however, what I found was a pale, shallow mess.
Marr loves to write about the fey and I appreciated that this is at least pretty different from her first series. However, I have the same issues with her style. There is too much telling for me -- for a story with an important character named the Queen of Blood and Rage, I was oddly disinterested in and confused by the politics and lives in her court. When the story is not opaque, it is sadly predictable and unsurprising. There are too many POVs from too many indistinguishable characters.
Not for me, though the premise is intriguing and the potential is there. I just can't seem to sink into this author's brand of storytelling. I won't be continuing this series as it follows the open plotlines from Seven Black Diamonds.
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