Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

UK cover

USA cover

You can never get too much of faery novels. With the mention of a faery assassin, I could not get a hold of this book any quicker. It was alluring and captivating.




Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She’s about to find out she’s also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. When a mysterious boy enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of nowhere, Deirdre finds herself infatuated. Trouble is, the enigmatic and conflicted Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin—and Deirdre is meant to be his next mark. Deirdre has to decide if Luke’s feelings towards her are real, or only a way to lure her deeper into the world of Faerie.


I’ve read a number of books with faeries and faery-like creatures (Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely, Carrie Jone’s Need), so I knew it would take a lot to impress me. The novel was a masterpiece. It was lyrical and enthralling. 
Starting very shy, I was worried that the faeries would chew Dee alive. Being very talented I could tell that she would be a very capable character. I was not surprised that she fell for look, the alluring flautist. Heck, if I met him we could make some sweet music too! He plays my instrument, the flute. 


Stiefvater successfully captured the essence of faeries. Some were rather playful, such as the delightful Una, whereas others were simply deadly. They often showed up when you least expected and caused a lot of mischief and trouble in their wake. Dee handled most of these situations quite well and she still managed to some realistic. Every hero and heroine needs help from time to time and her close friend, James was just that. There were many twists and turns along the way and the novel was certainly not predictable. 


Having said that, I did notice some similarities between Lament and Julie Kagawa’s The Iron King. Kagawa’s series is famous for it’s wonderful love triangle between the protagonist, Meghan, her best friend, Puck and the Winter prince, Ash. So of course Dee’s best friend, James reminded me of Puck. Both are funny guys with a close friendship with the protagonist. They help to give some comic relief to the plot and are unsurprisingly romantically interested in the protagonist. Luke Dillon, the assassin was rather much like Ash. They have the whole brooding handsome guy thing. They are both armed and dangerous and could become the protagonist’s demise. Yet there are differences. The underlining tone of Lament is altogether darker and creepier. With the strange red-headed boy who appeared, the cruel faery queen who has a hold of Luke, it highlights just how cruel faeries can be. So I don’t know who imagined up Tinkerbell, but I think they were rather inaccurate about faeries. The Iron King centralises more on the romance, whereas I think Lament had a protagonist who really growed as a character.