The Bookworm's Feast

 Release Date: March 2008
 Publisher: Walker Books
 Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
 Page Count: 415
 Goodreads Page
 Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

I may get some flack for this review, but what are reviews but thoughts and feelings you had about the book? I’m conflicted on this book – I think I did enjoy it (two stars doesn’t mean I didn’t like it according to my rating system), however I was trying so hard to not be in a slump when I read most of this book, and the last 50 pages I left for almost two weeks as I gave up for a little bit… I don’t think this was the books fault though, at least not entirely. I am struggling to connect with most of the characters which didn’t help – but I do need to bear in mind that I am not the main target audience for the series.

“I’ll just have them change the entry in the demonology textbook from ‘almost extinct’ to ‘not extinct enough for Alec. He prefers his monsters really, really extinct.’ Will that make you happy?”

There are characters I like – I love Izzy and Magnus, but we don’t really see much of them – and I love all the sarcasm and wit. But they just feel a bit two dimensional with only the snarky comments to give them any personality. Jace and Clary I’m not sold on, and it’s all a bit weird and frustrating (you must know what I mean). All the romance in this book also feels extremely forced – although I suppose that is the point – but it just doesn’t sit right with me.

I’m still finding Valentine a very interesting character – I love that he is being presented as coming across as logical and believing he is the one who is right (rather than most other villains I’ve come across where they know they’re bad). I am looking forward to seeing him become the huge big baddie it feels like he’s skirting around. Don’t get me wrong, he is deplorable for the things he’s done and is doing – but I feel like there are depths he can still go to in order to truly make an amazing bad guy for the series. He’s not quite there yet.

One of my favourite scenes/part of the book was the Seelie Court. I need to see more of the Seelie Queen – I feel like she’s a character I will love! I’m all for the multifaceted characters with ambiguous motives – they make for such interesting reading and are harder characters for me to predict. I also just loved the whole vibe of the court – I seem to have a thing for faeries and fae at the moment, maybe as I haven’t read a whole heap with them in.

I feel I have maybe been a little negative in this review, and I apologise. I’ve literally just put the book down, and I’m just left feeling a bit underwhelmed when I think of the love the series gets. Maybe I just need a reread sometime – as I say, I was teetering on a reading slump. I’ve had a quick browse on Goodreads while writing this to see if I was the only one feeling like this, and I’m not but I’m certainly in the minority. Based on all this I would still recommend the series if you’re on the fence, even if you just stick around for the amount of lore the world has – it is astounding!

I’m going to take a break from these books for a little while now, and see how I get on towards the end of the month with City of Glass.