Dark Faeries and Redemption

Ink Exchange
Melissa Marr, Harper Collins
3/21/2009

Melissa Marr ups the ante from her first book and takes the fae to a whole new level. modern faerie tales like the faerie tales of old were seldom pretty. This one gets down to the nitty gritty of high school life and throws the characters into a maelstrom of reality and believe me reality ain't pretty.

The new novel has the same old characters Seth, Aislin, and Keenan but they are not the center of the story. Rather the center of the story is friend of Aislin's and her name is Leslie. Leslie is a real survivor, her mother left the family and her father is a falling down drunk who we never really encounter and her brother Ren is a crackhead who brings his drugs home and lets his druggie friends and dealer have their way with Leslie. Leslie survive abuse, abandonment and molestation with a stern determination to leave Huntsdale behind and start a new life. But such experiences leave one filled with many negative emotion perfect candidate for the faeries of the dark court.

Irial takes notice of here and uses her as a conduit to feed off the negative emotions of humanity. Dark faeries like psychic vampires feed off of negativity. The connection is made by a set of faerie wing tattoos Leslie puts on her back. The ink is mixed with Irials blood. Aislin, Seth and Keenan try to thwart Irial's plan but it is ultimately up to Leslie to save herself. There are love triangles in this story, divided loyalties and surprise endings.

Melissa Marr has great plots and very compelling characters. she is taking modern faerie tales up to a new level and I rather enjoy it. she could develop her characters a little more and make them more complex. It would also do well to flesh out the description of the scenery to help us build a better impression in our mind of what the places look like. There are good elements of romance but to propel faeries to the level of Twilight there needs to be innocent romance and less focus on the darkness. Perhaps focus on feuds and the super natural. Over all great book for high school kids. 4.5 stars out of 5