*REVIEW* Bones of Faerie

Synopsis:

The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Then Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see—into the past, into the future—and she has no choice but to flee her town. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.

Janni Lee Simner’s first novel for young adults is a dark fairy-tale twist on apocalyptic fiction—as familiar as a nightmare, yet altogether unique.

I debated not writing a review for this book... while it wasn't a DNF, because personal hangups make that close to impossible for me, this book turned out to be a DNC, which is "Did Not Care". Normally when reading a book, I'm counting the minutes until I can get back to the story to see where things go next, what the protagonist will do, etc. But with this book, I found that I frankly did not give a damn.

It's not that the makings of a good story are missing here. The problem is this book drops you into a post-war world where we read vivid descriptions of the destruction of the war, and see consequences of it, yet never learn why the war happened in the first place. A consistent trend in this book is a lack of important information that makes the readers become invested in the story. Add to that the lack of character development, and you're left with a story that is hard to relate to, identify with, or care about.

I saw on the author's website that a sequel is in the works for 2011, tentatively. I will not be reading the sequel. And that saddens me because I think this story had great potential... a war between faeries and humans, the subsequent consequences in Faerie and the human world, the evolution of magic, including wicked nature magic with the desire to kill... there's a story in there. It's a shame that it was not written more indepth and with the needed character developments and intricate details that hook readers.

That being said, this was a very quick and easy read and there are people who enjoyed the story. So you'll have to use your judgment: to read or not to read. Good luck! *XOXO*