The Demon's Masterpiece

The Demon's Lexicon
By: Sarah Rees Brennan
Reported by: Juli Helms

Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick's mother stole -- a charm that keeps her alive -- and they want it badly enough to kill again.

Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon's mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase...and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is desperate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long.

Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians' Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all.

This is the Demon's Lexicon. Turn the page.

-Summary from Goodreads

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
W- Just kidding. You didn't really think I was going to say the same thing for the fourth time in a row, did you? Sorry, guys, I've been MIA (MIR--Missing In Reviewing, really) for a while now. Let me get used to it again...

Alright. Let me just start off here and say that I love Sarah Rees Brennan. I *LOVE* her. I actually met her along with another author I love, Jeri Smith-Ready, at the RT BookLovers Convention back in April. I haven't heard of her before that, but she is SO. HILARIOUS. I'm pretty sure she's the funniest person alive. So, anyway, after I stopped laughing at her presentations (which took me about 50 years. I'm currently 51, FYI) I really wanted to read this book, even though I'm not a big fan of demons (and who is, really?). I went to my local Barnes & Noble but they didn't have it, so I kind of forgot about this book for a while...

Until I got it. I ordered it and I got it in the mail two weeks ago, but I didn't want to start it because... well... what if I don't like it? I so wanted to love this book, because I love Sarah and would've been so disappointed if I didn't like her book. Alas, I had no need to worry. This book was amazing! The plot was layer after layer of revelation and discovering along with Nick the truth behind everything just blew. me. away. I thought I was an expert on twists, but after this book, I may need to redefine that word. You will never, ever see the ending coming. It puts a capital W in wow.

The characters and the tension between them is wonderfully, realistically portrayed as well. Rarely do I read a book about siblings, and this book shows the connection between Nick and Alan so well, I could've sworn that was my brother right there. If I was Alan and my brother was Nick, and we were demon-slayers, that is. Also, the characters had very distinct personalities. Never once did a character snap me out of the story, and every single one popped out at me. Sarah Rees Brennan has a talent of crafting believable, unique characters in just one paragraph--and in some instances, just a few sentences! Although there were a few parts in this book that I found a bit too long that dragged on, they all served a purpose and in the end everything made sense--and left me staring at the page, gaping and gasping and speechless.

And with that, I shall now leave to read The Demon's Covenant.