Book Review: The Falconer

I have practically devoured The Falconer by Elizabeth May. Here’s a book review, let’s quit stalling. If you want a brief note on the book: It was awesome.

Plot

It’s a pretty straight-forward plot: girl’s mother killed by fairy. Girl goes after fairies and kills lots of them.

There’s more to it, obviously. Aileana is training to face off with the idiot who killed her mom. Um, she does that by killing many fairies and by punching her teacher (Kiaran). It’s great. So much punching.

There’s also a twist: the story is set in the 1800’s. Aileana is bound by the restrictions of her time. She needs chaperones, and has to entertain people at home. Social gatherings are a thing. No pressure, Aileana.

Oh, and steampunk!

Characters

Aileana is such a fantastically dark character. Traumatized by the loss of her mother, she is driven to the point of aching to kill. She’s not in denial about it, either. Aware of her desire to murder fairies, this eighteen year old is isolated often.

Still, the characters around her are incredible, too. Derrick, my little pixie dude, is pure sweetness and sass. He’s just adorable, okay? I have a lot of feelings about him. My hope is that he makes it through this trilogy.

Kiaran (whose name is very hard for me to spell) is dark and brooding. He does have a tragic back-story and so on. Part of me is unsure of this dude. I like Gavin a lot more.

Ah, Gavin, her best friend’s brother, is sympathetic when it comes to the whole fairy-murdering-hobby thing. In fact, he has a connection to all of this. And, his friendship with Aileana makes me so happy. They’re perfect.

And, finally Catherine (and her grumpy mom) are frequently in the story to provide context and grounding to this very supernatural tale. I’d wish for us all to have friends like Catherine. People like her are bright lights in this world, and should be guarded.

Ships…

Look, I don’t know how the shipping thing will work out in this novel. I understand that Kiaran is meant to be the “attractive” dark side type dude.

Gavin though!

I’m literally gesturing at the book right now.

Um. Things are kind of serious in this book, and there’s an apocalypse, so I mean, worrying about ships is kind not the point.

Let’s just hope they all make it through this next book. Thankfully, I have my copy ready to go!