Title: Morbund
Series: Circuit Fae #1
Author: Genevieve Iseult Eldredge
Format: Paperback, Print, 300 pages
Pub. Date: October 24th 2017
Source: Goodreads First Reads
Book Description:
Dark Fae. Romance. Evil Plots. High school.
Our heroines could be in for the greatest adventure ever.
If only they could decide whether to kill or kiss each other.
High school sophomore Syl Skye is an ordinary girl. At least, she’s trying to be. School photographer and all-around geek, she introverts hard and keeps her crush on sexy-hot glam-Goth star Euphoria on the down-low. But when a freak accident Awakens her slumbering power, Syl is forced to accept a destiny she never wanted—as the last sleeper-princess of the fair Fae.
Suddenly hunted by the dark Fae, Syl’s pretty sure things can’t get any worse. Until she discovers her secret crush, Euphoria, is really a dark Circuit Fae able to harness the killing magic in technology. Even worse, she’s been sent to destroy Syl. With mean girls and magic and dark Fae trying to kill her, it’ll take more than just “clap if you believe in fairies” to save Syl’s bacon—not to mention, her heart.
Review:
★★★
I wanted to love this book, really I did. It has a lot going for it, but unfortunately for me it just fell a bit fact.
Plus, the cover is beautiful. I would love to have a print of it on my wall.
I love books with gothic/punk characters. And this book definitely has one. Euphoria seems so cool. She's a gothic musician and a dark fae, and she's pretty bad ass. She has a great sense of loyalty and of sticking up for what she wants. Plus, she's LGBT. So, I absolutely love this character. I love the idea of taking faerie magic and combining it with technology and a cyber punk type style. It's an original idea, and I think it's a cool one.
The main character, however, fell flat for me. I found Syl pretty irritating and I didn't really care for her. I love that she loves girls. I love that she has a sense of fighting for what's right. But everything else about her just bugged me. She makes so many emo jokes, and self depreciating jokes about herself to the point of annoyance. There's a bunch of catty mean girl drama that's forced and eye-rolling. Her vocabulary also really bugged me- I'm not sure who this book is written for. The whole bad ass saving lives and being in love with rock stars in night clubs thing feels high school to me, but the way Syl talks is definitely more junior high, but it all seems confused. One quote is "so darn sexy".... So she's old enough to be thinking about sex and sex appeal, but can't say damn? It's weird. She can also "sure as heck try" and "holy cats". Not to mention she knows her true identity for all of 3 seconds before she somehow solves a problem that none of the other faeries have thought of.
It's also really hard to differentiate these voices at times. The chapters alternate, but the two characters are written very similarly to the point of confusion.
This book also has what I like to call Batman Syndrome. Remember all those old episodes of the Batman tv show, where while Batman was tied up, the villain would narrate his whole master plan while Adam West struggled to undo the ropes? And the whole time, you're thinking "Why are you telling him all this, just do the plan!" That's what happened here. There's a ton of dialogue and narration but not enough actual story telling and world building and actions. I got kinda talked out.
All in all, this book was a mixed bag for me. I totally understand why people love it, and I definitely love parts of it. But parts of it were just a bit too disappointing for me. I'd be willing to reread this in the future to see if I still feel the same way, but for now I'm going to hold off on continuing the series.
I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.