Photo credits: Prettysleepy
Edited by Vaishali
Title: ‘Darkfever'
Author: Karen Marie Moning Series: (Fever #1) Genre: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, New Adult, Paranormal romance, Occult fiction, Fae Publisher: Delacorte Press Year of Publication: 2006 Format: Mass Market Paperback ISBN: 978-0-440-24098-3 R E V I E W
“Sometimes you don’t get a choice. A story shows up on your doorstep and stalks you until you tell it. You do your best and hope the passion you feel for it brings It to life in your reader’s mind as vividly and thrillingly as it exists in your own. Welcome to Mac’s World – and Stay to the Lights!” - Karen Marie Moning
“Sometimes, Ms. Lane, one must break with one’s past to embrace one’s future. It is never an easy thing to do. It is one of the distinguishing characteristics between survivors and victims. Letting go of what was, to survive what is.”
There's little else to say except that I am in love with this supernatural, investigative urban fantasy (and by extension, the following instalments which won't be in my 'unread' pile for much longer). Addictive in all its forms, this book and its leading characters have me at my base desires. The mystic is an epic thrill. So bloody good! The Fever song has another subject under its thrall, and I am not complaining. Nothing short of urban fantasy brilliance and resilience.
This urban, occult fantasy by Karen Marie Moning features a girl called Mackayla Lane, who is a very ordinary girl, living in a very remote, small world. Swimming through life with ignorance and infinitesimal life goals, Mac’s blissful bubble ruptures and when she gets a phone call that sharply redirects the course of her ‘perfect’ life, instigating her into action despite her burning sorrow: her sister has been murdered. Leaving behind grief-stricken parents, Mac makes the biggest leap she has ever made in her life and with little money in her pockets she flies to Dublin, Ireland, thousands of miles from home to investigate her sister’s mysterious death. She hopes to find answers and claim justice with only one lead to go on: an obscure message containing misshapen clues left by her sister before she died, and unravel the hazy details of her sister’s death.
“You always wonder how you’ll handle a moment of crisis; if you’ve got what it takes to fight or if you’ve just been deluding yourself all along that somewhere deep inside you there’s steel beneath the magnolia. Now I knew the truth. There wasn’t.”
Mac comes to realise just how big and deadly the world is outside of her safe haven, her world changing as fast as it is radically. But she gets a great deal more than she bargained for, and is devastated by just what she finds and how little she knew of the sister she was so close with. In a foreign city, with the myths and legends of the Irish come to life, Mac navigates a terrifying, irrational, logic-defying world which goes against everything her very sane head has ever believed in, using only her wits and audacity to survive.
“There are many realities pocketed away in the one we call our own. Most go blindly about their and never see beyond the ends of their noses. Some of us do.”
For a girl who favours life’s logical dimensions and reason, Mac is way out of her depth in this self-fulfilling task. She's an untried novice in life among its worldly veterans and unearthly phenomena and for the most part struggles to accept the inconceivable, the actuality and reception of it. Though Mac comes to understand that there is a much bigger fight than that of her personal hunt, she wants no part in helping or saving the greater good even though she is one of the biggest targets now being hunted.
“A lamb in a city of wolves…which one will take you down, I wonder.”
Thankfully, or not she crosses paths with Jericho Barrons, a shady, reticent man who she makes a bargain with for information and protection. Barrons introduces Mac to a dangerous world of the depraved and seedy, mobsters and the debauched, but he needs her as much as she needs him regardless of how little they trust or like each other. In an alien city, Mac knows that Barrons is her best bet in staying alive, and has little choice but to humour his intentions and dubious nature.
“Life is rarely so convenient. The real world is considerably messier.”
Mac finds herself swallowed in a dark world with very little variations of colour (unlike her wardrobe), but with an uncertain mind and a grief filled heart, she goes hard and fights hard for her losses. Though Mac is used to being undermined and overlooked for her appearance, and though I’ve never read quite a character like her, she was interesting, endearing, heartening, mature, amusing and more intelligent than she's given credit for. I enjoyed stumbling through this journey of self-discovery with her, learning alongside her, listening to her woes and how she moves on. All I need to say is perhaps we do need more rainbows in gathering storms.
This story is told retrospectively from Mac herself and the narrative of her tone and voice is conversational and open, inviting enough that she had me from the start of opening this book. It was dark and perilous and exciting and sexy, and I only wanted more. The story was solid, the characters were well fleshed out, the humour was dry and entertaining, and it was an adventure to read from page naught. From Mac’s determined heart to the descriptions of Ireland, it was a rich read all around. SO GOOD.
“A war was coming. I could feel it in my bones. A war to end all wars. And Mankind didn’t even know it.” I gave this books 4 stars -
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M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read ---------------------------------------
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R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● 'Bloodfever' by Karen Marie Moning ● 'The Alpha Alternative: JZB sex scene' by Karen Marie Moning ● 'Faefever' by Karen Marie Moning ● 'Dreamfever' by Karen Marie Moning ● 'Shadowfever' by Karen Marie Moning _______________________________________________________________
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