Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning
Publication Date: January 18th 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Hardcover, 594 pages
“Evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes it’s good.”
MacKayla Lane was just a child when she and her sister, Alina, were given up for adoption and banished from Ireland forever.
Twenty years later, Alina is dead and Mac has returned to the country that expelled them to hunt her sister’s murderer. But after discovering that she descends from a bloodline both gifted and cursed, Mac is plunged into a secret history: an ancient conflict between humans and immortals who have lived concealed among us for thousands of years.
What follows is a shocking chain of events with devastating consequences, and now Mac struggles to cope with grief while continuing her mission to acquire and control the Sinsar Dubh—a book of dark, forbidden magic scribed by the mythical Unseelie King, containing the power to create and destroy worlds.
In an epic battle between humans and Fae, the hunter becomes the hunted when the Sinsar Dubh turns on Mac and begins mowing a deadly path through those she loves.
Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? Who is the woman haunting her dreams? More important, who is Mac herself and what is the destiny she glimpses in the black and crimson designs of an ancient tarot card?
From the luxury of the Lord Master’s penthouse to the sordid depths of an Unseelie nightclub, from the erotic bed of her lover to the terrifying bed of the Unseelie King, Mac’s journey will force her to face the truth of her exile, and to make a choice that will either save the world . . . or destroy it.
So,last night i finished reading Shadowfever!And to be completely honest with myself,i have a bit of mixed emotions towards the final installment of one of my favorite series ever...
I really expected many things from Shadowfever!We all waited so much time to see how things will eventually wrap up,to get some answers and when i saw that the book was so many pages i was really glad!The more of Fever series,the better!Now that i read it,i'm experiencing a conflict of emotions!I'm mostly glad that the story ended the way it did,i'm mostly glad that Mac ended to become the woman she became,glad of how her relationship with Barrons evolved, sad that this series ended and puzzled about some things!See the "mostly" on where i'm glad?Well,although i liked Shadowfever,the problem was that i had some issues.And that issues resolved to that "mostly" glad parts.
Before i continue with my review i have to warn you that from this part on there will be some spoilers.I hate to have spoilers in my reviews,but i just can't say what bothered me and what i did like without including some spoilers.If i don't,then my review will only sum up to:"I really liked this book but i had some issues with a number of things,that i can't really mention cause i'll spoil the fun for everyone!".So,continue reading if only you have already read Shadowfever,or you don't care about spoilers.
As everyone,i really wanted to know who the killed beast of the ending in Dreanfever really is!And although i really hoped it wasn't that one,it really was...From that point on,all i wanted to see was how the whole ressurection thing would play out.I was really anxious and i kept on reading and reading hoping for that to happen really soon but i first had to endure some really long pages of nothing crucial for the plot before anything happened.To say i wanted to through the book and at the same time read it all at once would be an understatment...See,the bipolar feeling Mac was experiencing throughout the whole book,i really got to experience it for myself!Although the ressurection part wasn't that delayed,i really think that it was prolonged unessecarily.But ok,i could deal with that...I could also deal with the on and on descriptions of things the whole time.But what bothered me was that this book had so much internal rambling on Mac's side.We were used in a totally different pace in the previous books of the series,that i really expected that Shadowfever would have more action and more explanations than the previous.But Shadowfever had little action,more puzzles than explanations and so many philosophical questions that i could take no more.I wanted answers and all i got for the best part of the book were more and more questions than ever.What is exactly Barrons,what the hell happens with Mac and such on.
Maybe i am hasty.Not maybe,i know i am.So,i blamed it on me,that i couldn't sit down and enjoy the final book instead of wanting answers so soon.I'm not really patient,i know!But all those constant new theories of what everything is,the constant new prophecies and such really through me off.As soon as i got to wrap my mind about a thing,i would have to immediatelly reconsider it and take in mind the new evidences.Is Mac the concubine?Is she the Unseelie King?Is she a part of the Unseelie King?WTF?And all those theories came with many philosophical statements.I mean if i was really Mac i would end up schizo,without knowing my true identity!She first had to know she was adopted,then that she wasn't really Alina's sister,then that she maybe not even be human,along with all the other sidhe seers,then that she is a reincarnation and then that somehow she is a part of something bigger and not a human being neither a Fae!I'm exhausted even thinking about all these!
Anyway,what Mac really is at the end,though believable,considering the world Moning built,left me eventually with some questions.But what Barrons is?Although,hopefully,he didn't experience such conflict of identity,and although we got a general idea about what he is,still,i have questions about why he is what he is and how such a being is categorized.I gather he is cursed.But from who?Was he born that way?I really can't tell and to be honest,maybe the answer was given but i spent a very good part of this book confused that i won't find incredible the fact that i didn't even understood it!
V'lane,although never my favorite character,at least i have no questionmarks considering him whatsoever!So,that counts for something!And i loved that he is not what he seems along with Rowena,despite the fact i saw it coming.Along with Alina's murderer after a certain point.Those revelations didn't struck me as odd,but i liked those turn of events!
I can go on and on forever about this book.I can pinpoint every single thing that through me off but i'm afraid i will become boring.To sum it up,i have to say that it is a good book.Despite my so long list of what threw me off.It was just that i really expected many things and i believe that if it was shorter it would be better.After all,if we leave out Mac's internal monologues and all those theories that replaced one another constantly,what is left,will be considerably less.
Moning,did give a kind of closure to her story,but i found it a bit abrupt.All that building in the story,to end just like that in a blink of an eye,in about a couple of chapters.It was a bit anticlimatic.At least for me.
Shadowfever is really a good book!It's a good closure to an amazing series,one a recommend to everyone!It's just that i expected something more and something less of it.And maybe that's why i was left with mixed feelings.It's always better to not expect anything,cause it's more than certain that it won't happen.And maybe the ending was that way to leave some strands loose for the nest series to come.And i really hope that this will be the case.At least that way,we will see how the world resumed after the Book was restraint.
All in all,Shadowfever maybe not my favorite book in the series,and maybe for the first time i got to actually complain about a thing in this series but that's not making me like the series any less.It will always be among ny favorites and i am a bit sad that it ended.Now,i have to read anything else Karen Marie Moning has written to fill the void!
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