Saturday 26 November 2011

Review: The Demon's Surrender - Sarah Rees Brennan

The Goblin Market has always been the centre of Sin's world.

But now the Market is at war with the magicians, and Sin's place is in danger.  Keeping secrets from the market she loves and struggling with a friend who has become a rival, Sin is thrown together with the Ryves Brothers, Nick and Alan - whom she has always despised.  But as Sin watches Alan struggle to protect the demon brother he loves, she begins to see both brothers in a new light.  But how far will brother go to save brother - and what will it cost them all?

The Demon's Lexicon Trilogy
The Demon's Lexicon
The Demon's Covenant
The Demon's Surrender

For more information visit Sarah Rees Brennan's website

Review:
Sin grew up in the Goblin Market, she's always been the best dancer and has always believed that she will become their leader when Merris leaves.  It turns out she has a rival though - she may like Mae but she is shocked that someone so new to the market might take over.  But Sin has been keeping secrets from the other market people, a secret that will destroy everything if it is discovered, and she has nowhere to turn for help apart from to Alan and Nick, the brothers that she has hated for years.  Can Sin take her rightful place as the leader of the market or will she lose the job to her friend?  The war between the market and the magicians won't wait while the new leadership is decided though so can the friends find a way to work together to beat their enemy once and for all?

I really enjoyed the first two books in the Demon's Lexicon trilogy so while I have been looking forward to reading the final installment I am also sad to reach the end of the series.  Luckily Sarah Rees Brennan manages to end on a high note and I think The Demon's Surrender was my favourite book of the series.  I love the way the narrator changes with each book, we had Nick's POV for The Demon's Lexicon, Mae for The Demon's Covenant and now in The Demon's Surrender it's Sin's turn.  I have to admit I was expecting the story to be told from Alan's POV, he seemed like the obvious choice but I think the story worked better with Sin taking charge of the narration.  Sin was able to give us an insider's view of the Goblin Market and I really enjoyed seeing her thoughts about the place she grew up in.

The story had plenty going on to keep me gripped, there were laugh out loud moments (particularly when Nick and Mae were together), heart breaking moments when I could hardly bear to carry on reading and a satisfying end that left a smile on my face.  I grew to really like Sin's character, I never disliked her in previous books but I didn't particularly care for her either.  We only ever really saw the surface of her character before and with her as the narrator we get to find out a lot more about her past, things haven't been easy for her since the death of her mother and the fact that she is caring for her siblings just makes it harder.  She was more vulnerable than I expected her to be but she was strong when it came to protecting those she cares about.  I have to admit there were times when I really started to dislike Mae which I wasn't expecting but I was glad that the rivalry between the two of them never overtook the rest of the story.  They may both want to be leader of the market but they both like and respect the other and I think in the long run the decision made at the end was probably the right one.

I still love Nick but this book was the one where Alan really started to shine for me.  I've liked him throughout the series but he was never my favourite character, this time I connected to him much more and I loved the way Sin was able to see through his different masks.  I thought the two of them were well suited as they are both performers - albeit in different ways - who only show the world what they want it to see.  Because they are both capable of displaying different persona's to others they were able to see through the other's lies and bluster to the real person underneath.

I don't want to say anymore about the plot for fear of spoilers so I'll just say if you're a fan of the series you're going to love the conclusion.  If you haven't started the series yet you definitely need to start with the first book The Demon's Lexicon, you wouldn't get the full experience if you pick it up at the end, but I'd definitely recommend giving it a try.  I'm excited to see what Sarah Rees Brennan comes up with next!

Source: Received from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

Other Reviews:
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