My review of Ballad

19/12/11 - Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater - Released 1st October 2009

The sequel to Lament, full of new characters!

Music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realises that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.

This book was disappointing. Unlike the first book, Ballad lacked character and action.

The characters changed in a way I disliked. James was once a sweet boy but changed when he met Nuala, a fey. We saw less of Luke, which also dragged my spirits down a bit, because he was one of my favourite characters in Lament. And to not know what had happened to him was just very confusing.

I do wish that Maggie had answers some of the buzzing questions I had in my head. Lots of threads were left loose and some parts of the story were hard to follow.

Overall, Ballad wasn't the sequel I'd been hoping for. There has been news there will be a third book. Which is great. I will give it a go because I want to see if Maggie can give us an ending that we deserve!

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