Darkfever (Fever, #1)

by Karen Marie Moning

• ISBN10: 0786292997
• ISBN13: 9780786292998
• Publish Date: 15 November 2006 (first published 1 January 2006)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 20 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thorndike Press
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 445
• Language: English

Reviews

[elysium]

After Mac’s sister is murdered in Dublin, Mac travels to Ireland without her parents’ blessing. Soon after arriving there she meets mysterious Jericho Barrons, and learns that there’s whole other world hidden in there. Mac discovers she’s sidhe-seer; someone who can see through fay’s glamour. She can also sense powerful fae objects and Barrons sees an opportunity to find the book he’s after.

I’ve heard so much about these books and about Barrons that I finally craved in and started reading. It seems like I’m the last one to read these but oh well…

I liked the Ireland setting and Dublin’s darkness which was, thankfully, the opposite of Mac’s character. For me the biggest problem with the book was Mac. When the book starts she’s this, naïve, not-so-bright, I love all things pink-bright-fluffy-rainbows-clothes-makeup kind of girl that I wouldn’t want to be locked in the same room with. The kind who nearly gets driven over by a car and the first thing is if your hair looks good. It just made her sound little shallow and there was just too much telling what kind of nail polish she uses and stuff.

Also the book is told by first person Mac, but by Mac in the future. She would tell these annoying hindsight things that got old very quickly.

Or so I thought. It would turn out to be just one more of those things I was wrong about. Soon, we would be living inside each other’s pockets, whether we liked it or not.
And believe you me, we didn’t. pg. 75

Believe you me? I certainly won’t but apparently the editor does.

I’ve been reading so much about Mac and Barrons and I was waiting to see some attraction between them but nada. Nothing. I guess that’s for later books. I didn’t hate Barrons but I didn’t see that something that everyone else seems to see.

All in all the book was enjoyable but not great. But I’m curious enough to see if that will change in future books to read more.

[Quirky Cat]

Enthralling and a little bit sad, but I liked it. You can really sympathize the main character. I will continue reading this series, though I have to admit I really hate it when a series doesn't label (number) their books, it makes it harder to figure out which is which (I usually just look at the publishing dates, but if there are multiple print versions it can get difficult).

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains murder, graphic images, violence, and mentions of rape.

The Basics:

Darkfever is narrated by twenty-two year old MacKayla Lane aka Mac. After her sister is murdered, she travels from Georgia to Dublin, Ireland to find out who killed her and why. Upon arrival, she quickly realizes that her sister was involved in something much bigger and much deadlier than Mac could ever imagine.

My Thoughts:

I originally read this almost exactly nine years ago! Time flies! I've been wanting to reread this series for a long time, and now seemed like the perfect time since the eleventh book was coming soon (out now!). So I picked up Darkfever once again and was very pleasantly surprised; I liked it more this time around!

I remember being annoyed with Mac my first time reading Darkfever, but this time I actually liked her a lot. She's loyal and brave and much smarter than she gets credit for. Sure she may look like the stereotypical dumb blonde, always dressed in pink and sparkles, but this girl has brains and sass! She's an avid reader which shows in the way she speaks. She also loves deeply which is evident in her flying across the world alone to avenge her sister. She's also quite resourceful and people savvy as she handles Barrons to the best of her ability. She's just all around great!

The one thing that did still annoy me about Darkfever was all of Mac's foreshadowing. She regularly breaks the fourth wall (which is fine, it makes the narrative much more conversational) and then tells us how she "should have known" or would "later learn" and all that. Even once she mentions that it's been a year since she arrived in Dublin, despite us only being with her for a week! It's quite distracting and a bit disorienting when it comes up.

Aside from that, Darkfever is just a good time. It's dark and sexy. There are plenty of dated references which were funny to read (who remembers having a Nokia brick phone?). It sets a great tone for the following books and I find myself reinvested in Mac and Barron's mission to locate the Sinsar Dubh and stop the dark fae from destroying our world!

[inlibrisveritas]

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book from the library, I think I was looking forward to something more serious because of the size. I figured it be a heavier fantasy read that would take me more then two weeks to read. Instead what I got was something reminiscent of the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I’m probably making that seem like a bad thing, and I assure you it’s not, I just wasn’t expecting it.

The writing has the same feel to it that Harris’ does; the way the narrator is the main character explaining what happened, the similar voice that Sookie and Mac both share, and the similar features of the story. I’m not saying that they match up exactly but it’s close enough that anyone who’s read the SS novels is bound to notice. MacKayla or simply Mac, is a southern girl who has a lot in common with Barbie it seems but thankfully she’s also rather well rounded, and her character develops nicely as the story progresses. The other main character Jericho Barrons is the typical main counterpart of these types of stories. He’s dark, mysterious and dangerous enough to make him sexy and appealing. I can say honestly I have no clue whither I like him or not, that will probably be decided in the next book, but he does interest me a lot. I do hate Fiona though even though she’s not a huge player in this book, she irks me.

The plot is fairly similar other Fae related ones, and I suppose that can’t be helped because of the amount of Fae lore out there. However I do like the way the plot was introduced and I really like the way it’s heading so I know already I’m going to read more of the series when i get the chance. Maybe even buy the books instead of borrowing them from the library. The Unseelie that Mac describes sound absolutely horrible and Moning really put some detail into how the sects of the main group unfold, so I can’t wait to see more of them and Seelie (because they are not in this book). I also like the Null and objects of power idea that basically fuels this whole book, it’s a concept I haven’t seen before. Dublin as a setting is at first a fairly pleasing place and the description is nearly inviting but the more you read the more it becomes gritty and dirty, and by the end I had a picture of this grime covered place that only poses as a inviting city. I love when authors are capable of doing things like that, it really shows how much power a person can hold with words.

Overall I found this to be one of those books that I just wanted to devour right away once I actually started reading it. I read majority of it in a matter of two days with exception of the prologue and the first chapter. I do recommend this to paranormal fans, and of course to the Sookie Stackhouse fans.

[Amanda]

Full review: http://onabookbender.com/2011/08/08/review-darkfever-by-karen-marie-moning/

I fell into the conversational narrating style by Mac very easily, and I did not even pause long enough to notice that Darkfever is written in first person until I was 50% of the way through the book. Even though I am coming around to first person POV, it is usually an aspect of any book that catches my attention relatively quickly. Darkfever just sucked me in, and deposited me into Mac’s world without much conscious thought involved. I like when books consume me in this fashion, and although I experienced a slight lull toward the end of Darkfever, I do not think this lull affected my final opinion, as Mac always held future knowledge over our heads as though she is recounting a story from the past, and teasing us to continue reading. And I would have continued reading this book in a single day, but my eyes wouldn’t cooperate, and I pretty much passed out about two-thirds of the way through Darkfever. Not even a good book is worthy foe for an exhausting week.

There is still a lot to learn about both Mac and Barrons. I think that is part of why I liked Darkfever; we are slowly introduced to the Fae and what possible havoc they could wreak on the world (and what they’re already doing to Dublin), but at the same time, we are only slightly more clueless than Mac is herself. And it is entirely possible the information Mac withholds from us is knowledge gained from hindsight. I read full well knowing that my questions would likely not be answered in this first book, but that they would be answered eventually. I’m okay with that. Mac, though somewhat annoying in her ability to skip over descriptions, was likable enough to draw me into her consistently unraveling world. And Barrons is incredibly enigmatic, which I love. LOVE. I find myself more interested in learning Barrons’ secrets than Mac’s. But then, Mac freely gives information about herself; Barrons would hold onto his secrets like a selfish child who was never taught how to share his toys, and attempting to extract these secrets would result in tantrums. But they would be very manly, sexy, and [possibly] deadly tantrums.

[celinenyx]

Oh, Ms. Karen Marie Moning, how could you?! How could you leave us hanging like that? How are we supposed to live without having a sense of closure after that roller coaster ride that was your book? That's just plain sadistic. No really.

When her sister is killed in Ireland, small-town Georgia girl MacKayla Lane has no peace until the murderer is found. The police decides there aren't enough leads and close the case, leaving Mac no choice but to travel to Ireland herself and convince the police to open her sister's case again. When she sets foot in Dublin, she is within days sucked into a strange world where monsters exist, and only she can see them for what they are.

I loved this book. I love the way it's constructed, the voice in which it's written. I love the world that slowly but steadily unfolds before our eyes, where more and more Unseelie Fae are entering our world through a portal, infesting our cities and killing innocent humans. The only ones that can save mankind from being overrun by these monsters are the Sidhe-seers. These humans can see through the glamour of the Fae and see the real monster within them.

The world Ms. Moning has created isn't pretty. It's dark and gruesome. You can't trust anyone. Everyone has its own hidden agenda, including the supposedly good guys. Then, you throw our pink-loving small town girl from the Deep South Barbie heroine into this mess. I don't believe there could be a bigger contrast.

I've read a lot of reviews saying they couldn't stand Barbie 'cause she's so annoyingly shallow and not-heroic. I'm not going to lie to you, she totally is both things. She has two things working for her though. One, she is still grieving the loss of her sister, her best friend. Don't tell me you wouldn't do stupid things to revenge a loved one. Two, I don't think any regular human being has world-saving ambitions. In books we see the I-have-to-save-the-world-on-my-own complex a lot, but we all know that it isn't realistic. Mac is just an ordinary girl, maybe shallow and superficial, but can you blame her for not wanting to fight monsters straight from your worst nightmare?

One thing that did annoy me about Mac was not her habit to describe every piece of her wardrobe in detail, but her awful romantic chattering about the Deep South. I know that's where she comes from, and she is apparently damn proud of it, but do you have to measure every single thing that happens to you to how different it would be if you were back at home? It seems like every single person in her home town is extremely kind, hospitable and polite. Personally, I hate small towns. The idea that everyone knows you and knows what you do every second of the damned day freaks me out. Sometimes I wanted to give Mac a nice slap to the head and tell her that not everything that's different from provincial life is a bad thing.

I would have probably given this book 5 stars, if it wasn't for the terrible cliffhanger at the end. I thoroughly hate it when a writer doesn't give you any sense of an ending. We read the whole thing, but now we are forced to buy part two of the series. Which will probably end with a cliffhanger too. That's so not cool. Problem is, I will probably buy the second part of the series, Bloodfever, very soon anyway.

Darkfever was an awesome urban-fantasy book, especially for a first book in a series. Beware of the cliffhanger ending.

[Hixxup]

Great book, it was intense...and the chemistry between Mac & Barrons is uncanny I hope there is something there between them. And OMG the story that is some crazy stuff man let me tell ya.

[Linda]

Exciting story, and well written, but I usually prefer 3rd person narrators for some reason, since I then get MORE information about everybody, and not only what the main character knows and finds out.

Mac is a great female heroine, though, she's more badass than she gives herself credit for, and she's a very fast learner. I look forward to reading more about her, and her adventures against the Unseelies that are swarming Dublin.

[Melanie]

I am not sure what I think about this book. I have heard from several people that this book is not great, but that the series gets much better. It seems that this book is plot building. Then it cuts off pretty much in the middle of the story. I am going to start Bloodfever next and see how it goes. That will determine if I continue reading. I do see the possibility of a great series. There was just so much to explain that is all that seems to have been accomplished in this first book of the series.

I would also like to say that it was great to see Mac grow up in the book. It is girls like her (at the beginning of the book) that give us small town south Georgia girls a bad name.

[rakesandrogues]

I couldn't stand the main character. If I hear one more about her perfect manicure....

It's hard to like a book when one can't even stand the narrator. I tried my best, and I couldn't even get myself to stop skimming. I heard some great reviews so I was definitely disappointed.