The Demon's Lexicon (The Demon's Lexicon Trilogy, #1)

by Sarah Rees Brennan

Sixteen-year-old Nick and his family have battled magicians and demons for most of his life, but when his brother, Alan, is marked for death while helping new friends Jamie and Mae, Nick's determination to save Alan leads him to uncover a devastating secret.

• ISBN10: 1416963790
• ISBN13: 9781416963790
• Publish Date: 2 June 2009 (first published 1 June 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Margaret K McElderry Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

"My life was going to flash before my eyes, but it decided to hide behind my eyes and quake with terror, instead." (Jamie Crawford)

It's the character-driven novels that get to me! A book can have great world-building and an awesome plot, but if I can't relate to the characters or understand them, my reading enjoyment level goes way down.

I have really strong emotions towards the characters in The Demon Lexicon; moments where I hate them, moments where I love them and moments where I wanted to hug them and strangle them at the same time. Not such a morally sound thing to admit, but hey, I am writing a review for The Demon Lexicon.

The tone of The Demon Lexicon is dark and twisted. There's evil magicians, demons, demons possessing humans so that evil magicians can gain more power, violence, blood, murder and death. However, there are also moments that are magical, heartfelt and humourous. The world of magic, demons and magicians is nothing out of the ordinary, but the way Brennan writes, it seems refreshing and unique. My favourite part of the The Demon Lexicon world is The Goblin Market - which has a magical and mystical carnival atmosphere.

The Demon Lexicon is narrated by Nick Ryves. Nick is unfeeling and unkind. The only emotions that we really see from him is rage and the need to hurt, maim and kill. While he's not an easy character to relate to, I could still understand him and feel sympathetic towards him. Brennan certainly has a knack for making me feel something towards an emotionless character. This could also be because there's a reason for Nick's lack of feelings. He's a demon.

There's also Alan, Nick's older brother, whose characterisation I absolutely love. Alan is Nick's total opposite. He's sensitive, kind and gentle, but he's also extremely manipulative, knows exactly how to work a crowd and uses whatever he can to his advantage. Alan also has a disability and I appreciate that The Demon Lexicon has a disabled badass as one of its main characters.

What makes The Demon Lexicon shine, is the heartfelt family dynamics. I appreciate the brotherly bonds between Nick and Alan and the sibling bond between Mae, a feisty and independent character, and her brother, Jamie - who is usually nervous, hates conflict and confronts every uncomfortable situation that he's in with humour. Like every sibling relationship, there's conflict and fights, but there's no doubt about the lengths that the siblings in The Demon Lexicon will go to in order to protect each other. I have a close relationship with my sister and I could relate to the sibling dynamics in The Demon Lexicon

When I read The Demon Lexicon in 2014, I gave it 4 stars, but after a third reread, I tried to think about reasons why I gave this book 4 stars and couldn't come up with anything. The Demon Lexicon has a dark tone and the characters aren't all black-and-white, but it's filled with sibling love, humour and heart.

"Either something bad happens or it doesn't: if it doesn't, you've wasted time being afraid, and if it does, you've wasted time that you could have spent sharpening your weapons." (Nick Ryves)

[Linda]

WOW, this was definitely different! I thought it was very well written, and a great story! I want to know some more background stories now, though. Good thing I already have the Demon's Covenant on my kindle :D

[Jo]

Nick has been on the run for as long as he can remember. His mother stole a charm off of a very powerful magician before he was born, and he wants it back. He and his older brother, Alan, move around the country with their deranged mother to escape the magicians and the demons the magicians send after them. But then Alan gets a demon mark - a mark that leads to possession and then death - when he tries to help two other teenagers who are in trouble. Nick is the only person who can save him, but that gets harder to do when he starts to think Alan is hiding things from him.

I liked this book, but it doesn't match up to all the hype surrounding it. It just wasn't very "wow!" to me, like I expected. The novel starts off wuite slow; it only starts to pick up after three or four chapters, and the chapters aren't short. I actually ended up putting the book down to read some others I was excited about.

When the book did start picking up, it got to half way through the book before anything, in my opinion, really happened. When things did start happening, though, it gets quite intriguing. Nick has all these questions about Alan's strange and secretive behaviour, and there's how they go about trying to get rid of the demon mark.

I didn't like most of the characters, though. Nick is too angry, aggressive, selfish and insensitive, which bugged the hell out of me, but is explained by the end. Alan was too sensitive, and Mae ws too much of a girl in my opinion. Jamie was best, with his sarcastic sense of humour shining through when he was most scared - which was pretty much all the time.

I did find the ending very surprising; you're left guesing all the way through, but this ending is not what you expect. Still, when the book ended, I was left a little unsatisfied, a little "is that it?" Although it's an urban fantasy, I don't feel there are enough fntasy elements that we actually get to see, as most happens outside the group of people we follow. I was pretty underwhelmed, but I will be checking out the sequel, The Demon's Covenant when it comes out next year. A good book overall, but not as amazing as I expected.

**I'd like to add that I wrote this review after I finished the book earlier in the wook, and since finishing it, I have been thinking a lot about the book. Perhaps my review is a bit harsh when it comes to the characters. I think I might actually like them all, in their own way. I think I was just a little disappointed when I originally wrote the review.