Monday 23 September 2013

Review: Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Three years after the curse on Lumatere was lifted, Froi has found his home ... or so he believes. Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been taken roughly and lovingly in hand by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family, and has learned to control his quick temper with a warrior's discipline. But when he is sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn, nothing could have prepared him for what he finds in its surreal royal court. Soon he must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad princess in this barren and mysterious place. It is in Charyn that he will discover there is a song sleeping in his blood ... and though Froi would rather not, the time has come to listen.

To be honest, this was a hard book to read. It wasn't that it was a terrible bore. Far from it. But there was so much detail that it was difficult to catch everything, let alone make sense of it. Being in school, I've been slightly more tired than usual lately and have had less chance to read for longer periods of time. This is definitely not a good book if you're looking for a light read. I found it so difficult to focus while I was thinking of other things or just simply tired and braindead. The formal language really didn't help either. 

There was a lot of dialogue in this book. Much more so than in Finnikin of the Rock. Which simply means that the text is even more important. When I said that the formal language didn't help with the focusing, I meant it, but I can't imagine it fitting well with informal language; particularly since the majority of the book is centered around royalty and nobles.

Marchetta really weaved this story together well. The details that I did catch were impeccable and the storyline was flawless(probably because of all those little details). There were times that I had little clue as to what was going on but I get the impression that that was deliberate as things were later revealed. A lot of the time something small, like a game about shortening names, would come back later with an extremely large amount of significance. There was also a moment when I laughed out loud merely because it reminded me so much of Star Wars. Or maybe it was just so funny because for once I actually fully understood something in the book. I don't know. 



There were a few things that annoyed me in this book that  kind of turned me off. One was the changing point of view. Unlike many other books, I was not annoyed by the changing point of view as it was done tastefully. It wasn't constantly changing enough to break the flow of the story but only enough to build the suspense. This was great because I did get a sense of how large the story truly was. However, I also tend to find a certain point of view that I dislike and thus always want to skip that part. In this case, there were times when I got extremely annoyed with Lucian. The constant racism and inaction while everyone else was out there doing cool things, discovering new things... His confusion was plain frustrating.

There was a lot of suspense in this book. However, it was unique in that I wasn't trying to figure out what happened next. Instead, I was more looking forward to what kind of information was going to be revealed next. Particularly that evil, evil cliffhanger at the end. Nothing drastic happened at the end that had me going "NO! I NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM!!!"(Like for example the end of The Mark of Athena). But things were revealed that had me so confused about what I just read that I now have to read the next one to figure out what happens. 

If you're looking for an easy read, I definitely do not recommend this book. (Plus, for it to make sense, you would have had to read Finnikin of the Rock before.) However, if you are into fantasy and magical worlds and think you can handle it, READ IT. Despite my ranting about how I was confused at times and some characters annoyed me, it is still a super good book. Truly. 4 out of 5 stars.

No comments:

Post a Comment