“Darkfever”
by Karen Marie Moning
Book 1 of the Fever Series
Karen Marie Moning is a very well known author, best selling in fact, with her two series Highlander and Fever. Everything I read highly recommended her Fever series for any individuals interested in all things Fae with a little murder mystery and world-saving mixed in. In other words, all the things I am constantly looking for in a fantasy novel! With such high reviews and the “best selling author” background, I figured I would give it a try. Disclaimer: I have trust issues with “best selling authors” —I did not finish Nora Robert’s “The Awakening” for her new fantasy series and did not get past the first two chapters in Jeaniene Frost’s first book in the Night Huntress Series, and of course these let downs happened consecutively and so I figured, third times the charm, and went ahead and gave “Darkfever” a try.
I’ll just be honest right away—this was a tough read for me. I am a multiple-books-at-a-time reader and I finished three other books before I finally got to the end of this one. To save time for the normal humans who don’t want to read an entire page of sarcastic commentary, I will tell you in short that I really did enjoy the plot and concepts of a young woman traveling to Ireland to avenge her sister’s murder—and while there she discovers a whole new world— but what really didn’t work for me were the characters. I think this a quality for a lot of readers out there, but when I open a book and dive in I have the high demands of wanting to relate to the main character (with lots of character development) and being properly invested in their escapades and love interest because of their relatability. The supporting characters need to properly juxtapose the mains and of course the love interest(s) need to be incredibly unrealistic but dreamy and drool-worthy nonetheless. If even one of these criteria is not met, I have a challenging time with that novel. If none of the criteria are met, it doesn’t matter at all what kind of creative world building, good writing, or captivating plot is in front of my eyes. I will be bored.
I found that this was my experience with Darkfever. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who were and are properly entertained by the main character, Mackayla “Mac” Lane, with her bubbly, cliquey, materialistic personality—but those were and are the kind of people I avoid at all costs in real life, and definitely not the ones I look for in my fantasy worlds. I would note that the character Moning paints right away provides A LOT of opportunities for character development, and if I do pursue the rest of the series I’m hopeful that I would enjoy Mac a little bit more by the end—but I’m a little impatient, and none of the other characters provided enough glue for me to stick with them. Mac is childish, Mac is self-absorbed, and Mac is a little too ditzy. The male main character Jericho, who I have to assume is most likely Mac’s love interest, is wildly different than Mac but shares the same lack-of-substance qualities (again, probably lots of character development later on!). I don’t really recall any of the other characters either—not too noteworthy.
Some unique aspects of Moning’s writing in this novel include:
The ominous “in the past” writing—Mac is retelling her experiences after her sister’s death and therefore includes a lot of “I would later find out….” and “If only I knew then what I know now…” this is cool to some, annoying to others. I am curious as to how long into the series this continues—when do we get to “present day Mac” writing?
One perspective writing—at least for the first book. There is no switching point of views which I hear is a popular aspect of fantasy books. Again, this is nice for some and annoying to others.
Use of acronyms—I’m not sure if its to add humor or Moning’s attempt at writing for younger audiences, but there are many moments that include the characters regularly using acronyms in not just their inner dialogue but also their dialogue with one another. It induced a little eye-brow twitching for me.
Quite unbelievable—too unbelievable—winning scenarios for our dear Mac. For a girl who claims to know nothing impressive and regularly does nothing impressive, she sure makes it out clean of a lot of precarious situations
Okay, now a real summary of the book: If you enjoy little to no romance but room to grow, two main characters that are set up for LOTS of character development but none of which happens in the first book, and some really crazy world building that is painted in a way that makes it just a smidge too unbelievable, dive into the Fever world!
I cannot give you my character line up in good conscious—as you have read they just didn’t do it for me. Perhaps in the next book.
Silver Lining: There are just not enough fantasy books out there that take place in Ireland. For that reason alone Moning’s books are worth checking out, because she writes about this destination very well.
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.
