Wings

I liked it well enough. It was an interesting take on the biology and history of faeries. I will admit that I almost did not read it because it's recommended by Stephanie Meyers, and that I still have a bit of a sour taste in the back of my mind knowing she recommends it. Guilt by association type thing or something. I don't know.

However, the writing was well done. Light and lyrical, not shabby and overwritten like Meyers. The characters were interesting and I wanted to know more about them. My main complaint is that it felt a little as though the adventure portion of the book was rushed -- as though she spent a lot of time developing the characters and the discovery of the protagonists heritage, and then bunched in the mystery/adventure/what-have-you at the very end.

I mean, she hinted at it here and there in the first couple chapters, but it really felt like the book took a left turn from coming-of-age self-discovery to fantasy action-adventure, and while not entirely unexpected, the shift in tone was a little irritating.

I'm noticing this trend more and more in YA -- it was present in Twilight and it's popping up in other books. I don't mind mixing coming of age and fantasy-action adventure, I just wish authors did it more smoothly -- it seems as though a lot of them are writing a coming of age and then tacking an adventure on at the end because they feel they have to, and it feels awkward and messy. ( )

Loved how different this book was! Very pleasantly surprised ( )

This book started off with a quirky girl moving to a new town, new school, and she meets a boy in Biology class. A very overused formula lately, but it did have some significance as the book went on so I was able to overlook it. The story is about a young girl, Laurel, who discovers she is a faerie. The faeries in this book aren't the ones in general folklore, so it was interesting to read. I found Laurel irritating at parts- mostly because she was stringing David along from start to finish. It was a quick, easy read but not amazing. ( )

I have read stories that included faeries as characters (the Dead series by Charlaine Harris, the Valerian books by Linda Lael Miller, etc) but Wings is the first book I read where the main character is a faerie; better yet, a teenage faerie. Because of my lack of knowledge of the fae, I had no problem with the magical world Aprilynne Pike created in her debut novel, Wings. The teenage world seemed pretty spot on as well. What did bother me was that the book seemed so familiar. I couldn't put my finger on it, until I read that Aprilynne is a protege of Stephenie Meyer. OHHHH Makes a lot of sense now... teenage female protagonist; two men from different worlds both vying for her attention; a "magical" element, etc. Wings is Twilight with faeries! Ok, no, I'm not going that far; for one thing, I am not a big Twilight fan. I enjoyed the books, but the seemingly constant whining and complaining of Bella drove me insane. Laurel, I like. Also, I found both lead male characters in Wings likeable, whereas in Twilight, Jacob is the only teen male with any depth and personality. Ok, no more comparisons, but really, if you have read Twilight, you will see the same formula at work here, including Wings being the first in a planned series of 4 books AND Disney already buying the movie rights and casting Miley Cyrus in the lead. The book does pull you in and holds you till the end. I actually got through the entire thing in 2 days. I haven't done that in a while. If you are into mythical creatures and getting hooked on a new series, check out Wings now. ( )

I still enjoyed this the second time round, but not as much so I changde the rating from 5 to 4 ( )