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Loading... Wings (edition 2009)by Aprilynne Pike
 MargaretSkipper | Dec 15, 2009 | 
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. (  ) mephistia | Apr 6, 2013 | Loved how different this book was! Very pleasantly surprised (  ) foreverreading | Apr 4, 2013 | 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. ( ) nicola26 | Mar 30, 2013 | 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. ( ) DiamondDog | Mar 29, 2013 | I still enjoyed this the second time round, but not as much so I changde the rating from 5 to 4 (  ) amz310783 | Feb 20, 2013 | Wings is a fantasy novel about a seemingly normal teenage girl who moves to the city and meets a boy named David. David immediatly notices Laurel's strange eating habbits. she is strictly vegan and drinks a lot of pop. one day, Laurel feels a tingling sensation on her back. she looked at it and realized it was her first zit! she was mortified. the "zit," grew by the day and one day, it turned into a flower! laurel told David and he came to the conclusion that she was a plant. when they went to visit Laurel's old home, she meets an old friend. he explained to her that they were fairies. then, Laurel's dad became dealthy ill and Laurel thought it had something to do with her strange heritage... this book was well written and a real page turner! i would recommend this book to everybody! ahsreads | Jan 11, 2013 | Beginnings are hard. While I don't think that Pike mastered it in Wings, I did enjoy the book and the beautiful, detailed world that she created. ( ) LaPhenix | Dec 29, 2012 | I loved this book. Something different, no werewolves, no vampires, no angels, so if you wanted to read something different, I recommended this book. Love some of the characters, especially Tamani. I loved the world Aprilynne Pike created in this book. Its a great book, I loved and recommended, so if you haven't read go read it now. ( ) ebbith0115 | May 10, 2012 | Love this series!! If you like fantasy (or romance) you should definitely read this! =D (  ) jfoster_sf | May 6, 2012 | This was a very entertaining quick read that should definitely appeal to young adult readers. I loved the descriptiveness of Aprilynne Pike’s world building and was quite impressed at her creativity!She presented a tale of the Faerie that was quite unlike any I’ve ever heard and yet seemed completely believable and in fact…made the most sense to me of almost anything I’ve heard. I absolutely loved the idea of the Fae being plants and thus tied inextricably to the earth. Magical.The book was a bit slow at the onset but then quickly picked up pace and was quite an enjoyable read! I would not say that I loved it…maybe I’ve been reading too much YA lately and am looking for a bit more depth…but it was very entertaining and “paranormal” in a wonderfully earthy and believable way! ( ) myeclecticbooks | Mar 13, 2012 | In her debut novel, Ms. Pike introduces some unique twists on traditional fairy tales. In her world, fairies are plants and can masquerade as people. Lauren is a beautiful, sheltered fifteen year old who is experiencing high school for the first time. After being home schooled since she was adopted as a foundling infant, her parents have decided to send her to public school. She finds she is very different from her peers. She is vegetarian with very specific dietary preferences and a penchant for being constantly outdoors. Being different doesn’t bother her but the bump on her back does concern her. Rather than worrying her parents, she confides in a new friend, David, when the bump blooms into a flower that looks like wings. After some scientific research, she discovers that she is actually not human but is instead a plant. Returning to her parent’s property, she meets Tamani, another fairy. He helps her to remember her responsibility to protect the ancestral home, Avalon, from the fairies’ hereditary enemies, the trolls. She is drawn to him but doesn’t remember her previous life as a fairy. As a romance, Wings has all the important characteristics including a love triangle involving the heroine, a handsome, loyal boy-next-door and a mysterious stranger who already knows her. But, the story doesn’t succeed as a romance. The dialogue between the characters is trite and the plot never develops the potential conflict between them. There are unanswered questions that leave the reader uninterested. It is too obvious that the author intended to write a sequel and, though the story will appeal to teens already fascinated by the genre, there are better choices available. Grades 7 to 9. (  ) Irishdart | Mar 3, 2012 | School Library Journal Gr 7-10–Homeschooled Laurel begins public high school as a tenth grader when her adoptive parents move to LA., leaving behind the land that has been in her mother’s family since the Gold Rush days. The many clues that Laurel is different (she is strictly vegan; sunlight seems to shine through her fair skin; she never gets cold; she craves the outdoors; she doesn’t menstruate) culminate in a bump on her back growing to the size of a softball and blooming into a flower that has foot-long petals. Returning to her parents’ land, she meets Tamini, a faerie to whom she is attracted, who tells her that she is not human, but rather is a plant or, more specifically, a faerie. David, her accepting and supportive classmate, tests her tissue and confirms that Tamini is right. When a creepy alleged realtor pressures the family to sell the land, the teens become suspicious, and they are soon fighting for their lives in a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls. Laurel’s struggles to figure out what it means to be human are matched by her struggles to determine what it means to be a faerie, and she is torn between love for David and love for Tamini. The ending allows for many possibilities in the upcoming sequels. The book has a nice mix of danger and romance, the world of magic and the world of high school, with well-developed characters and a quick-moving plot ( )  EBurggraf | Feb 23, 2012 | This book started out pretty good, and I enjoyed it. However, the more I got into it, the more middle-grade it seemed. If you're looking for a solid, good YA fantasy then I wouldn't recommend Wings. If you want a blatantly conservative (Mormon) middle-grade, then sure this would be a good choice. ( ) EmRoDa | Feb 12, 2012 | I liked this book, but then I didn’t. The more I read further into this book, I almost wanted to drop it, but I didn’t because curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to know what was going on. You have to wonder about Laurel’s parents. Laurel doesn’t eat like normal teens, and drinks up on the sodas. Yet her mom is okay with that? her parents are pretty much oblivious to everything regarding Laurel and this is where it gets unrealistic. It got a teensy bit worse when her good pal David seems to be VERY accepting of who Laurel really is. He doesn’t think it’s strange? he had no hesitations? he just shrugs and gets along with it? if David had been skeptical at first, it would have made this whole situation a little bit real. BUT! What bothered me the most was how in the end, once Laurel explains everything to her parents...they were just ok with it. Um..what? really? they just suddenly thought: ‘okay honey that’s nice. Run along, play with your new friends and hope your new outlook on life is great’ WTF?! At this point because it was at the end, I resorted to eye rolling. It was just too late into the book to throw it against the wall. So, despite all of this silliness, there was a couple of things I liked. The world building was pretty good. The fantasy aspect and the magical places are interesting. The plot itself was an all right read and the pace made it for a quick read through. Character-wise, I thought David was the best one of all of them. Just because I thought he really was such a sweet guy after all. (He’d have to be sweet, to be so easily accepting to Laurel). Tamani on the other hand resembled a very jealous possessive guy who has severe issues and overall I found him downright annoying. His little comments here and there annoyed me and I wanted either David or Laurel to kick him in the face somehow. I’m not sure if I would recommend this. A lot of readers seemed to have liked this book a lot. I’d say there’s better books featuring magical fae out there. I’d say try out Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston instead. For this one, take it or leave it. ( ) sensitivemuse | Jan 15, 2012 | This is my first fae story. I liked it. Not the best. I'm willing to bet there's probably a much better fae story but I'm invested enough in the series to buy three of them (I've read them all). ( ) popo_chan_xo | Nov 30, 2011 | I first read this back in 2010 when it was first released in paperback. It was actually my birthday present. I don't remember what my original thoughts were after reading it though, so I decided to reread it, partly for the blog, but mostly to refresh my memory for when I read Spells, and eventually Illusion. I can remember that what drew me to this book was that it was about faeries. I've always loved faeries, so I always devour any stories about them that I can find. I love Aprilynne Pike's take of faeries in Wings. I think having them actually be plants is a fitting idea, since faeries have always gone hand in hand with nature. I love it. I also love the idea of a flower sprouting out of her back instead of wings, although not being able to fly is kind of sad. And having faeries for the different seasons, with different abilities is neat. I'd personally want to be a winter faerie, even though I hate being cold. Winter has always had this magical allure for me. The writing is about what you might expect for the average YA novel. It's not bad, but I have seen better. It's an easy read though, which can be nice when you just want something light and fast to read. One thing I really didn't like was the love triangle. First of all, Laurel is hard to connect with, which also makes it hard to figure out which guy I'd want her to end up with. First she's leaning towards David, then she switches to Tamani, and keeps going back and forth, never making a decision. I'm assuming one is made later on in either Spells or Illusion, but nothing is decided definitely here. I have to be honest, it fell like Bella, Edward, and Jacob all over again. And at the end I still don't know who I am hoping she ends up with, when I've usually decided almost immediately after both guys have been introduced. For the most part, Wings is all right. Not a stellar, mind-blowing read, but a light and fast one that is somewhat entertaining. I'll definitely be finishing this series since I would like to know who she ends up with, or if she doesn't. pandaris | Nov 10, 2011 | I’ve always been fascinated by books with the genre of Fantasy in YA novels – and the concept of Faeries was spectacular! This book was one of the first YA novels I have read about Faeries and I loved Wings! This book is beautifully written, a quick-read but a great one. For starters, Faeries, who doesn’t like faeries? Remember as little girls, how we used to dress up as faeries and would run around the garden? That was me. I love how she incorporated a beautiful Faerie Lore into a YA novel! The characters were brilliantly written. Laurel has never been a normal teenager; she was left on her adoptive parent’s doorstep. When she has to go a normal high school, she has to get out of her comfort zone of being home-schooled; there she is faced with social challenges. David, is one of the characters we first meet from her new school; also perfect boyfriend material. You can obviously tell that he likes Laurel. As perfect as he is, I didn’t fall for him, not a single bit, he seemed too artificial. And then there was Tamani, the Fae, he completes the love triangle; I loved how he cared for Laurel. The love triangle definitely had a lot of tension and I’ve had my pick – I’m team Tamani all the way! I’ve already previously read the first three books already, so this is a late blog post. I really enjoyed the first 3 books, Wings, Spells, Illusions and I can’t wait for the fourth! Rating: 5 out of 5 ( ) IReadToEscape | Oct 29, 2011 | Aprilynne Pike gives a new take on fairies that mixes urban fantasy with just enough magic to take you away from the expected of our world. Wings is entertaining, quick-paced and funny at times, but the love triangle here does feel slightly superficial. At the end I was left looking for more depth and backstory to the characters, which I hope to discover more of in the next two books. ( ) S.J._Wist | Sep 13, 2011 | This is an enjoyable, wholesome read. Although the blurb talks about a "love triangle," the story doesn't have the steaminess generally associated with that phrase. Laurel and David are solid, well developed characters. There is an underlying theme of adoption, that some teens my find particularly comforting. To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®. TheReadingTub | Sep 6, 2011 | My name is Sash but you can call me 'Team Best Friend'. I am, without a doubt, almost always pulling for the best friend in the love triangle. Well, what do you do when BOTH boys are the best friend? You don't know which one to choose - that's what. Sigh, now that I've gotten my initial AHH moment out of the way, let me tell you about some of the great things that I really enjoyed about this novel. The only child-ism of this novel. Yes, I realize that most of you reading this right now are, in fact, not only children; however, for me personally I could really identify with Laurel when she talked about the interactions between herself and her parents. Just saying, there is no one else to pass blame/attention onto in certain situations. The easy-readness. If you're looking for a quick, easy and fun read - look no further. I picked up this book to read before going to bed and then looked up 3 hours later to find myself fully immersed in Wings! The boys. David and Tam are..amazing. Each in their own way. David is sturdy and real. Tam is exciting and kind of forbidden (oh and the green hair..I love it.) Even though there was a "bad guy" in this book, I felt like the story was more about Laurel and her recognition and acceptance that she is not who she thought she was. You'll enjoy this book if you liked Twilight by Stephenie Meyer or Matched by Ally Condie. skaohee | Aug 24, 2011 | Excellent take on faeries ( ) Coranne | Aug 3, 2011 | I really enjoyed this book. I was not sure what to expect, as it was a free book from Amazon for my Kindle. But I am always willing to give a book a try! Laurel is a high school student who is actually experiencing school for the first time after being home-schooled her entire life. She eventually makes friends, in particular, David, a "science geek" who she grows very close to. When something very unexpected begins happening to Laurel, the only person she trusts to tell is David. Laurel life begins to take more one strange turn after another, until Laurel finds herself in a life-threatening situation. It is then that she begins to discover who (and what) she really is. This book is a fun, fast and interesting read. ( ) AmieG | Jun 28, 2011 | This is a pretty good story, but nothing mind blowing. The characters are pretty likeable and the story is interesting. The book is missing that nameless extra something that really brings a story to life. I don't think this little extra something is really quantifiable, but you know when it is missing. Perhaps it's because the novel is written extremely simply and is very straightforward. It is almost ... clinical. The descriptions of places, people, and feelings leave a lot to be desired. This has dire consequences for the world-building attempts. My favorite part of novels with fairies is the world building. But here, there is barely any. And the author simply fails to draw the reader in. I'll probably read the next book in the series, but I might give up on it if nothing is improved. The writing is lacking the "heart" that is the mark of an engrossing and wonderful book. But the plot has the potential to be really amazing so I won't give up just yet. ( ) snazz | Jun 9, 2011 | This story understands the hardships that most teens face. The awkwardness and self-consciousness that teens feel during high school and first love is explored. But this story adds a bit of make believe and adventure that makes it a great ride. The way that Aprilynne explored the world of faeries was very refreshing. She took a very simple girl and made her anything but. And as always the faithful sidekick of a friend was there, which made this story really fun to read. I also enjoyed the romantic triangle between the main characters and all three characters were very real and easily relateable to. For example: the use of how loving someone can make life that much more exciting and confusing is easily relateable to many readers. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to escape the real world for a bit and jump into an exciting world that exists right among us. I truly cannot wait for the continuation of the series. ( ) sithereandread | Jun 4, 2011 | n The Beginging At first I was having a little difficulties with this book. I was very confused on who and what Laurel was (I had only read the book summary on the flap and it doesn't give you much information), but I assumed very early on that she was a changeling. I also felt things were going too fast and I didn't feel like I was getting to know Laurel very well, it took me half way through the book to feel connected with Laurel. For some reason I had issues with picturing her "wings", I just couldn't picture them, I think I just skimmed over the description too fast. By The End I was definitely more into the book by the last half of the book. The pieces of the puzzle were finally started to fit and make since. Characters This book has boy teams for sure, but I'm not sure yet who I like more. Team David: Human, friendly, cute, science nerd who helps Laurel accept what she is, her confidant. Doesn't pressure Laurel into anything and is willing to be whatever she needs, be it friend or boyfriend. Got to love the good boy type. Team Tamani: Faerie, green hair, mischievous, alluring, pushy and a little demanding. He has more of the bad boy type, which is wonderful. By the end he earns brownie points for showing her more of his nature and softer side. Faerie These aren't your typical wing flying faeries. I am one of those readers who loves a different version of well known myths. Once I understood what these types of faeries were I thoroughly enjoyed the different concepts of their body type. I also liked how Avalon was tied into their history. Recommendation I read for faerie lovers who like completely different version ( ) Kr15tina | Jun 2, 2011 | |
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Summary
"Fifteen-year-old Laurel has led a sheltered, homeschooled life in a very small town, so when her parents decide to move and enroll her in high school, she has trouble getting used to her new life. A life, as it turns out, that's not at all like those of other kids. One clear sign is a winglike blossom that blooms on her back. Oh, and her new best friend, the scientifically minded David, reveals under a microscope that her cells are more plant than animal. But it takes an encounter at her old home with the handsome but decidedly different Tamani to convince her that she is a faerie. She also learns it's up to her to save her land from the evil influences that are trying to take it away from her and her family." -Ilene Cooper
My Opinion
Characters. I love the characters in this book. Laurel, the main character, seems like a very typical teenagers, but I like her. The author does a really good job building her and the other's in this book. The characters seemed "true" to themselves throughout the book, which I find important. You get a very good sense of who they are! My favorite is Tamani, of course. I love mythological men!! :D
Theme. The theme of this book is growth and discovery. The protag learns some secrets about her past and needs to learn more about it and herself. It's almost a coming-of-age story. Then you throw in the love factor. The theme is similar to others in the young adult fantasy genre. I would think the next books will focus more on the love factor. There is also a theme of acceptance from others and accepting yourself.
Plot. The plot in this book starts as easy going learning and discovery and cycles to a suspenseful fight. One plot element of this book does includes mild suspense. Towards the end Laurel has to fight for her Fairy-ness.
Style. There is some mild humor in the book and some symbolism. The writing style is very clear and concise. Very easy to read, understand and like.
Setting. The settings in this book is the forest and in school in a small-town.
Comparison. This book is similar to others in the genre. I think it also stands out because the choice is a little different. In book one, the choice-phase hasn't quite come to past yet, but in the next books, Laurel will have to choose between her fairy life and her human life. The difference is that she's already a fair..unlike in Twilight, where the main character has to be changed.
Overall. I really enjoyed this book. I am older (ahem, ahem..lol), but i still enjoyed this book. It sends a positive message. Very good overall.
The Bottom-Line
Laurel discovers she is a fairy. She finds herself stuck between two worlds..and two guys. She will end up having to choose.
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