Title: Ballad
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fiction
Series: Book of Faerie
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Book - Library
Synopsis: James and Dee have been selected to attend Thornking-Ash School, a boarding school for talented musicians. Nuala, a faerie who acts as a muse while stealing years off your life, is attracted to James, but he refuses to make a deal. Time is running out for Nuala, and, to make matters worse, she cares for James more than she should. James thinks Nuala may be able to help him get over Dee, Meanwhile, strange faerie things are happening and Dee may be in too deep. Both Nuala and Dee need saving, but James can only save one. Who will he choose...and will it be the right choice?
Series: Book of Faerie
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Book - Library
Synopsis: James and Dee have been selected to attend Thornking-Ash School, a boarding school for talented musicians. Nuala, a faerie who acts as a muse while stealing years off your life, is attracted to James, but he refuses to make a deal. Time is running out for Nuala, and, to make matters worse, she cares for James more than she should. James thinks Nuala may be able to help him get over Dee, Meanwhile, strange faerie things are happening and Dee may be in too deep. Both Nuala and Dee need saving, but James can only save one. Who will he choose...and will it be the right choice?
What I thought: I found a lot of parallels between this and Where She Went by Gayle Forman. Both have a music focus, both have relationships that need saving or mending, both have changed points of view from the female voice in the first book (Lament and IfI Stay) to the male voice in the second and both show the strengthening talents of the writers. What is interesting is despite these parallels, they are distinctively different books.
Just like Forman with Where She Went, Ballad was a more polished, tighter book than Lament. I also love the fact a Gathering of Faerie is different from the Wolves of Mercy Falls. I read Mercy Falls first and loved it, but something about Faerie sings to me. The story seems deeper, more substantial, darker and less “mainstream.” I really hope Ballad is not the last we hear of the Faeries.
Recommended for: Stiefvater lovers.
