Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

Target Audience: Teens/Young Adults
Genre: Faerie/Fantasy

I like to start with the positives wherever possible so that's what i do. Firstly, i'd like to say i want to give this a very good/ok rating rather than just an okay because it was slightly more than average but not into the awesome rating. When i have a split opinion like this i do find it easier to bullet point, so please do excuse my use of incorrect paragraphs:

1. The concept was wonderful and so unqiue that i was captured by it from start to finish. At times the devastation left from the war was so bad that i forgot it was set in a future/present time (i never found out which). It was only when Liza started having visions with roads and cars etc that i got reminded what century the book was set in.

2. The setting was another positive, for the whole book all you see is the damage left from Faerie attacks but then i felt an awful twist inside when i got a glimpse of the damage done to the Faerie world, it left me feeling stunned.

3. I have to admire an author who writes a faerie story that has hardly any faeries in it, and those that do are not the focal characters, in fact the impression i got was the fae were supposed to me merged more with our world than before.

4. The ending surprised me and i was left feeling very sad with the death of the poor cat. (poor tallow) It might sound silly but that cat was one of my favourite characters. And when Rebecca disappeared for the final time, i had to choke back a sob.

BUT...there some things that niggled me which brought the mark to a 3.5 (however much it hurt to, because the ending really moved me)

1. The characters weren't given enough depth, and i felt that i never got to know them very well at all and as a result i didn't particularly get attached to any of them. (Although i really loved Rebecca the shadow child and Tallow the cat!)

2. The plot itself also lacked depth. I would have loved the book to be more detailed and descriptive. Not too over done, but it would have been nice to know why the war happened for example, or what happened during the war. I appriciate that it was probably meant to be written this way, but i felt i needed to know more, or maybe that's just me.

In summery this was a good book. Loved the concept and plot but could have done with more description and character depth. But otherwise good. I'll probably still try some of her other books when i get the chance!