Faery Snuff Books

Just finished reading Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple. He is the son of Jane Yolen, a noted author of practically everything, but primarily retellings of fairy tales. This is Stemple's first solo book. *shudder*

I'll admit, he is a good writer. The writing was sharp and interesting: not too much detail, not too little. Character development was very good for the main character, though a little shallow for the secondaries (which is pretty typical). I truly enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book...and then the joy ended.

The plot, without giving too much away, revolves around Douglas, a recovering heroin addict. Douglas is from Minneapolis and decides to move to Scotland to live with his grandmother as a means of getting away from his old junkie life. Douglas is a singer and busks on street corners as a way of making his money. His one hook is that he has the ability to write songs for people (a "theme" song) within a few minutes of meeting them and after asking them only a few questions about themselves. He does a good business in Edinburgh until he meets Aine, a faery queen who asks him to write a song for her. In exchange, she gives him a vial of powder. Assuming it is drugs, he avoids it for awhile but eventually caves in to temptation and shoots it into his system. Unfortunately for Douglas, the vial was not drugs, but a potion that imbues him with the power of "the sight" - the ability to see faeries.

I'm a fan of urban fantasy and I'm used to the runaway junkie storyline. It is usually pretty stark and a little disturbing, but a really good writer can usually temper the disturbing images with dark humour and a light touch. In my opinion, Stemple didn't pull it off. The story was really interesting, but it got really violent...and the violence was pointless. Yes, I do think there is violence that has a point in books (re: the graphic novel of The Crow), but that's another story. The ending was bloody, horrific, disturbing...and it fell flat. It was like one of those bad horror movies where you're standing there at the end saying, "that was it?"

I don't recommend this book. It left me feeling disappointed. If the ending can't be happy and if the ending can't provide resolution, it should at least be thought-provoking. This was not. If you want a similar storyline, but want to read something good, check out Holly Black's Valiant.

Happy Reading!