REVIEW: Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Pages: 342

Publication: October 2006

(Dell)

Goodreads Summary: MacKayla Lane’s life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she’s your perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman. Or so she thinks…until something extraordinary happens.

When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister’s killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed–a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae….

As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane–an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women–closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac’s true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book–because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds in their hands…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Review: I want to start by saying that I read the first two (2) books in this series, Darkfever and Bloodfever, years ago… Bloodfever had just been released… after reading the author’s Highlander series, and LOVING… (and perhaps lusting)… them! This review is based upon a recent revamp of the books, due to many of my friends reading the series. Though this book is older than most we review here on BtC, the series is ongoing, the latest book having been released earlier this year.

Darkfever is an urban fantasy that tells the story of MacKayla “Mac” Lane, a 22-year-old young woman from Ashford, GA, a small town deep in the Bible Belt. Mac is a bartender at a local bar. She’s in college, but only because her parents require her to be. She’s fortunate enough to live a very happy, carefree life where her biggest concerns are the possibility of her favorite lip gloss or nail polish being discontinued, or her tan being uneven.

But Mac’s happy world implodes one day when she receives a call telling her that her sister, Alina, has been murdered while studying at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland. Grieving and feeling that the police aren’t trying to solve her sister’s murder, Mac decides to go to Ireland and use the “in your face” method to get them to investigate further. Soon after her arrival, Mac begins seeing strange, unbelievable things. It is in this way, during a scene where Mac is having dinner at a pub, that we are introduced to Moning’s fae. These are not the winged fairies of your childhood, but dark and dangerous beings who use glamour to hunt their prey… humans.

Darkfever is an unusual blend of a novel… an urban fantasy with a mystery woven into it. The supernatural world unfolds as Mac desperately searches for who… or what… killed her sister. Moning keeps us in suspense throughout the book, not revealing Alina’s murderer until the end.

I have to admit that I didn’t feel Mac, at first. She is painted as very shallow, initially. I’m a character driven reader, so this was a major turn off for me. I struggled with the idea of this Georgia peach surviving alone in a foreign country, especially once the supernatural world began to unfurl around her. But Darkfever is a story of self-discovery for Mac. She learns much about herself, including what she is, and the truth of her and her sister’s birth. In the end, Mac won me over. She’s much stronger than we’re led to believe in the initial characterization we’re given. Stronger than she herself knew she could be. She’s sarcastic, witty and I love her “Southern” euphemisms. I think Mac’s momma and my momma would’ve gotten along famously.

We also meet the intriguing Jerricho Barrons in this book. Barrons is the owner of a book store Mac stumbles into. And don’t we all wish we had a Barrons’ Books and Baubles in our neighborhood! At the end of Darkfever, Barrons is still shrouded in mystery. I’m unsure if he’s a good guy or a bad guy using Mac for his own nefarious purposes. But there is an undeniable chemistry between Barrons and Mac… it practically sizzles and scorches the page.

There were some things that caused me to have difficulty getting into this book, and while I’ve recommended the series to many friends over the years, I’ve always done so with a disclaimer that it is hard to get into. You have to be willing to stick with it. Moning’s choice to write in the first person retrospective robs the book of the tension and suspense first person point of view usually provides, and distances the reader from events. Obviously Mac survives, or she couldn’t tell her story. Also, the continual use of names between Mac and Barrons is awkward. It’s not natural in conversation, and disrupts the flow of dialogue.

However, the good points greatly outweigh the bad, and made the book well worth the initial struggle I had. The world Moning has crafted in Darkfever is very visual. There is an atmosphere to the story, and it is in turn horrifying and chilling, inviting and seductive. There are ideas about the abilities of the fae which are different and interesting. There is an ever present air of danger throughout the book.

And underneath the supernatural is a story that will resound with many. Darkfever is a story about dealing with tragedy and coping with grief. Mac's phone calls home are actually painful to read.

Overall, Darkfever is a good read and an interesting beginning to this series. I stand by my oft given disclaimer… you must be willing to give the book a chance. If you do, you will come to love the characters, want to linger in this dark, dangerous and fascinating world.

Rating: 3.5 stars