by Franny Billingsley
Main Players: Briony Larkin, Rose Larkin, and Eldric Clayborne
Place: Swampsea
Moment Divine: "All messages exchanged between members of the Fraternitus are, of course, secret. When you have read this letter, eat it!
P.S. I'm fairly sure I didn't use the poisoned ink.
I do not believe you used the poisoned ink, unless it is of the slow-acting variety. Please advise."
This book was an interesting mix of fantasy and adorable. They live in a very dark and dreary area where bad things happen all the time. This is no big deal. Adorable comes in the form of the relationship between Eldric and Briony. This is the type of relationship I think many of us wish to find. The two of them are so comfortable with each other that bit by bit all is revealed and accepted. At the same time there is a fair bit of distraction and misdirection going on around this relationship. I admit to being in the dark as to Eldric's intentions for quite some time.
I also really liked the message the book was putting across. It seems to me that we all have at least one horrible lie we have told are selves so long we believe it. This is what made it so much easier to identify with Briony. This book was a journey of discovering the lie and then breaking it up and trying to put truth in its place. I liked that healing seemed to go all around for the entire family as this progresses.
I was also impressed that the author could sell whatever she was peddling and I could rarely see through the facade. This all made for such a ride of a story. I definitely recommend this book for those who can stand a bit of horror and still be open and ready for the small precious moments.
