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A review by sistermagpie
The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan
5.0
I read this little excerpt from a review of this book:
"The dialogue remains arch and witty, while the intimate narration, focused almost entirely through Mae, reveals that she's being played falsely by most of the men and a few of the demons in her life. She is no girlie victim led around by her hormones, however; instead her urge to protect those she loves and those she owes engenders a strong will and an independent streak that enable her to stand fast in the wake of betrayal."
Ain't that the truth. Mae's played by every guy so much I never even thought of it as Mae being played by guys, because for Mae that's apparently just everyday life. But the important bit is that second sentence here, how "she is no girlie victim led around by her hormones, however; instead her urge to protect those she loves and those she owes engenders a strong will and an independent streak that enable her to stand fast in the wake of betrayal."
For me I think it even goes beyond that, that for Mae it's not even betrayal. Because Mae, despite having pink hair, is at heart a very practical, self-aware person. In a world where you almost always expect the teen heroine to be led around by her hormones, in search for a guy for whom she can toss out logic in favor of emotion, Mae is physically incapable of not being level-headed and realistic about all her relationships. This is clear in the first book where she states outright she will not be joining in on any melodramatic love triangles between Jamie and Nick just because she's attracted to both of them. In this book she has another wonderful line that I'm not quoting exactly, but basically comes down to her responding to the idea of "choosing X" person by saying that nobody's "choosing" anybody like she's the heroine in a Victorian novel choosing between suitors. She's just a teenaged girl who is considering going out with more than one guy.
The relationships that drive Mae have very little to do with passion. (Not that she's never passionate. She's all for passion. It's just not usually in control, making those moments when it is morehot unusual.) She's not a girl primarily looking for love or understanding, and while she often acts out of loyalty or love for others, those actions always fall in line with what she thinks is the right thing to do. Because Mae's identity is mostly about staying true to her own values and trying to do what's right, she's far less vulnerable to the embarassment that's often the standard emotion in books about teens. Mae might be wrong in her facts or understanding, but rarely ashamed of what she did while being wrong if that makes sense.
Which brings me back to the fact that Mae gets played by everybody in this book--you can see why she really would find it refreshing to be with a guy like Nick who can't lie. The question of why guys lie, though, was pretty central. Jamie lies because he's afraid of rejection if his family finds out he's a magician. Seb lies for a similar reason. In both cases, lying winds up causing the very thing they're trying to avoid: Mae is angry at Jamie for lying, Jamie thinks Seb is a jerk. (I should note here that Seb and Jamie are bad liars.)
And then there's Alan, one of the good liars. I felt like the scene where Mae confronts (or just acknowledges) Alan's manipulations was one of those quiet moments that contained things really really important for the series, emotionally speaking. To manipulate Mae, Alan played on her sympathies, her desire to be fair, her genuine care for Alan, her believing Alan deserving of love. Deeper than that, it relied on what seems to me to be Alan's total conviction that he will not (would not? should not?) be loved. When Mae points out what he threw away--the chance that she might have fallen in love with him if she'd given him a chance, Alan can only thank her for saying so, as if they both know that wasn't a real risk.
One of the things I love about Sarah's characters, whether her own or her take on someone else's, is that they tend to be shaped by fundamental truths they believe about themselves or the world. Beliefs that are so solid they are barely aware they have them, much less aware of how those beliefs govern their actions and shape their relationships into what they expect. Demon's Lexicon showed us just how much Nick has been shaped by his relationship with Alan. This book had ominous rumblings of just how much Alan has been shaped (warped?) by his relationship with Nick, one where Alan gives and Nick doesn't--at least, not in ways that Alan always recognizes. One of his father's journal entries already pointed out Alan's blindspot in this area. Mae, too, has picked up on the potentially overpowering longing Alan denies, but which is obvious when he sees his brother has lit a lantern for him. He's thrilled at the lantern, but at the same time denies that it means anything like what he really wants it to mean.
Alan's entire understanding of himself seems based on not being loved. Reading the scene between him and Mae I couldn't help but imagine her face with a sort of growing realization--a troubling one, as she thought about Alan taking something he did actually want (a relationship with her) and using it to his own advantage by putting it out of reach forever. That's just...wow, Alan is really just as extreme as Nick in his isolation from humanity and just as removed in his dealings with the world. He has, in a sense, turned himself into another type of demon, only by intention rather than by nature. I don't think Mae would be the person capable of changing that, even if she already sees it.
I do, btw, have some ideas about shipping on that score, but I'm not going to make predictions because I fear being wrong. And also I don't know how Sarah will do it. I just think it's going to be really really cool to watch!
"The dialogue remains arch and witty, while the intimate narration, focused almost entirely through Mae, reveals that she's being played falsely by most of the men and a few of the demons in her life. She is no girlie victim led around by her hormones, however; instead her urge to protect those she loves and those she owes engenders a strong will and an independent streak that enable her to stand fast in the wake of betrayal."
Ain't that the truth. Mae's played by every guy so much I never even thought of it as Mae being played by guys, because for Mae that's apparently just everyday life. But the important bit is that second sentence here, how "she is no girlie victim led around by her hormones, however; instead her urge to protect those she loves and those she owes engenders a strong will and an independent streak that enable her to stand fast in the wake of betrayal."
For me I think it even goes beyond that, that for Mae it's not even betrayal. Because Mae, despite having pink hair, is at heart a very practical, self-aware person. In a world where you almost always expect the teen heroine to be led around by her hormones, in search for a guy for whom she can toss out logic in favor of emotion, Mae is physically incapable of not being level-headed and realistic about all her relationships. This is clear in the first book where she states outright she will not be joining in on any melodramatic love triangles between Jamie and Nick just because she's attracted to both of them. In this book she has another wonderful line that I'm not quoting exactly, but basically comes down to her responding to the idea of "choosing X" person by saying that nobody's "choosing" anybody like she's the heroine in a Victorian novel choosing between suitors. She's just a teenaged girl who is considering going out with more than one guy.
The relationships that drive Mae have very little to do with passion. (Not that she's never passionate. She's all for passion. It's just not usually in control, making those moments when it is more
Which brings me back to the fact that Mae gets played by everybody in this book--you can see why she really would find it refreshing to be with a guy like Nick who can't lie. The question of why guys lie, though, was pretty central. Jamie lies because he's afraid of rejection if his family finds out he's a magician. Seb lies for a similar reason. In both cases, lying winds up causing the very thing they're trying to avoid: Mae is angry at Jamie for lying, Jamie thinks Seb is a jerk. (I should note here that Seb and Jamie are bad liars.)
And then there's Alan, one of the good liars. I felt like the scene where Mae confronts (or just acknowledges) Alan's manipulations was one of those quiet moments that contained things really really important for the series, emotionally speaking. To manipulate Mae, Alan played on her sympathies, her desire to be fair, her genuine care for Alan, her believing Alan deserving of love. Deeper than that, it relied on what seems to me to be Alan's total conviction that he will not (would not? should not?) be loved. When Mae points out what he threw away--the chance that she might have fallen in love with him if she'd given him a chance, Alan can only thank her for saying so, as if they both know that wasn't a real risk.
One of the things I love about Sarah's characters, whether her own or her take on someone else's, is that they tend to be shaped by fundamental truths they believe about themselves or the world. Beliefs that are so solid they are barely aware they have them, much less aware of how those beliefs govern their actions and shape their relationships into what they expect. Demon's Lexicon showed us just how much Nick has been shaped by his relationship with Alan. This book had ominous rumblings of just how much Alan has been shaped (warped?) by his relationship with Nick, one where Alan gives and Nick doesn't--at least, not in ways that Alan always recognizes. One of his father's journal entries already pointed out Alan's blindspot in this area. Mae, too, has picked up on the potentially overpowering longing Alan denies, but which is obvious when he sees his brother has lit a lantern for him. He's thrilled at the lantern, but at the same time denies that it means anything like what he really wants it to mean.
Alan's entire understanding of himself seems based on not being loved. Reading the scene between him and Mae I couldn't help but imagine her face with a sort of growing realization--a troubling one, as she thought about Alan taking something he did actually want (a relationship with her) and using it to his own advantage by putting it out of reach forever. That's just...wow, Alan is really just as extreme as Nick in his isolation from humanity and just as removed in his dealings with the world. He has, in a sense, turned himself into another type of demon, only by intention rather than by nature. I don't think Mae would be the person capable of changing that, even if she already sees it.
I do, btw, have some ideas about shipping on that score, but I'm not going to make predictions because I fear being wrong. And also I don't know how Sarah will do it. I just think it's going to be really really cool to watch!