Traveling to Teens Book Tour- The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it's not called Gaelic) but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. The books most often found under her desk were Jane Austen, Margaret Mahy, Anthony Trollope, Robin McKinley and Diana Wynne Jones, and she still loves them all today.

After college she lived briefly in New York and somehow survived in spite of her habit of hitching lifts in fire engines. She began working on The Demon’s Lexicon while doing a Creative Writing MA and library work in Surrey, England. Since then she has returned to Ireland to write and use as a home base for future adventures. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it.

The Demon’s Lexicon is her first novel.


The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick's mother stole -- a charm that keeps her alive -- and they want it badly enough to kill again. Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon's mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase...and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is des-perate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long. Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians' Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all. This is the Demon's Lexicon. Turn the page.

It took me a while to get into this book; it was like 3 weeks with me trying to read this book. Now, that doesn't mean this was a bad book. It's just not the most enthralling in the beginning, but it gets better toward the end. In fact, the ending (and, in particular, two OMGOMGOMG moments) makes the whole book worthwhile and I'm really excited for the sequel. I really enjoyed the characters in the book and all of them have such amazing depth to them, my favorite being Jamie. I loved his humor throughout the book and probably also because he reminds me of myself a bit. That brings me to another point that I loved in this book- while the book is pretty dark, Brennan injects humor throughout it and in all the right places. It made for an interesting read- not many people can pull off both a dark fantasy and comedy at the same time and have it work. I can't wait for the sequel to come out.


This has been a production of Traveling to Teens.