Finnikin of the Rock by Melina MarchettaSeries: Lumatere Chronicles #1
Published by Candlewick Press on June 6, 2010
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 416
Amazon • Book Depository •
At the age of nine, Finnikin is warned by the gods that he must sacrifice a pound of flesh to save his kingdom. He stands on the rock of the three wonders with his friend Prince Balthazar and Balthazar's cousin, Lucian, and together they mix their blood to safeguard Lumatere.
But all safety is shattered during the five days of the unspeakable, when the king and queen and their children are brutally murdered in the palace. An impostor seizes the throne, a curse binds all who remain inside Lumatere's walls, and those who escape are left to roam the land as exiles, dying by the thousands in fever camps.
Ten years later, Finnikin is summoned to another rock--to meet Evanjalin, a young novice with a startling claim: Balthazar, heir to the throne of Lumatere, is alive. This arrogant young woman claims she'll lead Finnikin and his mentor, Sir Topher, to the prince. Instead, her leadership points them perilously toward home. Does Finnikin dare believe that Lumatere might one day rise united? Evanjalin is not what she seems, and the startling truth will test Finnikin's faith not only in her but in all he knows to be true about himself and his destiny.
I read this and I’m going to tell you right now–I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Of course, I’ve heard everyone squealing about this one, people trying to get me to read it, saying that as a high fantasy fan I absolutely had to read it. I was skeptical though. We all know the dangers of putting a book on a pedestal before we’ve read it.
But damn, this book deserved that pedestal.
It was hard getting into it at first and I actually put it down a few times in the beginning, but once I passed the 100 page mark, I was absolutely hooked. I couldn’t get enough of this so real world, and these completely flawed characters who were loyal to the core.
The large cast of characters who were all so fully developed was absolutely wonderful. All of them were so different, each of them with different opinions, but it was hard not to understand where all these people were coming from, no matter how frustrated you got. It’s hard to do that, especially for characters you’ve just met, but Finnikin of the Rock just managed to pull it off with what seemed like ease. There were so many characters that, in other books, would’ve been the antagonists, the traitors, and the villains, but Marchetta manages to create other characters who give second chances, who focus on who, not when or what. There were characters who saw futures for these so-called “evil characters” and it was just…wow. I’m blown away by these characters.
Also? Go Marchetta for getting a boy’s voice right! And it was just amazing seeing a kickass heroine from the hero’s point of view. Why isn’t this a Thing again?
What got to me, especially, was the worldbuilding and the author’s writing style. How easily Marchetta wrote about Lumatere and all these other countries, about these exiles, and these politics was absolutely stunning. We never went in depth, there were no info dumping paragraphs, but I still got the complete wonder that was the land of Skuldenore. Marchetta has a way of making the phrase “Less is more” come to life. There were societies, cultures, relations, that all came away from the words she wrote and fixed themselves into my minds. At this point, I could probably recite almost everything about the world from memory (or not, but you get my point.)
THE PLOT. I did not get that twist until maybe 50 pages before it was written in plain sight, but still. You just can’t imagine how mindblown I was when I finally read it though. It’s one of those twists that you think may be true, but it still shocks you when you’re right. I can’t even with how amazing the plot is though. Fight scenes, pacing, the introduction of all these new characters. Oh, it was so perfect and heartwrenching and basically I HAD THE FEELZ. I can’t even really say anything because nothing I say will give you a good representation of how much I loved this, but UGH.
Last, but oh so not least, the romance. The romance is a funny thing because, while you know it’s happening, it’s practically impossible to pinpoint exactly where our hero’s fell in love. They, at most, tolerated each other, but then…it was more. Then they loved each other. It was a gradual thing that I absolutely adored, and I don’t think I could’ve had more feelings for these two lovers than I did. It was just absolutely ADORABLE and sweet and gut wrenching and I just. Ugh. AND THE ENDING. THE FRIGGIN ENDING. *Clutches heart*
I rarely rarely RARELY review anything that’s more than a year old. This book is four years old. But I reviewed it because it is ABSOLUTELY FRICKIN AMAZING. There is absolutely nothing I’d complain about (not even the slow beginning because even that added to the story.) I’m marking this as a ten star. Absolutely.
