Review: Finnikin of the Rock

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Lumatere Chronicles #1
Publisher: Candlewick
Release Date: April 6th, 2010
Source: Library
Date Read: 2/13/15 to 2/22/15
417 pages
Rating: ✰✰✰1/2

Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. But then Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar, is alive.

Evanjalin is determined to return home and she is the only one who can lead them to the heir. As they journey together, Finnikin is affected by her arrogance . . . and her hope. He begins to believe he will see his childhood friend, Prince Balthazar, again. And that their cursed people will be able to enter Lumatere and be reunited with those trapped inside. He even believes he will find his imprisoned father.

But Evanjalin is not what she seems. And the truth will test not only Finnikin's faith in her . . . but in himself.

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To be honest, Finnikin of the Rock was much different from what I expected. Like very different. As much as I wanted to love love LOVE this fantasy series, I had a lot of trouble with the "layered" writing (also known as purple prose, I think). But other than that, the plot twist and characters were amazing, amazing enough for me to want to continue the series.

The characters, Finnikin, Evanjalin, and Froi were amazing. I'm excited to see more of Froi in the next book in the series as he makes a life for himself. He changes so much throughout the story, and I pity him for how some of the characters treated him like nothing. So although I'm hoping for too much, but I hope that he has a happier story in his next book. 

Then there's also Evanjalin, who really stood out to me as a strong female lead. She constantly put her life in danger for her homeland, and the lengths she went through really surprised me. Even though she's not like some other badass female characters we see in other fantasy novels, her determination and courage really puts her up there with everyone else. 

As I said, one of my problems was the writing. The writing is something to get used to, and I'm hoping that this will be less of a problem as the series goes on. The main difference between Finnikin of the Rock and other fantasy novels, is how emotions and imagery replace the dialogue. There was much less dialogue than I thought there would be, and that requires much more attention. That, plus the mention of a ton of character names and landmarks, confused me more than I wanted it to. However, saying this, I can see why many people adore the series. This is a sort of writing style that you have to pay a lot of attention to when reading, because when you do, it's very rewarding. 

Yes, so please take my rating with a grain of salt. Oh and also my confusion, because I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I think every single one of my reviews mentions some sort of confusion. I AM JUST ALWAYS CONFUSED. Sorry. 

But seriously, I highly suggest everyone to try this out and form their own opinions, because a lot of readers and bloggers I know LOVE this series.