The Falconer by Elizabeth May
May brings us
savage, murderous faeries in her debut featuring a teenage girl with the
unique ability to hunt them down. A faery killed Aileana’s mother and
since then, she’s vowed to exact revenge upon it – as well as any other
faeries she can get her hands on, with the exception of a sympathetic
faery who trains her and a tiny pixie who keeps her company and mends
her clothing. The story, set in 1844, is notable for its exploration of
faery lore, which is (according to an author note) based on actual
Scottish mythology. May’s faeries are sometimes beautiful, sometimes
hideous, but always deadly, hearkening back to a time when all
supernatural beings were referred to as faeries by the Scots.

There’s
some romantic tension between Aileana and her trainer, the faery
Kiaran, who sometimes seems human and at other times is definitely,
absolutely not. It kind of works, if you can get past the fact that he’s
thousands of years old and she is a teenager. The writing is mostly
good, though not uniformly so. May is able to communicate quite clearly
how devastated Aileana is by her mother’s death. In many ways, this is a
very dark book, full of violence and despair. I wish the plot had been a
bit more complex – it mostly involves Aileana hunting faeries, then
strategizing with Kiaran once they learn that a whole horde of the most
dangerous kinds of faeries are about to be released upon the world. The
pseudo-twist ending may be the most interesting part of the book – too
bad we couldn’t get there sooner. Nevertheless, this should please fans of fairies and books heavy on action.

Sekret by Lindsay Smith
I was intrigued by the premise of this debut, which is set in Soviet Russia in 1963 and involves teenage psychics recruited (read: blackmailed) by the KGB into serving as spies. Protagonist Yulia is one of these spies. The KGB is threatening her family and coercing her into sabotaging the American space program.

Much of the book focuses on Yulia’s training as she struggles to discover who among the other recruits she can trust (none of them). She learns how to put up mental walls to fend off psychic attacks as well as how best to attack others, gleaning the information her captors require. Above all, she wants to escape and rescue her family.

What this book does well is portray Yulia’s internal struggles – her mind under attack from others, her desperation over her situation, her struggle to hone her skills. I wished the plot were a bit more exciting, though. For a story about spies, it’s pretty slow and the missions they’re sent on aren’t terribly exciting. I have trouble remembering much of them at all. As with The Falconer, there’s some interesting stuff right at the end, but up to that point, there’s just not a lot going on. But psychics and spies are both trendy now, so I expect a book featuring them working for the KGB will go over well.

Review copies provided by the publishers. The Falconer will be available May 6. Sekret is available now.