Review: Finnikin of the Rock - Melina Marchetta

Finnikin of the Rock
by Melina Marchetta
Young Adult
Read From: May 8, 2012 - May 14, 2012

Review

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As with all books I end up not liking, I’ll start with the pros first, and unfortunately it is a very short list. This is an “epic fantasy” that could have been so very good. The Author’s writing style was nice, Evanjalin is a strong heroine whose bossiness is understandable and even commendable rather than annoying, the storyline itself is intriguing, and the end is exciting and resolves all the questions and relationships.

And that is where my praise ends. The Author somehow seems to think that the only sort of joke real men can make are sexual jokes, and thus all - and I mean all - of her male characters are always, always, always cracking sexual innuendos, not a single one of them has any form of honor and thus partake of every brothel they can find, and very few of them have much of a personality. Finnikin is a mildly okay hero, except he has a serious case of little-man syndrome, he’s a womanizer, has a temper, takes forever to accept his fate, and then gets all sulky when he discovers his true “destiny,” and his affections for Evanjalin don’t feel genuine at all. The only thing that kept me from positively hating him was that he was not very whiny. Sulky, yes; temperamental, yes; has a big problem with relinquishing control, yes; but not whiny.

Content-wise, the Author seems to have a problem with using the word "dung" or even "crap." But she has no issues with using the s-word, and in abundance: 6 total. And there's all the sexual jokes, and another character tries to rape Evanjalin.

All in all, I found this to be a frustrating read. I liked Evanjalin and I liked the world, but I didn't care for any of the other characters nor the content.

Others in the Chronicles of Lumatere:
1)Finnikin of the Rock
2)Froi of the Exiles
3)Quintana of Charyn