Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff Published by Razorbill on August 14th, 2014
Genres: Gothic Horror
Goodreads
Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten.
Now she’s out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.
When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher sets her free. Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged.
A while before I started blogging I read The Space Between by Brenna Yovanoff. It wasn’t highly ranked on Goodreads, I didn’t have any bookish friends to tell me to try it or anything like that. I just wandered the library and stumbled across this magnificently detailed and somehow depressing cover.
I took it home and read it in one sitting. Loving this amazing and heartbreaking story with it’s characters that felt in a way that made you want to do something to help. It was after reading The Space Between that I realized if Brenna Yovanoff wrote it I had to read it. So it comes as no surprise that when I was wandering the library, yet again, and stumbled across Fiendish all shiny on the shelves I snatched it right up and scurried home with it. But this time was different.
For the first 160-166 pages I really wasn’t in love with Fiendish. In fact I was downright disappointed in it and wondered if maybe The Space Between wasn’t as good as I remembered. Maybe I had built Yovanoff up into this all mighty author who had this power to drag me into a gothic and scary world. Obviously, from the 4.5 shiny stars above, all this thinking was an overreaction.
Have you ever had one scene. One freaking scene completely change your thoughts and feels about a book? Sure it’s happened in the early parts of a book but how often does this happen once you’ve hit the 48% mark? Hardly ever right? By that point you’ve made up your mind and you’re only continuing because you are mildly curious. Nothing by that point can really change your viewpoint. But this is exactly what happened with Fiendish and I! One scene of absolute perfection change all that disappointment I was feeling into full blown love.
Yovanoff has again created a darkness and twisted world that just sucks you in. Even though the setting was just a podunk town in the middle of nowhere the history of that town along with the characters just made it seem that much more tangible. And UGH the characters! So much love for Shiny (stupid name yes but oh well), Rae, Fisher, CLEMENTINE! Every character in Fiendish was essential to the story without being overbearing or too much. Each one of them had these giant personalities and wills and a way of never overshadowing one another. It was honestly the perfect character dynamic. Add in the most perfect piece of romance and oh my gosh Yovanoff you slay me! It didn’t take up the entire story, it was palpable, and best of all it was REAL!
The plot was a bit of a toss up personally. It starts with a bang and it was forever unravelling but I admit there were many times when I found myself a little lost. Confused on what they were talking about or where a particular conversation was going. This is not to say the plot was weak, just that everything had to come together later and I’m one of those impatient types. I need to know why something is happening, who is behind it and what they’re going to do to stop it. All this came to light, I just had to get over my “give it to me now” mentality.
I want to say more THINGS about Fiendish but there is no way I’ll be able to form more coherent thoughts. Just go grab a copy already!
