Title: Seven Black Diamonds
Author: Melissa Marr
Publisher: HarperCollins
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Therese Plummer
Running Time: 9 hours, 52 minutes, 51 seconds
Source: OverDrive/Public Library
Goodreads Summary:Lilywhite Abernathy is a criminal. Her father’s “unconventional” business has meant a life of tightly held secrets, concealed weaponry, and a strict code. But Lily’s crime isn’t being the daughter of a powerful mob boss. Her guilt lies in the other half of her DNA—the part that can coax ancient rumors from stones and summon fire with a thought. Lily is part fae, which is a crime in her world.
From the time before she was born, a war has been raging between humanity and fae. The Queen of Blood and Rage, ruler of both the Seelie and Unseelie courts, wants to avenge the tragic death of her heir—a death that was the fault of reckless humans.
Lily’s father has shielded her from the repercussions of her ancestry…until she is sent to the prestigious St. Columba’s school, straight into the arms of the Black Diamonds.
Mysterious, glamorous, and bound together in their mission but constantly at odds, Zephyr, Creed, Will, Roan, Violet, and Alkamy are a Sleeper cell of fae, planted in the human world to help destroy it from within. With covers as rock stars and celebrity children, the Black Diamonds carry out the queen’s war against humanity. And unbeknownst to Lilywhite, she’s been chosen to join them.
Now more than ever, Lily’s heritage puts her in peril, and even the romantic attention of the fae singer Creed Morrison isn’t enough to keep Lily from wanting to run back to the safer world of organized crime.
Melissa Marr returns to faery in a dramatic story of the precarious space between two worlds and the people who must thrive there.
My Rating: DNF at 85%, 1/5 Stars
My thoughts: Brace yourself for a rant, ladies and gents, because boy did I dislike this book. The premise of this book was super interesting–fairies and terrorists and Hollywood–but the execution was horrific. I’m sad to say this is my first permanent DNF and 1 star read of the year, but I’m even sadder that I wasted so much time trying to read the bloody book.
The characters were so bland and had no defining personality traits whatsoever. This made it really hard to get invested in them. They all felt the same. I don’t even have anything to say about any of them and that’s sad because this was a multiple POV book! You’d think that with a POV from almost all of the main cast we’d get to know them a bit but nope!
And the plot! Argh! I mean, excuse me, but can someone tell me the actual plot of this novel? Because there was literally no point to the story. All of the actions lead nowhere. And there were two plotlines! And they both lead nowhere!
Not only that, but there were no real explanations as to why things happened. Why was the Queen of Blood and Rage so awful? Why did she need the sleepers? What was their point other than to blow things up???
And holy instalove! I mean take a chill pill, guys. One minute Lily and Creed are meeting, the next they’re pledging their life to each other! WHO DOES THAT?!?! YOU DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER!!!!
The writing was bad. There was way too much telling, not enough showing. The writing was too description and the prose was clogged with long descriptions of how people looked. I don’t need a paragraph describing how a character looks!
And the multiple POVs–there was no point to them! They didn’t add any new information to the story or advance the plotline! It was like the author just threw them in the story for kicks!
There’s a fair bit of racial commentary (the fae and half fae are often characterized by dark skin, causing them to look Hispanic or African American). It’s noted how people get discriminated against for being African American or fae. Once it is even noted how one of the main characters would be racially profiled and arrested if he had’t been so famous. I think the commentary was done tastefully. It didn’t beat you over the head, but it wasn’t so hidden you couldn’t see it either. So that was nice, I guess.
As for the audiobook, the narration was okay, not great, but okay. The narrator spoke with an Irish accent for Lily, but otherwise there wasn’t much to distinguish the characters from one another aside from using a lower voice for male characters. I don’t know why the narrator used an Irish accent for Lil,y though, as nothing in the text indicated she spoke with an accent or was from Ireland. I think the story would have been better suited to have multiple narrators, just because there were so many POVs.
All in all I’m so disappointed with this book. I was hoping for so much more, but was so let down. 1 Star.
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