Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

[foxing_gloves]

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Book #1 of The Lumatere Chronicles
Year: 2008
Page Count: 508
Genre: YA High Fantasy
Warnings: slavery, rape, murder/death of children, refugees 

Summary: At the age of nine, Finnikin is warned by the gods that he must sacrifice a pound of flesh to save his kingdom. He stands on the rock of the three wonders with his friend Prince Balthazar and Balthazar's cousin, Lucian, and together they mix their blood to safeguard Lumatere.

But all safety is shattered during the five days of the unspeakable, when the king and queen and their children are brutally murdered in the palace. An impostor seizes the throne, a curse binds all who remain inside Lumatere's walls, and those who escape are left to roam the land as exiles, dying by the thousands in fever camps.

Ten years later, Finnikin is summoned to another rock--to meet Evanjalin, a young novice with a startling claim: Balthazar, heir to the throne of Lumatere, is alive. This arrogant young woman claims she'll lead Finnikin and his mentor, Sir Topher, to the prince. Instead, her leadership points them perilously toward home. Does Finnikin dare believe that Lumatere might one day rise united? Evanjalin is not what she seems, and the startling truth will test Finnikin's faith not only in her but in all he knows to be true about himself and his destiny.

Oh boy, this book had me confused.

I started reading this convinced I was going to like it. Melina Marchetta created a fully fleshed out world that I was eager to read about, especially concerning the plight of Lumatere and her people. It was such a huge scope of tragedy and Marchetta captured it in her writing in a painful and beautiful way.

But as I was reading, there were moments that really knocked me out of the story, moments where I didn't like where or how this story was progressing. I'm sad to say that a large part of why the book never clicked for me was the characterization of Evanjalin. It felt like the book was trying too hard to get me to like her. Honestly, I wanted to. Evanjalin was vulnerable and ambitious, motivated by good intentions to use manipulative tactics to get people to work in accordance with her plans. A complex character. (I totally guessed her true identity.)

And the manipulation is fine but then she keeps lying and betraying the trust of her allies, they react, call her out then shut up when they realize why she lied in the first place as though the ends justify the means. They forgive her and trust her wholeheartedly even though its completely irritating and nonsensical. But none of this would have been necessary if she had straight up just told them what she intended to do. Since I never really liked her, I just didn't buy into her romance with Finnikin which had all the trappings of EPIC LOVE that I adore.

I should mention the elephant in the room which is the character Froi. He attempts to rape Evanjalin at one point in the book. This is abhorrent to both readers and the characters themselves, thank god. Evanjalin says she'll never forget what he tried to do to her. But Froi continues to be part of the main cast, a lead in the second book of the series. My own thoughts and feelings are too sleep muddled to sift through it other than to know that I'm uncomfortable with it. There's probably a strong argument to be made that as a child, he had no concept of what he was doing, that his "redemption" is in keeping with the book's theme of combining the dark and light of a person's self.

But he tried to rape someone. It's hard for me to see anyway for a character like that to redeem himself.

Liked: the worldbuilding, the premise, the writing
Disliked: Evanjalin, the fantasy cliches

Rating: 2