Review: The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

Title: The Demon's Surrender (The Demon's Lexicon, #3)

Author: Sarah Rees Brennan 

Rating: 3 Stars 

*If you haven't picked up SRB's Demon's Lexicon Trilogy, you probably won't understand too much of this review. In my opinion, the spoilers are minimal and not likely to affect your reading experience, but if you prefer not to know anything about the rest of the trilogy before picking up this series, I suggest you skip this review.* 

I hate to say it, but The Demon's Surrender is my least favorite of all Sarah Rees Brennan's work. Brennan first blew me away with The Demon's Lexicon, a novel with such complex relationships and so much depth that it made its way to my favorites shelf instantly. The Demon's Covenant, the sequel, was just as good, deep, and rich in complexity which I loved. While the love triangle did lower my rating for that one, it left me more than a little excited for this installment. However, when I heard the narrator would be Sin, I didn't bother to pick it up - until now, of course, after reading the brilliance that was Unspoken and being reminded of just how much I love SRB.

The Demon's Surrender contains SRB's signature wit, dialogue, and tight plot lines. I love the direction she takes the story of this trilogy and it's one of my favorite trilogies simply because this ending was so satisfying in terms of plot. Not only that, but her characters are ones that stay with you for a looong time, proving to be unique and each carry their own special voice. Yet, what proved to be a massive disappointment in this installment was none other than Sin's narration.

Sin has never been my favorite character. Ever. Thus, I have to applaud Brennan for making me appreciate, understand, and even like her with this book. Yet, Sin represents too much of what I hate in protagonists. I love that she's a feminine character who uses her body, but with the just the right boundaries that she never appears as a slut. I love that she cares for her family so much and would sacrifice her life for them. I love that she is so fiercely strong. What I don't love, however, is that I was expecting more from her narration than I received. I was expecting Sin's love for the Market to seep through these pages, making the Market take on a life-form of its own that it had never done with Nick and Mae's narration. Instead, the Market isn't a huge part of this novel and instead, romance unfortunately is.

Sin's gradual romance with Alan is, in my opinion at least, rather sudden. I understood it and all the reasons behind it, but I never felt it. Sin and Alan making out for pages on end? Yup, I couldn't care less. Why couldn't Nick and Mae make put for pages on end? Furthermore, what bothered me about their love story was that Sin was constantly angsting over it for the first half of this novel. It was literally just so much angst when she had so many other things to think about too! If that wasn't enough, Sin actually has to resort to hiding in the shadows for us to hear any of Nick and Mae's conversations! I am a huge Nick and Mae shipper - you can throw any realistic justification of those two you want at me, but my romantic heart still keeps beating for them. To have their moments marred by the presence of Sin lurking in the corner was just...irritating! I didn't enjoy it. I also felt as if a lot of important conversations occurred between Nick and Mae during the second-half of the novel and the fact that we weren't able to hear them grated on me. Sin's narration simply didn't work with this book and it took away some of that essential depth I always feel with Brennan's work. I honestly think that if this was written from the perspective of one of the other characters, it could have been so much stronger.

Nevertheless, there is no denying that this is a fabulous trilogy and, despite my disappointments with the narrative style, I loved the ending of this series. SRB is a fantastic author - that much is evident from this series - and I can only hope her next trilogy will end off on a slightly more satisfying note. 


Reader's Note: I sincerely hope this review doesn't discourage you from picking up this trilogy! It's one of my favorite series ever and the first two books are simply mind blowing! I cannot recommend them enough and I'm convinced other readers will love this installment unlike I have.