If its there, I've read it.: Book Review: Wings

Title: Wings
Author: Aprilynne Pike
Series: Wings (Book#1)
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Publisher: HarperCollins & Harper Teen.

SUMMARY: Laurel Seawell, a home schooled 16 year old, moves to Crescent City, California with her family and starts to attend regular high school. There, she meets David, a kind human boy that Laurel begins to grow attached to. When autumn comes, Laurel discovers a small flower growing on her back, and she meets Tamani, who not only explains that she is an autumn faery in blossom, but who claims he knows her, and soon, Laurel discovers the secrets about her past.

***

The fear that had been soothed by "The Iron King" by Julie Kawaga was reawakened when I read "Wings" by Aprilynne Pike. As I stated before, I was always afraid that any faery book I'd read would be too chilish, naive, and have too many unrealistic characters and interactions because of the fact that it was, indeed, a faery book. This all happened in Wings, a story about 16 year old Laurel Seawell who discovers that she is a faery. I can't express how much I want to like this story as much as I liked The Iron King. But I can't like it quite as much.

Though I appreciate that the author had enough creativity to create an original take on faeries, I have to say sometimes that original idea didn't work out as much as the author might've planned. The idea that faeries grow flowers on their backs once a year (like, for example, a girl's menstrual cycle comes monthly, only in a faery's case, their flower, or 'blossom', comes yearly, depending on what season the faery was born in.) is nice enough, and Avalon, the faery world, is cute. That's the problem. Nothing about this story is serious. I don't mean each and every story needs to be all serious and all that, but honestly, I think this belongs in the childrens section. So why did I find it under Paranormal romance at Barnes&Noble? Maybe some misplacement on the part of the employes?

Laurel, David, Chelsea and Tamani, the main characters of this story (Chelsea is more of a supporting character), are all kind, naive, innocent and...boring. Every single character was made just to tell Laurel how special she is. David, who for some obscene (for lack of words) reason is in love with Laurel, spends the entire book standing by Laurel and admiring her, how beautiful she is, and how kind and pure. David himself is all nice, and kind, and pure. They're all nice and kind and pure. Chelsea, even, who is supposed to play the role of the "bold, funny, daring best friend" and has a crush on David, spends the entire story either pining over David, or saying to Laurel, "Well, if he has to like someone else, I'm glad it's you. You are so wonderful.You are amazing. And nice. And pretty." I mean, thats a great friend, but what else does Chelsea do, besides tell Laurel how glad she is that she [Laurel] and David are together? Nothing! David, as I said, spends the whole time being smitten by Laurel. Does he not have a life? I mean, he never gets mad at her, even when she flirts with Tamani - oh, that's another thing I don't like. Tamani adores her so much, and she encourages him- but when he thinks he has a shot, and gets hopefully, she goes and shuts him down again, going off with David. And her parents also adore her, which I respect- but come on. Mary-Sue? No wonder Stephenie Meyer liked this book. I think Bella and Laurel could be best friends. Laurel is beautiful, she doesn't menstruate (i get it, but its just unfair to all girls out there.), she's good at everything, everyone lives to tell her how much they adore her, she only eats healthy, she's skinny, and she's smart and even a "special" faery, because she was born in Autumn.

Face it. The only reason this isn't in the Childrens section is because there are guns involved. Like, none of the teenagers in this book make mistakes, have flaws, or do bad things. They're all nice, crisp, perfect little 16 year olds, when in real life, 16 year olds are driving at night, drinking, yadda yadda. I mean, this is like, worse than Disney. At least some Disney teenagers get in trouble in their TV Shows, like Alex Russo. But Laurel? Oh, never. The most trouble she's ever gotten in is...um, I'll get back to you on that one. I don't mind the plot, but honestly, if this wasn't a saga (four books), and the plot was just in this one book, I think it's too basic of a plot. I can summarize the book very easily: Girl finds out she's faery, girl is in love triangle, girl saves the day by getting rid of the bad guy, girl ends up with boy. I mean, Aprilynne Pike really does have writing talent- there is something about the way she writes words in an out of themselves that is just beautiful and alluring. But the characters and plot in this book just weren't as beautiful as the way she writes. She really needs to work on her character development and needs to get more complex plots. She has the talent, now she has to find a way to use it correctly and use it to create 3-D characters. I wouldn't recommend this book to a lot of people, and I wouldn't read it again. This is exactly the kind of book I was afraid, "The Iron King," by Kawaga would be like, the reason I was hesitant to pick up The Iron Fey series. This is an example of my faerie book fears put into physical, living material. I'd recommend it for children 10-12, But I don't think it's sit too well with 14+ year olds. Really, maybe 10-14, depending on what kind of 13 and 14 year old you are. I don't give it that high of a rating. And, if I had to pick, I'd pick Team David. Because I feel like Tamani deserves better than Laurel. Out of all the mary-sue characters and gary-stu characters in this novel, I think Tamani had the most personality. Really, Pike- you have beautiful words. USE THEM.