REVIEW: DEADMARSH FEY by Melika Dannese Lux

Title: Deadmarsh Fey
Author: Melika Dannese Lux
Series: Dwellers of Darkness, Children of Light #1
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
Publisher: Books in my Belfry
Release: May 2nd, 2018
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 674

// Goodreads // BookDepository // Amazon //

BLURB: Flesh and bone and hearts unknown, lead to the rath and your fate will be shown…

Deadmarsh. The name struck terror into the hearts of all who heard it. But to Roger Knightley, neither Deadmarsh the house, nor Deadmarsh the family, had ever been anything to fear. Nearly each summer of his young life had been spent in that manor on the moors, having wild adventures with his cousin, Lockie, the Deadmarsh heir. This year should have been no different, but when Roger arrives, he finds everything, and everyone, changed. The grounds are unkempt, the servants long gone. Kip, the family cat, has inexplicably grown and glares at Roger as if he is trying to read the boy’s mind. Roger’s eldest cousin, Travers, always treated as a servant, now dresses like a duchess and wears round her neck a strange moonstone given to her by someone known as Master Coffyn, who has taken over the teaching of Lockie at a school in Wales called Nethermarrow.
And soon after he crosses the threshold of Deadmarsh, Roger discovers that Coffyn has overtaken Lockie. The boy is deceitful, riddled with fear, and has returned bearing tales of creatures called Jagged Ones that claim to be of the Fey and can somehow conceal themselves while standing in the full light of the moon. What they want with Lockie, Roger cannot fathom, until the horror within his cousin lashes out, and it becomes savagely clear that these Jagged Ones and the Dark Wreaker they serve are not only after Lockie and Travers, but Roger, too.
Joining forces with an ally whose true nature remains hidden, Roger seeks to unravel the tapestry of lies woven round his family’s connection to the death-haunted world of Everl’aria—and the Dark Wreaker who calls it home. The deeper Roger delves into the past, the more he begins to suspect that the tales of dark deeds done in the forest behind Deadmarsh, deeds in which village children made sacrifice to an otherworldly beast and were never seen or heard from again, are true. And if there is truth in these outlandish stories, what of the rumor that it was not an earthquake which rocked the moors surrounding Deadmarsh sixteen years ago, but a winged nightmare attempting to break free of its underground prison? Enlisting the aid of a monster equipped with enough inborn firepower to blast his enemies into oblivion might be as suicidal as Roger’s friends insist, yet the boy knows he needs all the help he can get if there is to be any hope of defeating not only the Dark Wreaker and his servants, but an unholy trinity known as the Bear, the Wolf, and the Curse That Walks The Earth.
And then there is the foe named Blood Wood, who might be the deadliest of them all.
Racing against time, Roger must find a way to end the battle being waged across worlds before the night of Lockie’s eleventh birthday—two days hence. If he fails, blood will drown the earth. And Roger and his entire family will fulfill the prophecy of fey’s older, more lethal meaning…
Fated to die.

EXPECTATIONS: I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Melika! Since I wasn't familiar with the author I didn't set any expectations.

THE WORLD: It's a fantasy world set in England and Wales. I am guessing some time around the 19th Century but I am not sure about this... one of the characters was a crusader and that event happened between the 11th and 13th Century, and we know the character is 700 hundred years old so yeah around the 19th Century.

CHARACTERS: Get ready because there are a ton of characters in this book! The main character is Roger Knightley, a 10 year old boy who goes to spend a summer in the family house in the country. The house and land is called Deadmarsh due to their ancestor Owain Deadmarsh who doesn't have a good reputation among the country men... but anyway, Roger is a Deadmarsh from his mom's side only. Then we have Roger's cousin and best friend, Havelock "Lockie" Deadmarsh, who is about to be 11 years old. Travers, who is 28 years old and also Roger's cousin. The family's friend/butler/guardian, Bellows, and last but not least we have the family cat, Kip. Is the cat important? Very much so. Of course then we have all the magical creatures like Dragons, Faes, Demons, Witches, etc but there are SO MANY and I don't want to spoil anything. Oh wait, I have to mention Master Coffyn. I hate that man. Really hate that man. That's all I can say.

I think it would be a good idea to put a list of character names with a small description at the end of the book because I swear you need a master degree to crack up who is who. Or at least a family tree picture.

ROMANCE: There's barely any romance in the book.

GOOD: I have to say I loved the plot. Everything about the story and the magical creatures and even legends from Wales wow yes, I loved it all. The story was very unique which you don't see easily any more. I loved how neither the characters nor the plot were straight forward, the plot had a lot of deceives which makes it exciting but also more difficult to understand phew. A good number of characters were very morally gray too, they did good things and bad things and things in between they had to latter apologize for. Therefore, giving them a better sense of humanity and personality.

The other point was the writing. It is very well written and you can tell the author knows all the intricacies of the language which I appreciate a lot. There's nothing worse than a book published or about to be published with grammar and spelling mistakes everywhere. However, there are a lot of descriptions or thoughts in the book and they tend to be too long... sometimes a full page or even two pages for a character simply thinking can be too much.

BAD: Having mentioned all the good things now I have to talk about the bad ones. First, the book has A LOT of characters -it is a fantasy book after all- but a little help would have been appreciated. As I mentioned before I think a character glossary or family tree at the end of the book would be really helpful. Oh, and the main character is 10 years old only but definitely thinks and talks like an adult... I know in the 19th Century they were taught to be "mini adults" but I don't know if it's still not realistic enough. I mean, Roger solves things logically in a way not even the adults of the book do.

Secondly, also related to the first point is that the book has a lot of pages. It's a long story but it happens in a very tiny amount of time (I think about 3 days) from the beginning to end which makes it very difficult for people to remember who is who and also what is their place in the story.

Finally, the last point is that while the writing is beautiful and high level, some descriptions tend to drag too much, they're a bit too long for my liking. It reminds me a bit of other fantasy books such as The Name of the Wind and LoTR... amazing books but can get a tad boring. 

OVERALL: 3.5 stars (bumped up to 4 on Goodreads). I was actually impressed with the book because it was very original and I definitely appreciate good writing. Nonetheless, be aware that it is very long and has a lot of characters so it gets confusing. It's a book you will have to read twice in order to appreciate all of it.

What do you think about DEADMARSH FEY?