My Review of the Spectacular Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Froi of the Exiles (The Lumatere Chronicles #2) by Melina Marchetta

Hardcover, 596 pages

Published: March 13th, 2012 by Candlewick

Source: Public Library

From master storyteller Melina Marchetta comes an exhilarating new fantasy springing from her celebrated epic, Finnikin of the Rock.

Three years after the curse on Lumatere was lifted, Froi has found his home ... or so he believes. Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been taken roughly and lovingly in hand by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family, and has learned to control his quick temper with a warrior's discipline. But when he is sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn, nothing could have prepared him for what he finds in its surreal royal court. Soon he must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad princess in this barren and mysterious place. It is in Charyn that he will discover there is a song sleeping in his blood ... and though Froi would rather not, the time has come to listen.

Before writing this review I had to pull out the thesaurus to look for advectives similar to amazing.  Because I just wanted to go on and on about how amazing this book is, and if you use the same word too much it loses it's impact.   So I can tell you right now that this book was spectacular, astounding, mesmerizing, stupendous, wondrous, marvelous, miraculous... shall I go on?

There are books that really impact you all the way to your soul.  There are books that bring out every emotion and leave a dent in your heart because the emotions you felt were so incredibly strong you nearly weep from the beauty of it.  And in all actuality this book did make me weep.  It made me weep because there's so much to learn from this book.  From the brave souls inside it who endure so much but endeavor on and fight for what is right.

In this book the line between good and bad is blurred.  Those who we may believe are the bad guys may not necessarily be so, once we get to know them and hear their story.  But we see the other side too, and we feel their pain, their anger, even their hatred.  This whole aspect of the book was done so very well, I definitely applaud Melina Marchetta for her clever ways and making me think so very hard about forgiveness and so much more.

The characters in this book are just astounding.  Froi was a character that we never knew what to think of in Finnikin of the Rock.  He was bad and then... not so bad.  And now we get to see him for real.  To see what's in his head and what he struggles with.  We see his pain and his hurt and even his weaknesses, but what was unexpected was to see him soften, to see this loving side of him.  And it made me adore him ever more.  Quintana was a character you never really knew what to expect from.  She's a bit crazy, and she's hard to like, but for some reason it's impossible to dislike her.  Especially when we see everything she goes through.

There are many other characters imperative to the story and they were all so brilliant.  Even though there were quite a few of them I never got confused about who was who. And what I really loved was that yes, this was Froi's story, but we also get to see chapters in Lumatere and see the struggles they have and overcome.  We see love and loss and we see pain, hatred and forgiveness.  We see some move onward while others lay in misery, struggling to survive each day.  We see Fin and Isaboe and the struggles they have and all that they have overcome in the past three years.  So yes, this is mostly about Froi, but the Lumatere characters we have grown to love have not been cast aside. 

The story itself was extraordinary.  It was full of twists and turns and when you think you have something figured out it ends up twisting another direction.  At times things were so twisty it was a bit confusing, but as I read on and more was revealed it was easy to understand and keep straight. I really loved that this wasn't a toned down epic high fantasy.  Yes, it may be for YA, but the stuff within the pages are the same as you'd find in an adult fantasy, just less explicit.  The struggles, the pain, the heartache, the beauty... everything I would want in an epic high fantasy is in this book.  Everything.  And upon closing the last page of the book I realized that tears were falling because the story is not complete.  We were left wondering if everyone will get their happy ending.  Will the suffering and pain ever stop?  With the betrayal and the hatred and revenge ever end?  While the author ended things abruptly, we did get a bit of closure in the sense that we aren't wondering if characters were dead or alive.  We know who survives and have an idea where they are, but things are most definitely a mess and the wait for Quintana of Charyn will not be an enjoyable one.  I need that book NOW.  So much so I may consider ordering it all the way from Australia...