Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning – review

MacKayla Lane is a very pretty, very shallow girl.  She loves her family, and she lives a fairly typical American life.  She doesn’t have much direction in her life, content to tend bar and maintain things just the way they are.  Then she gets a call on her cell phone informing her that her sister has died while studying abroad in Ireland.  To complicate things, there’s a frantic voicemail message from MacKayla’s sister that was left just hours before she died.

Mac, as she prefers to be called, decides that the police in Ireland just aren’t doing enough to investigate the case.  She travels to Dublin seeking answers and soon discovers that she’s in so far over her head she has no idea where she’s swimming.  She meets a bookstore owner named Jericho Barrons, but she’s not sure if he’s actually trying to help her or if he’s only interested in the magical item that Mac’s sister seemed to be seeking.

Karen Marie Moning has written other books that were most definitely paranormal romances.  Darkfever doesn’t really fit that classification.  This book really doesn’t have any romance in it at all; instead, it’s a very good urban fantasy with a little suspense and mystery thrown into it.  The book has a good feeling of atmosphere to it.  Mac is a Barbie-perfect fish out of water in a gritty, scary city full of things that she’s not even sure that she wants to admit exist.

The surprising thing about this book is that neither of the two main characters are particularly likable.  Mac is self-absorbed, prissy, and very high-maintenence.  She whines a lot, and she throws a good number of fits when she doesn’t get her way.  Still, she’s persistent in her demands for answers, and when she’s trying to find out why her sister was murdered, that seems to be a good trait to possess.

Jericho Barrons is arrogant and rude.  He’s a very rich, very busy man who hasn’t got time to deal with anyone like Mac, except that she seems to be the key to helping him get what he wants.  He never quite manages to tolerate her, though–he’s far too busy insulting and berating her for not understanding the rules no one’s explained for playing a game she doesn’t even realize that she’s in.  He knows far too much about Dublin’s seedy magical underworld, and he seems to delight in telling Mac just enough to almost get her killed on a constant basis.

It really almost seems like the kind of book that no one would want to read, except that isn’t the way that it reads at all. Mac and Jericho go together like coarse grit sandpaper and skin, but somehow, their frustrated, antagonistic dynamic feels far more real than many other contrived pairings.  There’s a certain sense of inevitability at the end of the book, concerning how they relate to each other, but their interactions feel much more truthful because, as a reader, you’d expect two people who are so very different to treat each other exactly the way that Mac and Jericho do.  It’s more than just simple dislike, it’s the utter disdain for “not like me” that seems to be inherent in human nature.

The book is steeped in Celtic fairy lore, and it’s pretty liberally peppered with Gaelic words.  Fortunately, there’s a dictionary and pronunciation guide in the back of the book, if you insist on reading the words in their proper pronunciation.  The range of creatures and the background information about how the fairy realm functions are part of what makes this book really work as an urban fantasy.  Moning’s style of writing lends itself well to Mac’s unique voice and her shifting viewpoint as she finds out what the world is really like.  Mac’s world is being turned upside down continually over the course of the book, and really, the focus of most of the story is how she tries to deal with that.

Don’t be fooled by where this book is shelved, if it’s been stuck in paranormal romance:  it belongs with the urban fantasy.  It’s a good book that makes me curious to see where the rest of the series will be going, and, especially, if something will happen in the development of the characters to make me like them better.  It really is a testament to how well the story is written that I wanted to keep reading this book until I got to the end.  There are some racy parts, and there are a few instances of language that would probably not be good for younger readers to encounter.  I’d firmly stick to recommending this book to adults, but I’d be sure to recommend it to any of my friends who enjoyed contemporary or urban fantasy, especially if they find themselves disgusted by the shift towards calling paranormal romances urban fantasy.