The War for the Oaks - Emma Bull

"Eddi McCandry sings rock and roll. But she's breaking up with her boyfriend, her band just broke up, and life could hardly be worse. Then, walking home through downtown Minneapolis on a dark night, she finds herself drafted into an invisible war between the faerie folk. Now, more than her own survival is at risk—and her own preferences, musical and personal, are very much beside the point.

By turns tough and lyrical, fabulous and down-to-earth, War for the Oaks is a fantasy novel that's as much about this world as about the other one."

I had high hopes for this book. It sounds like it should be just up my street...however...it was OK, just OK. The narration is somewhat annoying occasionally, which makes the characters somewhat annoying, but the action sequences make up for that. I can't fault this book too much, since it's the first of its kind and therefore, like most pioneering writing pieces, reads more like a lengthy writing exercise. 

The book certainly does have it's good points. The music scene backdrop was fun and at times refreshing; The 80s fashion is hysterical; the Fae had an amazing otherworldly feel to them which was wonderful to read about; the aesthetic is fabulous; side characters where lovable; and the prose itself was skilfully written. 

But for me, it always comes down to the characters. I couldn’t feel any attachment to them… and therefore I had no emotional engagement whatsoever with this book. Phouka was my favourite character as I felt that he had that great mixture of bravado and confidence, with insecurity and doubt. It is unfortunately Eddi I  had a problem with. She has little to no personality other than snark. I mean, personally, if I have just found out powerful ancient Fae exist and one is sitting in my lounge, I would wait a bit to figure out the world before straight up insulting and backtalking him. But that's just me. She isn't a terrible protagonist, but she needed to be fleshed out more to get me to relate to her. Show me that her snark is her way of dealing with stress, a coping mechanism. That kind of thing. 

I also felt the novel was slowly-paced. This isn’t always a bad thing depending on the story, but in this case it often seemed like a chore just to push through to the next chapter. There was little exploration into the Fae or their world and instead chapters of well not much happening. The reason for Eddi to be involved is also tenuous and not fully explained or developed. I liked the idea for the reason she had to be there, it felt very unique but lack explanation.

Age Rating 15+. Murder, threat, sexy times.