Murderess

One of the best and more original fantasy novels I've read in ages. Truly brilliant.

Murderess is the first novel in a series of six - The Exiles of Greywall’d Saga.

A YA novel written by an actual YA, authentic.

Straight away I will acknowledge that there are editing issues, not insurmountable for me, however, I can also see why it could cause a problem to other readers.

The plot, the characters and the setting intrigued me from the very beginning, so yes, I found this to be an absorbing read. The cover, oh yes, thank goodness for a cover that does not feature some pretty young thing gazing wistfully off into the distance whilst some half naked hunk sniffs her perfect coiffure. Thank you for a cover that gives our heroine, (is she?), a little bit of mystery.

Sixteen year old Lu Killer is apathy personified, she does not appear to care about much at all. When a mysterious boy appears at the door of her train cabin her natural reaction is indifference, but then the boy disappears and Lu whilst not exactly chomping at the bit at this stage, is ever so slightly curious.

I have to mention the cover again, in that it was the cover that made me agree to review this work in the first place. I think the name of our lead and her expected role in the story seems slightly obvious and I hope the author will be able to surprise readers with any future instalments.

Is Lu in fact destined only be a killer in both name and deed?

I don't think there is anything particularly unusual about such a very young author having a book of fiction published in 2014. However, I must praise Daya Marnin for the consistency of her world-building, and ongoing character development. It was not perfect by any means, but without wanting to appear patronizing it was an impressive start for an author who was only thirteen years of age when she started the story and not quite sixteen at the conclusion.

I would be delighted to follow this story to its murderess end.

Received from the publisher for an honest review.

Urthwild