BOOK REVIEW: Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

“Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar, is alive. But Evanjalin is not what she seems. And the truth will test not only Finnikin’s faith in her . . . but in himself.”

Looking for Alibrandi is one of my favourite high school reads so I had high hopes from Melina Marchetta (its author) with this one. It wasn’t a contemporary drama like her previous books though, rather a medieval-style fantasy.

I felt as though the world was set up with such complex situations, names, places, and religions, that I couldn’t initially keep up with all the new information. Having said this, I’m a visual learner, so perhaps in this case I should have opted for a hard copy to read instead of listening to the audio book. I shouldn’t complain, really – I’d much prefer having a world that is both deep and wide and hard to follow because it is so complex, than one that is underdeveloped and two-dimensional. I bet reading book two and three will be great because I will already be familiar with the world.

I did love the constant balance between adventure and discovery, slowly, slowly revealing what was really going on – and that the main character, Finnikin, was not privy to the information so that the reader was told at the same time as he was.

For the first quarter to half of the book, it wasn’t clear what they were moving towards exactly – were they trying to bring their people together or just wandering from exile camp to exile camp, taking a census of the dead? Things did pick up from there, thankfully, and I could finally sense the direction of where the book was headed.

I felt like all of the characters mentioned had a story to tell and their contribution to conversation was interesting because of this. There were a lot of characters, so this was no small feat!

The book covered some pretty intense issues like rape, war, and refugees and there were characters on both sides of the fence with such issues, which made for a balanced exploration of the topics. Although the title and cover give the appearance of a solid teen/tween story, because of these topics I would think that its audience would be better targeted at young adults or above, despite the lack of description in the actual rape and the actual murder of people. The world was dark and so were a lot of its characters and themes.

Finnikin of the Rock wasn’t a page-turner but it captivated me in a way that I did want to know its mysteries eventually. And I was rewarded for persisting because it brought about a satisfying ending – even going to the extent of showing a lengthy aftermath rather than a quick “and they all lived happily ever after” straight after the climax. I’m very grateful for this – thanks Melina!

I don’t doubt that I will read book two and three one day, but I’m in no rush to know what happens next.

Title: Finnikin of the Rock (Lumatere Chronicles #1)
Author: Melina Marchetta
Type: Fiction
Category: Fantasy
Publisher: Candlewick
Publication Date: 2011
Edition: Reprint Edition
ISBN:  978-0763652920

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