Finnikin of the Rock

Book Title: Finnikin of the Rock

Author: Melina Marchetta

Series: The Lumatere Chronicles #1

Date Started: March 11th 2019

Date Completed: March 12th 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

This has been sitting on my kindle for many years at this point from a friend's recommendation. While I wish I had picked it up sooner it was actually the perfect thing I needed these past few days. I read it in about 24 hours in three sittings, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Finnikin of the Rock is a good old fantasy adventure, one that borders on slightly more traditional high fantasy. Basically, it's a lot of fun. There are some things that don't add up (he really doesn't recognise her? she isn't emotionally scarred for life? they fight like dogs and still make up so easily?) but I'll forgive it because I literally only put this book down because I had to get up and, you know, go to university.

Maybe having Evanjalin experience pretty much every horror humanity is capable of and still being a badass is (while hugely enjoyable) a little unnecessary, bordering on overkill. It feels a bit like it's there to show how terrible everything is and give her a reason to be strong, which we recognise as being a little problematic these days. However, these brushes of feminism - while slightly outdated to a reader in 2019 - were amazing. It actually created a really nice balance in the medieval-style fantasy world that we can't help but imagine dominated by men and started to close that gap with its various portrayals of women.

In fact, it was a good cast all around. Varied and enjoyable. They had nice dynamics with each other and it felt like there were a lot of backstories underneath that came through in their behaviour rather than having to be explained (which, in all fairness, we did get a fair bit of). But while focusing on Finnikin, it achieved that wonderful fantasy expectation of having multiple perspectives and characters that had influence and agency in the story, making it unpredictable and exciting.

I really respect how it wraps up its story and its emotional arcs in one book. It's maybe a little bit older than the trilogy-obsession that swept Young Adult literature when I was a teenager, and it benefits from that. I know there are more books in the series, but I can tell each will be its own story expanding on the world already created. Marchetta does justice to her characters by allowing them to go full circle without interruption and, because of that, it's so much more enjoyable to read.

Finnikin of the Rock was so much fun and I will be picking up the other books in the series, even if I'm not sure they follow my favourite characters. I'll still go for them for the chance of catching a glimpse or a reference, and stay because I have faith Marchetta will have another fantastic story to tell me.