Darkfever

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

My review:

MacKayla Lane is 22, pretty, and planning on spending most of her summer poolside in her small-town Georgia home. She likes nail polish, happy pop music, and Coronas on the beach while scoping out the guys. Then her sister is horrifically murdered while studying abroad in Dublin and Mac gets sucked into a dark supernatural world that she had no idea existed.

Darkfever is positively brilliant. Dark and light, control and chaos, play off of each other as Mac digs deeper into the confusion and secrets around her. The fantasy world is devilishly complex and so are most of the characters. But the true delight of Darkfever is Mac herself. By turns sweet and sunny or dark and determined, she narrates her story with pitch-perfect wordplay and piercing gallows humor.

Joyce Bean captures MacKayla's voice perfectly. She does an admirable job with the variety of supporting characters, many of whom have challenging accents. Bean's portrayal of Mac's sweet southern narration drips with wit and determination and makes this audio production a treat for listeners.

Stars: 5

Runability: 5

Darkfever was actually a re-listen for me. I found it a couple of years ago and fell head over heels for it and the rest of KMM's Fever series. Darkfever begins in early July, and the first time I listened to it was also in summer, so something about this time of year and my mood made it impossible not to revisit one of my favorites.

I've placed a hold on the CD version of the next in the series, and I think I may work my way back through all of the Fever books on audio over the next few months. Mac's world is so detailed and she learns so much about it throughout the course of her story that I know it will reward another "reading."