I'm hooked. I blame Twitter.
See, I had never heard of these books until a few weeks ago, when my Twitter page suddenly exploded with people talking about it, obsessing about what would happen in the final book, raving about their crush on a fictional guy named Jericho Z. Barrons. ("What the hell kind of name is Jericho Z. Barrons?" I thought.) But that's what I get, I suppose, for populating my Twitter follows with people who, like me, are obsessed with books and think about them constantly. And at the time, I was looking for some fresh reading to occupy my time while I was at home for Christmas. So I decided to give Darkfever a whirl. And then I discovered that I couldn't put the series down.
The protagonist, Mac, travels to Ireland to find out who murdered her sister. She discovers that she's a sidhe-seer, someone who can sense fae (fairies) and their sacred objects--as was her sister. Turns out, there is someone out there intent on bringing down the walls between the realms, unleashing the dangerous Unseelie fae on the human world. The mystery of who killed Mac's sister and why drives the overall arc of the series; four books later, and we're still not entirely sure. Everyone lies, everyone hides things, everyone has ulterior motives. Mac doesn't know who to trust, and neither does the reader. As for this Jericho Z. Barrons everyone keeps talking about: he's dark, he's mysterious, he's enigmatic, and it's not entirely clear whether he's a good guy or a bad guy. Oh, I know what I think. But I can see why Mac doesn't trust him. (But I just love me some bad boys...fictionally, at least.)
I devoured the first four installments, and then I jumped back to the beginning and re-read them almost instantly to catch the stuff I missed. (One of my worst habits is reading so quickly that I miss details.) Yet here I am, still nearly three weeks to go before the release of Shadowfever...and I'm going nuts. I'm obsessing. Not long ago, I compared the end of Carolyn Crane's Double Cross to The Empire Strikes Back--hugely surprising ("Holy shit, Darth Vader is Luke's father!"), but definitely a calm-before-the-storm kind of thing. The end of Dreamfever, the last book, was more like a "Who shot J.R.?" kind of thing--except that we know whodunnit, just not to whom. I can only imagine how people have been waiting since Dreamfever was published in August of 2009 must have felt. But in a way, maybe that was easier. I mean, you ended the book knowing it was gonna be a year or so before the final act was published. You're forced to move on with your life, start doing other things, have relationships with other books. But for me, I'm so close...yet so far away. (As you can probably guess, I just finished my re-read of Dreamfever today.)
It's not healthy.
And so now, I'm forcing myself to think of things I can do to take my mind off of the Fever series for the next...16 days, 7 hours, and 51 minutes. *Sigh*
- Revise, revise, revise. Uhhh, didn't I just like...write a novel, or something?
- Rediscover the lost art of cinema. You know, it's been awhile since I've seen a good movie. (Unfortunately, When in Rome, the movie I just finished, didn't qualify on any level.)
- Read other books. I hear Moning has another series. Ummm, but that probably won't help much.
- Get a mani/pedi. It's been a long time since I've indulged in one of these. Full mani/pedi should take at least an hour. Which will leave me with only...16 days, 6 hours, and 51 minutes.
- Play with my cat. She's been having separation anxiety issues ever since I got back from visiting my family for Christmas. A good option all around. She'll be happy and purr-y, and I'll be less inclined to think about Shadowfever. Of course, by the end of it, my chest and arms will look like they've been gouged with a fork where she dug her claws in. I really need to trim those things. Ouch.
- Date. I hear that young people often go out on these things called "dates," wherein they engage in dinner and conversation with another individual to determine whether they are sexually attracted to one another. If they are, they don't generally have sex, but they may think about it a lot more. It's an odd, foreign concept to me, but perhaps it's something I should try. I may, as a matter of fact, be going out with a potentially eligible person next weekend. I wonder if he's read the series...
- Dental visits. It's well past time for my semi-annual cleaning. And I do have a molar that needs crowned...
- Getting back to my roots...kind of. In the series, Mac dyes her hair black to avoid recognition. I wonder how I'd look with raven hair. (In all likelihood, pale and splotchy. I don't think black hair will work with blue eyes and freckles.)
- Cooking. Since I live alone, it's not often that I indulge in home booking, but I think it's about time, don't you. There's some recipes in the back of Dreamfever...
- Writing really stupid blog entries about all the things I'm going to do not to think about the series. Quite effective, really. This took, like, 15 minutes. Only 16 days, 7 hours, and 38 minutes to go. *Sigh*
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