Review: Wings

Wings by: Aprilynne Pike
294 pgs.

Synopsis

Home schooled Laurel begins public high school as a tenth grader when her adoptive parents move to LA., leaving behind the land that has been in her mother's family since the Gold Rush days. The many clues that Laurel is different (she is strictly vegan; sunlight seems to shine through her fair skin; she never gets cold; she craves the outdoors) culminate in a bump on her back growing to the size of a softball and blooming into a flower that has foot-long petals. Returning to her parents' land, she meets Tamani, a faerie to whom she is attracted, who tells her that she is not human, but rather is a plant or, more specifically, a faerie. David, her accepting and supportive classmate, tests her tissue and confirms that Tamani is right. When a creepy alleged realtor pressures the family to sell the land, the teens become suspicious, and they are soon fighting for their lives in a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls. Laurel's struggles to figure out what it means to be human are matched by her struggles to determine what it means to be a faerie, and she is torn between love for David and love for Tamani.

Opinion

This was such a great book! It had me totally captured in faeries. This has a whole new look at faeries. In this book, faeries are actual plants. They don't bleed, they can hold their breath for over 15 minutes, a flower blooms out of their back (Laurel), they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. It's amazing. The author is fantastic. It's also very interesting that she didn't make faeries enemies vampires or something, since they are so popular right now. She has me totally hooked for a series. Really need to check it out! Ages 12+