Wings by Aprilynne Pike - Review

There are a lot of YA titles around at the moment dealing with the faerie world, most fabulous and well written, some more mundane and unoriginal. This welcome new addition to the oevre is different, nicely written, and oddly believable.

Laurel is a solitary girl who has been homeschooled for most of her life (oh, and was left on her parents doorstep in a basket as a baby). But when her parents decide to move, they also decide Laurel should go to high school. All these changes are difficult enough – new town, new school, new friends – but then she finds a growth on her back, and freaks. Things only get worse when the bump turns into a blossom of some kind and she has to bind and wrap it just to go out in public. She turns to her new friend David for help and together they analyze this growth.

Her parents are hoping to sell their old house to a man Laurel finds rather sinister for no reason she can understand. But on a trip back to the old house she runs into an unusual guy called Tamani, who helps to explain this growth on her back, who she really is, and why she’s so important.

Although slow to start, the pace picks up quickly, the characters vivid and likeable, the danger palpable, and the love triangle works (although, as ever, there never seems to really be any contest! But that probably says so much more about me than the book…). Oh, and I think this is written for a younger audience than Twilight.