ARC Review: Devil and the Bluebird by: Jennifer Mason-Black

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Expected Publication: May 17, 2016 by: Amulet Books
Pages: 336
Rating: 3/5 stars

*thank you to Netgalley and Amulet books for allowing me to receive this book in exchange for an honest review*

Blue Riley is on a mission: a mission that requires travelling across the country to find her long-lost sister who disappeared mysteriously following her mother's death. With her guitar and angelic singing voice by her side, Blue must stay in stranger's houses and tunnels as she attempts to fight the devil that tries to overcome her, and to find her sister, and her voice.

This book was a mystical urban fantasy that reminded me a lot of The Love that Split the World in the sense of magic realism. I've been seeing a lot of books lately take on the sort of magic elements weaved into a semi-modern world, and they are always quite interesting to take on. Devil and the Bluebird introduces folklore and family issues into quite a different read. While I did have a lot of issues with the plot, I am happy that this book was out of the box unique!

I first went into this book expecting a lot more contemporary elements, but I think this book handled fantasy and magic in a way that didn't seem like fantasy and magic! It was quite interesting how the author made it seem like a perfectly normal world, but in reality, there were many twists of folklore and magic. This book had the fantasy without seeming like a fantasy, which in my book, is a good thing.

One thing that I liked about the protagonist was her influence of music. I love any book that has musical elements, and this book had nothing short of it. It seemed lyrical in some ways.

Unfortunately, I found this book very hard to get through. Perhaps it was maybe the folklore, but I did find some elements to be kind of boring and unnecessary. I couldn't connect with some parts and I found it hard to pay attention to.

I couldn't completely connect with the main character of Blue. Besides her music, I didn't find that there was much else to her and I would have liked to have seen more of a dive deeper into her mental state with all that she had gone through. Maybe that's where the contemporary elements could come into play.

So overall, I appreciated this book's uniqueness, however it didn't quite effect me. If you like magic realism, I would totally check this out, and I'm looking forward to exploring more of the genre in the future.

Emily @ Paperback Princess