The Demon’s Convenant is Sarah Rees Brennan’s second novel and follows the same characters found in The Demon’s Lexicon. Mae, Alan, Jamie, and Nick are still fighting the forces of darkness and dealing with the fallout from Mae’s struggle to save her brother. Though they have gone their different ways, and are separated in the beginning of the novel, Mae soon calls the group back together when her brother is again threatened; the magicians have returned, and they want Jamie for their own.

This book focuses on Mae and her unique place in the group. The only one with no obvious and flashy talents of her own, she gets by on guts and grit and a flair for tactical planning. Between Jamie’s need to explore his talents, and the magician’s determination to recruit him for their cause, Mae fights to protect her brother from the temptations that swirl around him, and from the smaller, but no less painful, aches and pains of growing up.

This single-minded devotion could make Mae a fairly unsympathetic character, or at least one that seemed to have no purpose beyond guarding her younger brother. Luckily, there’s a lot more to Mae than her love for her brother, and this book follows her as she figures out what it is she has to contribute, and the goals she has beyond her brother’s safety.

For Mae, one of those things is the Goblin Market, and the dance: a dance that allows her to call demons and to seek answers, and the Market, full of the wonders of the world:

The dance came to a natural conclusion, like a fight or a piece of music, the drums slowing as the pulses in her own body slowed. She stood panting and thinking that she’d loved doing it, that she loved the whole Market, and she knew no way to keep any of this.

Mae has always put Jamie first, without fail, has always done what he needed before what she needed, but Jamie has begun to search for answers without her, and Mae has found that, slowly, she must find her own place in this new world she is learning about.

Brennan’s book is full of sly rejoinders and laugh-out-loud lines. Jamie and Mae, especially, have a talent for both using words to their best advantage and inspiring others to outbursts of wit. They also struggle with fitting in at school, inappropriate crushes, and, of course, attacks by magicians and demons. It was fun to follow them on their journey, and a pleasure to see Mae begin to come into her own.

Bookmark to