Description:
Dreamlike Fantasy. Ariel was always small and little. A slave. Then she
is kidnapped by a vampire to serve his 12 desiccated brides and must find
the strength within herself to prevent him from finding a 13th.
Some books have a color. Dark Angel
has always been amber for me. That golden time of late afternoon when all
colors seem richer, fuller and yet softer. A fantastic and yet realistic
world in which vampires and gargoyles and magic creatures roam the landscape
of the imagination.
I first read The Dark Angel when
I was in Junior High, but it isn't really a young adult book. Except in
that it is the story of becoming an adult. Becoming yourself.
Pierce has an uncanny way of weaving
epic myth with believable people. Ariel perceives herself to be worth less
than others. And because that is her perception, she is. Until she comes
to the dark spaces in the vampires castle, high above the world. Until
she wanders vasty plains. Until she comes to the mind blowingly cool end
of the book.
I should mention that this is the
first of three books, each of which is incredible. However, the end of
the third book is incredibly bittersweet. Like honeywine, golden amber
in the later afternoon sun.
