In the words of Stephenie Meyer, author of the world-renowned Twilight saga, Wings, written by Aprilynne Pike, is “a remarkable debut.” Surprisingly, this book lives up to that review.
Laurel is a high school sophomore who has movie star good looks and parents who have completely adored her since the day she was dropped on their front door step without so much as a note. Up until this point in her life, she has been homeschooled by her loving mother, completely oblivious to the world around her.
However, Laurel has always known that she was different from other children. And not just in the way that a computer whiz is different from a football jock.
Laurel has a particularly strange appetite. She eats only fruits and vegetables, a strictly “vegan” diet without meat or dairy products, as she herself describes it.
She has also developed different physically from her peers, seemingly exempt to the typical awkward teenage years. Unlike her peers, Laurel never suffered through unfortunate teenage pimples or breakouts.
Until one day, when Laurel discovers something she believes to be a simple pimple in the center of her back. Except, this is no ordinary pimple. It continues to grow until it morphs into wings that grow out of the center of her back.
As Laurel comes to find out, she is a faerie, placed in the realm of the human world to defend them against the faerie’s mortal enemy of trolls.
While so far, this novel might seem like something straight from the imagination of a five year old, at its core, it reverse parallels the Twilight saga.
Basically; there’s a girl, Laurel, who has a secret identity apart from the other kids at her school. She’s a faerie. Then there’s a boy, David, who she falls in love with and who just so happens to be a mere human. And when it all comes down to it, Laurel would give her life to protect David from the trolls who want to kill him.
And then there’s Tamani, a boy who is also a faerie who just happens to be madly in love with Laurel and willing to compete with David for her affection. Tamani will “wait as long as I have to. I have never given up on [Laurel].”
Starting to sound familiar?
Don’t get defensive just yet, Wings doesn’t try to replace the Twilight saga. However, it does reveal a deeply compelling tale that leaves the reader wanting for more.
There is inevitably a twist in the ending that threatens to dramatically change the life Laurel and David have always known…
“But she knew she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t leave him. In one glaring instant, she realized she’d rather die with him than leave him to die alone.”
By: Aprilynne Pike
290 Pages
Published by HarperCollins Teen
Released May 1, 2009
3.5/4 stars
