Fae or Foe? (Mini-Review)

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Fae or Foe? is the first book in C.A.Deegan's The Cracklock Saga series. Jack Crackley is just an average boy who comes from a poor family. But is that really the truth? After he escapes the evil Mr. Binks, he realizes he is far from ordinary. Which isn't a pleasant thought when Jack's enemies make schoolyard bullies unimportant.

This book is another one that has a secret society of magical beings that must remain hidden from humans. But instead of humans being highly involved in this secret society, they are in the minority. In fact the only humans aware of the magical society are the Cracklock family. That particular bloodline has the ability to see faeries without the creatures having to reveal themselves. Yes, in this book the faeries must choose to show themselves to humans as by default they're hidden.

If you like the rich and vast faerie lore, you will like this book. Faeries are the only magical beings to exist in the book. This doesn't mean that they all look the same. Indeed they come in all shapes and sizes. There are small faeries that can ride on your shoulder while giant faeries also exist like the one that appears near the end of the book. The book also makes an effort to show that faeries can't be easily categorized as good or evil. As someone who practices tarot, in the real world faeries shouldn't be interacted with unless you know what you are doing. They're not good or bad, but they can be dangerous.

The Cracklock family is divided into the side that likes faeries and the side that thinks faeries are actually demons. The side that doesn't like faeries makes for good villains especially Anastasia who is as lovely as she is cruel. She doesn't just take delight in her cruelty, she is also controlled. She doesn't tend to let her anger cloud her judgment. She can go from the role of pleasant woman to tormentor in less than a blink of an eye. She even manages to control her psychopathic son Benedict. And that boy...while he has his mother's cruelty, he doesn't have her control. He prefers to let his emotions control him and doesn't care about much else than tormenting faeries.

Jack Crackley eventually gets into a friendship with Jimmy Owen. And, yes, I kept seeing his last name as Olsen. I found myself relating to Jimmy since he isn't exactly at the top of the social order in his school and he's nerdy to the point of annoying people. While I was never beaten up in school, because I wasn't that noticed, I didn't exactly have a lot of friends. Though Jimmy has a lot more valuable stuff than I did growing up. Being the black sheep of your family has its downsides.

I know the purpose of cliffhangers. They make sure that people will watch or read the next installment. Cliffhangers can differ greatly in how intense they are. Fae or Foe? has an extremely intense cliffhanger. The end of the book is full of different action sequences that are made up of impossible odds. So when you get to the final page there is no time to relax before the cliffhanger presents itself.

I would recommend Fae or Foe? by C.A.Deegan to those that like urban fantasy. I would also recommend Fae or Foe? to those that are interested in faeries.