The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by A. Lee Martinez.
This book is: truly strange but rather delightful.
Other elements: ninja thief ex-boyfriends, alternate universes, rogue fairy godmother ghosts trapped in pens, destiny, friendship.
Read it: if you’re in the mood for a totally off the wall tall tale of a novel.
Overall rating: 7.5/10
I’m going to start my review of The Last Adventure of Constance Verity by doing something I almost never do: copying and pasting the description on the back of the book.
Constance Verity has been saving the world since she was seven, and she’s sick of it. She sets off on one last adventure to assassinate her fairy godmother and become the one thing she’s never been: ordinary.
Ever since she was granted a wish at birth by her fairy godmother, Constance Verity has become one of the world’s great adventurers. It all began at her seventh birthday party when she defeated a snake. She has become a master of exotic martial arts, a keen detective, and possesses a collection of strange artifacts gathered from her adventures. But Constance has spent the past twenty-eight years saving the world, and she’s tired of it. All she wants is to work in an office and date a nice, normal guy. And she is finally figured out a way to do it: she’s going to kill her fairy godmother and reset her life. The only problem, though, is that saving the world is Constance’s destiny. She’s great at it, and there are forces at work to make sure she stays in the job.
Then again, it’s also her destiny to have a glorious death.”
Hell yes. This book is so far out of the ordinary that there’s no way to explain it without showing you an excerpt. Fairy godmothers, murderous genetically modified twins, alternate universes, engines of ultimate control – there’s pretty much no element from the Science Fiction and Fantasy cannon that doesn’t at least make an appearance in Constance Verity’s life.
For 95% of The Last Adventure of Constance Verity, I enjoyed the story’s constant flow of improbable events and the characters’ self-awareness that they were in a world where strange things happened. Every once in a while, though, it felt too over the top. But 95% delight and 5% eye rolling is still a pretty great experience.
If you’re in the mood for light, different, and entertaining, The Last Adventure of Constance Verity is exactly what you need. This would be a truly perfect vacation book.
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My thanks to Del Ray for providing me with a copy of The Last Adventure of Constance Verity for review consideration.
abbyyih says
looks beautiful