Lament

The first of Stiefvater's two Books of Faerie, in which Deirdre, a teenage, twenty-first century musician, discovers the supernatural Celtic background the women in her family have brought with them to the US. She also discovers that she can see faeryfolk, and the associated dangers, particularly of falling in love with a faery assassin.

Stiefvater engages her audience with a highly readable three-cornered romance, Dee and the faery Luke drawn together sexually and dangerously, Dee and James in a platonic friendship, but underlying this there is a deeper, darker philosophy concerning ancestry, ancient beliefs and enthralment.

Told by Dee herself, the narrative combines everyday American life with a text underpinned and extended by constant reference to Celtic music and myth.