"What are you thinking about?"
"Whether they'll write my life story as a tragedy or an epic fantasy."

As a fan of Stiefvater's other books reading this in the year 2020, I think my feelings about Lament can be best summed up thus:

This pretty much exemplifies 2000s YA Fantasy novels, and I very much enjoyed it for that reason.

Admittedly I was a little disappointed that this is missing a lot of elements that I've come to associate with Stiefvater's other books (unique and/or niche lore, a certain atmospheric-ness, the prose style, etc). But it's not fair to compare Lament to its successors when, in and of itself, it's a perfectly fine and enjoyable read.

That said, it does have flaws that wouldn't fly if it were published today — unexamined ableist and fatphobic remarks (nothing more egregious than what you might hear in a high school hallway, but of a kind that I don't read much of anymore); Luke feels like plenty of other YA mystery-bad-boy protagonists with the kind of behavior that should really send up more red flags than it does. But again, putting it into the context of when it was written/published, this book really isn't all that bad.

content warnings:

Spoiler

harm to animals, ableist language, fatphobic language, past self-harm, past attempted suicide, mentioned miscarriage, off-page car crash, torture, branding

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CONVERSION: 11.1 / 15 = 4 stars

Prose: 6 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 8 / 10
Emotional Impact: 8 / 10
Development / Flow: 7 / 10
Setting: 8 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: N/A
Intellectual Engagement: N/A
Originality / Trope Execution: 4 / 5
Rereadability: 3 / 5
Memorability: 4 / 5