Ballad (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters edit see section history

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• James: James is a bagpiper. The only bagpiper at Thornking-Ash School and the best in the whole state of Virginia. He is a seer.
• Paul: James' amusing roommate. He plays the oboe. (Who in their right mind plays the oboe?!) He has never encountered faeries until now. He can hear the Thorned King sing on the hills.
• Nuala: A Leanan Sidhe. She intends to make a deal with James when they meet. She is drawn to him because of his musical talents.
• Sullivan: Patrick Sullivan. He is James' and Paul's English teacher. Knows about faeries and has a passion for Hamlet.
• Deirdre Monaghan: (Dee) She is the cloverhand that the faeries must follow. She is James's best friend.
• Thorned King: The Thorned King is the king of the dead that neither go to Haven nor Hell.
• Eleanor: Faerie Queen.
• Megan: classmate and TA
• Delia: Deidre's aunt
• Eric: A teaching assistant at James's school. He is mostly considered as a friend, not an authority figure.
• Gregory Normandy: Add a description of this character.
• Siobhan: Siobhan is Halloween night, but it is also when the fey and the dead come out to play.
• Leon
• Ophelia
• Linnet: An instructor at Thornking-Ash
• Wesley
• Campbell
• Bill
• Anna
• Brendan
• Cernunnos

Quotes edit see section history

• “I could die before then. Then what, I'm dead and I never got drunk? So, what, I'd arrive at the pearly gates a sober virgin?”

  Paul

• “I leaned forward and very softly kissed her lips. It wouldn't change the world. There weren't any choirs of angels tht descended to attend our kiss. But my heart stopped and I didn't think I'd ever breathe again.”

• “Welcome to the world of beer, my friend. Like all vices, it comes with a warning that we usually ignore.”

  James

• “Your're not a good person. I like that about you.”

  Nuala

• “My friend is having his period. He needs Britney and extra cheese to get him through it. I'm trying to be supportive.”

  James

• “Ohhh, Paul. Paul. What the crap. You have a Kelly Clarkson CD in here. Tell me it's your sister's. Tell me you have a sister.”

  James

• “"What are you grinning at James? Its vaguely sinster." I sealed my teeth behind my lips but kept smiling at him... "Better, but still ominous. I can't shake the idea that you're planning something only marginally ethical, like the takeover of a small Latin country." "Not this week"”

  Sullivan & James

• “the voices in my head are telling me not to trust you(on james shirt)”

  james

• “What are you doing here in this fearful country that is the men's dorm?”

  James Morgan

• “"A human," I said. " The most dangerous and wonderful creature alive is a human"”

  James Morgan

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• You needn't tell a bird it's a bird Or remind a fish of its purpose It's only us who lose our way We have names because we must.

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• This is my fall, my autumn, my end ofyear, My desperate memory of summer This is how I tell her who I am. This is how far Jam from the beginning This is how I want everything, this is how I want what I was, this is how I want her This is my fall, my stumble, my descent into this darkening fling.

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• Never so sad as seeing your smile Never so false as you being true Never so dead as seeing you alive Never so alone as when I'm with you.

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• Sleep and death are just the same From both I can return I emerge from sleep just by waking And from death, I return with words.

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• Sleep has its own cadence, its own melody Like death, sometimes silent, sometimes rising In a beautiful harmony not quite remembered When from one or the other you re flying.

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• I don't think love has anything to do with how the other person is. I mean, maybe a little. I think what really matters is you yourself. Like, you know, let's say you lo-really liked a self-involved ass. That doesn't matter. What matters is how that ass makes you feel. If you feel like the best person in the world when you're with him, that's what makes you like him. It really isn't about how nice a person he is at all.'

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• He does not so much bite as nibble, my friend Death Wearing me down to the size of a child Soon I am small enough to nestle in his hand Gone in one swallow, behind his gentle smile.

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• When the end comes, dark and hungry I'll be alone, love When the end comes, black and starving I'll say good-bye, love.

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• We dance, we dance You hold the thread of my soul You spin, you spin And you unravel the part from the whole We laugh, we laugh I'm so far from where I began I fall, IfallAnd I forget that I am.

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• This summer-sweet night is only one minute upon another minute upon another Beautiful cacophony, sugar upon lips, dancing to exhaustion I thought ofyou, before this minute upon another minute upon another Until, numb, my lips fell onto the mouth of another, and I was undone. -from Golden Tongue: The Poems of Steven Slaughter

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Thornking Ash: The school that James and his friends attend.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Leanan Sidhe: A faerie muse

Errata edit see section history

Page 216, 2nd paragraph, 5th line
...your grade from a C to an B...

an should be a

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Lament, and followed by Requiem.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Maggie Stiefvater (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.S855625 Bal 2009
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy
• Books › Teens › Social Issues

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history