It’s June now, so it’s time to talk about what I read in May! This is super late compared to normal – and I wanted to post this way earlier – but I went on vacation last week, so my posting and my schedule in general both kind of got messed up. Sorry, I’ve been kind of MIA these last couple weeks.
Anyway.
My reading is the best it’s been so far this year! May was fantastic regarding books and stuff. I read 8 books – which is 2 more novels than I read in April! Woohoo! I’m really happy with my reading stats from The StoryGraph from May.
But yeah, without further ado, let’s get going with the May 2024 Reading Wrap-Up!
May Reading 2024
I read 8 books and 2,234 pages
😐 MOODS: There were a ton of different Moods this past month. Adventurous was of course the biggest chunk of the pie in May, but Mysterious was also pretty big. Making up the rest of the pie were Reflective, Lighthearted, Inspiring, Hopeful, Funny, Emotional, and Dark.
👢 PACE: My books from last month were all either fast or medium paced.
🔢 PAGE NUMBER: I read a lot of books with different page numbers. But everything I read was between 100 and 500 pages.
📖 FICTION/NONFICTION: It was once again all fiction this month.
🎭 GENRES: There were quite a few Genres in May, though not as many as in April. Fantasy was once again the biggest bar, as usual, though it is closely followed by Middle Grade – probably because I read the entirety of the Magisterium series last month. The three other Genres on the graph are LGBT+, Science Fiction, and Historical.
📄 FORMAT: This particular pie graph is once again wrong. All of the books that I read were ebooks.
⭐ RATING: My median star rating for last month was 3.94. The ratings I gave were between 2.5 stars and 5.0 stars, with three of the ratings being 4.0 stars.
📉 PAGES READ DAILY: I didn’t read as much as I’d have liked during the first week or so of May, but I really started reading after that. My highest reading peak was during the 21st thru the 23rd, but I had little reading spikes around during other parts of the month.
So yeah, so again for being late with this wrap-up and the gap in the posting. I’ve just had a few things going on the last couple weeks; particularly my vacation last week. I’m not sure how much reading of books I’m gonna get done for June, but I didn’t read any during my vacation, so we’ll see. Hopefully it’s at least like 5 or 6 books by the end of the month.
There are a couple of books that came out this month (June 2024) that I was interested in. I’ve already read one of them, and you’ll see what I thought of it soon. But I’m hoping to continue with One Piece again. We got busy at the end of May, so plans for continuing it last month kinda fell by the wayside. Other than that, I’m not fully sure what I’m planning on reading during the rest of this month.
Anyway, thanks for joining me in checking out my StoryGraph stats for my May reading in 2024. Thank you also for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.
Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.
All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.
So he tries his best to do his worst – and fails at failing.
Now the Magisterium awaits him. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.
The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come…
From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.
My Review
All elements have a counterweight. Fire is the counterweight of water. Air is the counterweight of earth. The counterweight of chaos is the soul.
The Iron Trial
So, I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past week. Someone I follow on Instagram gave a great five star review for the Magisterium. And, though they were middle grade and I don’t read that as often, it sounded up my alley so I gave the books a shot.
…And discovered a pretty solid middle grade fantasy series in the process. If you enjoy Percy Jackson and Harry Potter and want more, then these might be for you – these are the two series that the Magisterium is usually compared to, though I felt the writing style was also similar to the Summoner Trilogy by Taran Matharu. They aren’t quite as well written as those other series (there are a couple glaring plot holes as well as stuff just put into the books to make you follow red herrings and stuff but are otherwise there for unexplained reasons), but I thought that the rest of the story and characters were good enough to give those a pass.
I preferred the first half of the series to the second half – which is something I didn’t expect – but I still rated all of the books pretty highly. I’ll write my thoughts on the series as a whole spoiler free right here, but I’m also going to talk about some spoilers below it in a collapsible section.
The Characters
The characters were a definite highlight. I found our protagonist, Callum Hunt, to be pretty likeable and interesting. He’s a bit edgier than Harry or even Percy since I’ve already compared them. (All three of them are a bit sassy though.) I really liked the twist with Call and his character arc throughout the books. For the most part. (I’ll get to that in the spoilers section.)
I also liked his buds Tamara and Aaron. Tamara is smart and loyal and fiercely kind. She’s not a Hermione or Annabeth ripoff (since I’m still making comparisons) if you were worried though. She’s more hot blooded and has a completely different backstory. I also found their personalities to be pretty different from one another. Aaron, I found kind of difficult to pin down though, personality-wise. He was described as a little like Captain America in the first book, so I guess I’ll go with that. I liked him well enough, but he didn’t really have as distinct of traits as the other two in the protagonist triangle.
There are a few other characters I gotta talk about before I get into other stuff – Call’s dad: Alistair, Call’s rival: Jasper, and the trio’s teacher: Rufus. Alistair is a good, if very awkward, dad. I loved the intricacies of his father-son relationship with Callum. (I had a few issues with some stuff at the beginning though.) Jasper was a typical rival trope, but he had some of the best dialogue in the series, and I honestly found him to be a more compelling character than Aaron. He also ended up being a lot more involved with the main characters and the plot than most rivals are in middle grade and YA that I’ve read. And finally, Rufus. He was an okay mentor character that I liked well enough.
The Plot
The twists and turns of the story kept me reading. I couldn’t put this series down – I ended up reading the entirety of the five books in just over a day. It starts off a bit slow, but the authors have to build the world and establish stuff. I honestly didn’t even notice the pacing. I liked the twist of the MC initially not wanting to go to Special School, as that’s not something usually in academia set books. (Usually the kid wants to go to Special School and be Super Special.)
The big twist in the climax of The Iron Trial is one of my favorite parts of the series. It’s huge and strongly affects all of the rest of the books, and is very interesting. I actually ended up calling it by the prologue and was pleasantly surprised to be correct. Don’t worry – I don’t think it’s actually something most people would guess that easily or that quickly! I’m just really weird and my brain has been ruined by videogame, anime and fanfiction tropes and this was kind of that kind of twist. (It’s literally out of Xenoblade Chronicles – read the prologue of The Iron Trial and then look up the Monado Expedition cutscene and see if anything looks familiar. Then read the rest of the book and look up the cutscene after the Apocrypha battle. Then read the rest of the Magisterium and watch the two cutscenes again.)
The plots in each book were also very engaging, and I always found myself wanting to know what happened next. The magic system was also pretty good; I always like reading stuff based on alchemy. Though I kind of didn’t understand how they could do some things, like clairvoyance. With air magic? I don’t know – that didn’t really seem like it fell under the four elements (and sometimes five) stuff the books had going on.
The Other Stuff
I also really liked most of the other stuff the Magisterium had going on. The little romances were cute and they made sense. They also didn’t show up out of nowhere or anything either, which was nice. I hate random insta-love stuff. The narration and dialogue were also pretty good, though there was some clunkiness in book one.
There were some things that I didn’t like about the Magisterium, though. I won’t be talking about a lot of them here because they’re spoilers, but I will mention a couple. Firstly, there were a couple very noticeable plot holes, or things inserted into the plot that have no other purpose but to support red herrings, but have no actual explanation for existing except for plot convenience. Secondly, Alistair is a little inconsistent as a character the first couple of books, and he and Callum repeatedly have the exact same conversation a couple different times in the books. (I’ll talk about these more in a second.) The last book was also kind of not the best finale, and I found the final villain to be very weak and uninteresting.
Anyway, on to the spoiler section!
❗ Spoiler-y Thoughts Section ❗
The Iron Trial
Regarding book one of the Magisterium, The Iron Trial, I think it has the least amount of plot holes and stuff. It also has one of the best climaxes in the series. I got chills during Call and Joseph’s conversation where Joseph revealed that Call is the Enemy of Death (which is a stupid name by the way, especially for your bad guy), and that he transferred his soul into Callum’s body as an infant, killing the original Call. I like darker stuff like that. And Call has to grapple with being an “Evil Overlord” and the terrible things that he’s done and doesn’t remember fir the rest of the series.
The Copper Gauntlet
For The Copper Gauntlet, I do have a few issues with it. Alistair (Call’s dad), has these child-sized magical iron chains in his basement. They’re only there so that Call (and the reader) are led to believe that Alistair wants to bring harm to Call. Which is something he doesn’t want to do, by the way, and when this is revealed the chains and the reason they were in the basement never come up again. Um Alistair, why do you have them in your basement, exactly? (I never fell for any of this, by the way. The “evil parent” red herring has never been something that I’ve ever fallen for – even growing up. Yet another twist I predicted.)
The Bronze Key
I felt that The Bronze Key suffered a bit from Middle Book Syndrome. I just wasn’t as into it as I expected to be. Probably because I’d called that Alex Strike was evil in book one. (There was no indication at all he was evil – my brain just fixates on the wildest guesses sometimes.) So it was just kind of boring for me to read them trying to figure out who the spy was when I already knew.
Also, I figured how the climax would go down to Aaron dying by book two, so waiting for that to happen was kind of a slog too. (Again, not something too obvious, especially for tweens. I’ve just read a lot of books in my time and predicted it by the way that a three act structure would behave in a five book series.)
The Silver Mask
The Silver Mask started out very promising. I thought that it was gonna be my favorite one of the bunch, actually, before I actually read it, just because of what I assumed would happen. But I didn’t like the direction that the novel ended up going in.
I didn’t like how Master Joseph was killed off and Alex was primed as the final villain instead, mostly because I thought that Alex wasn’t a good antagonist at all. I also thought that Call would get his memories back from being Constantine Madden and that didn’t happen, so I was a bit disappointed in that. (Again, because of how story structure works – I thought that he’d get the memories back and then have to grapple with his remembered past of being an Evil Overlord, before ultimately accepting himself in the final book.)
The Golden Tower
The Golden Tower was kind of a bit of a meh ending, though I liked the rest of the book leading up to it, which is why I rated it highly. Callum actually does get the memories back, which I had kind of given up on after it didn’t happen in the last book. And the memories revealed that he wasn’t actually the soul of Evil Overlord Constantine Madden, but in fact the Evilest of Evil Overlords, Maugris, a guy who’d been transferring bodies since forever and was most of the Evil Overlords in Magisterium mage history. I actually really enjoyed this section of the book, though because Call got these memories back so late there wasn’t time for him to accept his past the way I’d hoped he would.
I didn’t like the climax itself though. As I said above, I don’t think that Alex is a very effective villain, and he kind of annoyed me throughout this book and the last. I also don’t think that Aaron should’ve been brought back to life in Alex’s body; I feel that it negatively detracts from some of Call’s character development – as well as Tamara’s and Aaron’s to some degree – and felt that he should have passed on instead with Callum finally accepting his death. I feel that it would’ve been a much more poignant thing than what we got, and would’ve made it feel like he’d finally accepted death as a whole more than. The actual ending ending was sweet though, and I did enjoy it and it’s callback to the end of The Iron Trial.
Out of Context Quotes I Liked
“Some people have stuffed animals,” Aaron said with a shrug. “Other people have knives.”
The Iron Trial
“Warren knows the best way. Sometimes the bear way isn’t the fastest.”
“Warren shouldn’t talk about himself in third person,” Call said.
The Iron Trial
Just then, a lizard dropped down from the ceiling onto the stone beside Call.
“Augh!” Call yelled, jumping to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
“Live here,” said Warren, tongue flicking out to lick an eyeball. “Watch you.” Because that wasn’t creepy at all.”
The Copper Gauntlet
Suddenly, they were blotted out. A slender figure rose up in front of them, smirking.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Jasper said.
“That is such a tired villain line, Jasper, and you know it,” said Call.
The Copper Gauntlet
“Come on,” said Aaron. “I don’t have a dad in prison for nothing. I think I can hotwire one of those.” He strode off toward the field of cars with a confident set to his shoulders.
“That’s our Makar,” said Jasper. “Chaos magic and grand theft auto.”
The Copper Gauntlet
“Wait!” Tamara said, running up to them, pulling Jasper behind her like a tugboat. Her parents were still where she’d left them; they’d detached Alex from Kimiya and were comforting their daughter themselves. “I’m coming with you. We both are.”
“What?” Jasper said. “No! I didn’t think you were serious. Your hot sister needs a shoulder to cry on. I volunteer myself. I would be much better at that than staying in whatever hovel Call and his weird dad-” Tamara kicked him savagely and he lapsed into a sullen silence.
The Bronze Key
“Call,” Rufus said darkly. Call had the feeling Master Rufus still thought he knew something he wasn’t saying. “Please restrain your commentary on the furniture; this is a meeting.”
The Bronze Key
“You’re the only one I can talk to, Call,” said Jasper.
“You mean because I’m chained to this floor and can’t get away?”
The Silver Mask
He had to say something. He wasn’t sure when they would be alone next.
“Um,” he said, because his conversational skills were amazing.
The Silver Mask
He stopped worrying and started hoping Warren, a weird lizard that lived in the caves, would lead them into a crevasse.
That would definitely earn you some of those Evil Overlord points, Aaron said.
“Stop poking around in my brain,” Call muttered under his breath.
The Golden Tower
“When fear rules us, we forget who we truly are. We forget the good we are capable of.”
The Golden Tower
“So this is how it happens with you guys?” Gwenda demanded. “Some weird lizard shows up and all of a sudden everything goes sideways and you’re fighting a massive elemental or some Chaos-ridden army or whatever? Well, let me tell you, I am not in for any of that.”
The Golden Tower
Individual Star Ratings
Final Thoughts
So yeah, despite its issues, I really enjoyed the Magisterium as a whole and I think it’s a pretty solid middle grade fantasy series. I thought the characters were great, the story engaging, and some of the dialogue and narrative was really funny. The books were kind of short though, and I wish they were each a little longer – a lot of them were around 250 pages and I think they could’ve easily added some character interactions to develop the cast a little more and bump them up to around 300 pages.
I think that kids and teens who like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and other like fantasy series will enjoy this. I think adults who are fans of those series and looking for more might enjoy this series as well. As a whole, I’m personally rating the Magisterium:
What books have you been reading lately? What’s the last series that you finished? How did you feel about them?
As always, thank you to everyone so much for reading, and I hope that you have an awesome day/night!
First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’s the first lines:
From a distance, the man struggling up the white face of the glacier might have looked like an ant crawling slowly up the side of a dinner plate. The shantytown of La Rinconada was a collection of scattered specks far below him, the wind increasing as his elevation did, blowing powdery gusts of snow into his face and freezing the damp tendrils of his black hair. Despite his amber goggles, he winced at the brightness of the reflected sunset.
Know the book yet? Here’s a second hint if you don’t know…
Still no idea? Here are some beautiful pictures of books to admire while you think about it…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare!!
Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.
Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.
All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.
So he tries his best to do his worst – and fails at failing.
Now the Magisterium awaits him. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.
The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come…
From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.
What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an great day/night!
I know, I know – it’s been two weeks since I did a First Line Friday post. But hey, I was sick for the latter half of last week and the first part of this week, so it isn’t my fault.
First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.
What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?
If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:
📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page 📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 📙 Finally… reveal the book!
Here’re the first lines:
Down a path worn into the woods, past a stream and a hollowed-out log full of pill bugs and termites, was a glass coffin. It rested right on the ground, and in it slept a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives.
Any guesses? I’ll give you a sec to think about it…
Annnd the book is 🥁🥁… The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black!
A girl makes a secret sacrifice to the faerie king in this lush New York Times bestselling fantasy by author Holly Black. Set in the same world as The Cruel Prince!
In the woods is a glass coffin. It rests on the ground, and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives….
Hazel and her brother, Ben, live in Fairfold, where humans and the Folk exist side by side. Since they were children, Hazel and Ben have been telling each other stories about the boy in the glass coffin, that he is a prince and they are valiant knights, pretending their prince would be different from the other faeries, the ones who made cruel bargains, lurked in the shadows of trees, and doomed tourists. But as Hazel grows up, she puts aside those stories. Hazel knows the horned boy will never wake.
Until one day, he does….
As the world turns upside down, Hazel has to become the knight she once pretended to be.
Have you read this book? What did you think about it?
