PUBLISHER: Knopf Books for Young Readers (originally published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
RELEASE DATE: 10 September 2024 (originally publication date 14 September 2023)
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE YEAR • A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND SHELF AWARENESS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
The day that Christopher saved a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake would change his life forever.
It’s the day he learned about the Archipelago—a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now. And it’s the day he met Mal—a girl on the run, in desperate need of his help.
Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what’s happening, the clearer it becomes: no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.
Katherine Rundell’s story crackles and roars with energy and delight. It is brought vividly to life with more than 60 illustrations, including a map and a bestiary of magical creatures.
My Review
“I think… wherever you are, the needle points you home.”
Impossible Creatures is a solid middle grade fantasy-adventure novel. The characters are diverse, interesting and likeable. The world of the Archipelago is lush and vibrant with life. And the art spread throughout this book is absolutely beautiful.
Christopher Forrester 🗺️ and Mal Arvorian 🧭 are our two protagonists. And I think that they complement each other out rather well. They’re both curious and bursting with a need for adventure, as well as courageous, intelligent and kind. Christopher was a good audience surrogate, and Mal was a good way to exposit the world building of the novel. I also enjoyed the characters that traveled with the protagonists Nighthand ⛵and Irian 📔 as well the creatures that traveled with the group.
The creatures were one of the biggest highlights of the book. The sphinxes and kraken were probably the most intriguing of them all, but my favorites were al-mirajes, the ratatoskas, the kankos and hippocamps. Also the glowing cat. And I always like mermaids and nereids. Ratwin the ratatoska 🌊 was a cool and I really liked how often she popped up in the novel. Gelifen the baby griffin 🪶 was also cute.
“And that’s the magic? The glimourie?”
“Glimourie, aye. Or glamarie, some of the islanders call it. Glawmery, glamry, glim, glimt. It’s all the same: it’s the name they give the first magic. Long ago, it was everywhere.”
I thought that the story of Impossible Creatures was pretty good. It wasn’t my favorite part of the book, but I think it was just fine for a middle grade novel. There were a few standout moments for me and a couple “twists” that got me – in that they weren’t actually twists but I thought they would be, so they ended up surprising me. I kind of figured out all of the actual twists though, and I thought that they were a little too obvious. To me. But they probably wouldn’t be for the actual target audience of this book, so I think they’re actually fine.
I also thought some of the character motivations were a bit unrefined and that the characters got attached to each other a little too fast. It felt like the author was rushing to get to certain points, and was speedrunning certain things in order to get there. I felt that the second half of the book was also much stronger than the first.
I also thought some of the character motivations were a bit unrefined and that the characters got attached to each other a little too fast. It felt like the author was rushing to get to certain points, and was speedrunning certain things in order to get there. I felt that the second half of the book was also much stronger than the first. The climax and ending were really good, though.
I’m kind of half-and-half on the writing here. On the one hand, the author definitely has some experience and some of the prose reflects this. On the other hand, I thought some of the dialogue was stilted and unnatural, and there were a lot of weird metaphors, some of which I thought didn’t really make sense.
Some sentences have the power to change everything. There are the usual suspects: I love you, I hate you, I’m pregnant, I’m dying, I regret to tell you that this country is at war. But the words with the greatest power to create both havoc and marvels are these:
“I need your help.”
The artwork, including the cover and the interior illustrations, was probably my favorite part of the novel. It’s just… so good. The cover is vibrant and colorful, and the actual hardcover itself beneath the book jacket is also very nice – nicer than most other hardcover books I’ve seen in a while. Like, it’s not just one color, there’s a bit of embellishment to it. The red sprayed edges are also nice, and complement the book well, whether the book jacket is on or off.
And of course, the interior illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. As much as I like to imagine myself what everything looks like, I always enjoy pictures and art of it within the book just as much. Also, there’s an awesome map inside as well – and it’s also the inside cover pages!
I also wanted to highlight the bestiary. I love it when books have bestiaries and appendices and stuff like that, especially when they’re well done. And this book has a good bestiary. Seeing pictures of what almost all of the creatures looked like was really awesome.
“For instance: consider the greatest riddle of all-what you should do with your one brief life? The answer is different for each person. There is no neat answer, though many have tried to offer one. There are no answers to being alive. There are only strong pieces of advice.”
All in all, however, I think that Impossible Creatures was a pretty decent book, a good middle grade novel and a solid start to a new series. I definitely recommend it to its target audience, as well as those who enjoy middle grade fantasy-adventure books with great art. The sequel is also coming out later this year, so now is the perfect time to read it.
Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
BOOKS:The False Prince, The Runaway King, The Shadow Throne
COLLECTIVE LENGTH: 1055 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Scholastic Press
RELEASE DATES: 1 April 2012 – 25 February 2014
DESCRIPTION ON BOOK #1:
New York Times bestseller The False Prince thrills with wild twists and turns, danger and deceit, and the revelation of hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end.
In a discontented kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point — he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well.
As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.
My Review
“Don’t make this a fight.”
“I won’t, but you make everything a fight.”
The Shadow Throne
I’m finally posting this book series review. Yay! Getting this review written took so long. I dunno what it was about it, I just had a bunch of trouble getting myself together and sitting down to get this review done. But I’ve finally done it, so here it is!
Anyway.
I first read part of The Ascendance Series several years ago, back when it was still The Ascendance Trilogy. Back then, I read the first two books and the first few chapters of the third. And then I stopped reading for some reason; I’m not actually fully sure of the reason why at this point anymore.
But about a month ago, I found out there were new books in this series and felt the urge to go back and finish at least the first three books. So I did that. And now I’m reviewing the original trilogy of this series as one whole review. I’m also really considering reading the last two books in this series sometime as well, maybe even later this year (I just wanted to take a break after book three and stuff – I was getting slightly burnt out on this series). Anyway, without further ado, here’s the review for The Ascendance Series Books one, two and three!
The Characters
“Have you come here to kill me?” I asked. “Because I’ll scream when you do and it’ll wake up the princess and probably a whole lot of other people and you’ll get into trouble.”
“You’ll be dead.”
“Yes, but you’ll be in trouble.
The False Prince
The characters in the Ascendance Series were okay. There were really only a few standouts, and only what I’d consider to be a couple really strongly written members of the cast; but I’ve also long conceded that this is also a middle grade series of books, so there was never gonna be anything like that anyway.
Let’s discuss the characters a little bit…
Sage 🧩 is the main character, throughout the entire series. He starts going by another name after the first book, but I’m not gonna tualk about it here ’cause it’s a spoiler. Anyway, he kind of irritated at first, but he really grew on me as the story went on, though. He really starts to shine as a character in book two. Sage is a sassy teenager with a strong heart. Though he did continue to do something in all of the books that continued to irritate me throughout my time reading trilogy – however I will say that this is more of an issue with the writing than Sage himself. (We’ll get to this specific issue in a bit.)
He starts to show his true colors as the novels go on, and even from early on it’s established that he’s brave and determined and highly intelligent, and he’ll do anything for those he cares about. This is when he started to be more compelling for me to follow as I read the books. Anyway, I think kids will really enjoy following him – and I actually did start to enjoy his personality and character more in the second book.
Sage’s friends Tobias 📚 and Roden 🗡️ are also pretty important. They don’t have a lot to them though, and I didn’t find myself interested in either of them really. I also didn’t really understand why they bonded and became friends, as everyone is constantly flip-flopping on everything in book one when they first meet and do the bulk of their interactions with one another. Out of the two, I guess that Roden is the more compelling character, however. I really wish we got to see more of their characterizations.
Bevin Conner 💰 is the one who sets the events of the series in motion and he’s definitely one of the more interesting characters here. Even though I kind of had him and his allegiances figured out pretty early on, I’m an adult reading middle grade, and I think younger readers will be questioning his motives throughout the trilogy. His servant Mott 🛡️ is a bit less interesting, but I still liked him and the familial bond he and Sage started to forge. Mott is also the most rational character in the series, and it was always refreshing when he’d interject his perspective on things.
And yes, there are also female characters in this series, although only two of them matter. Imogen 💞 is the first of these, and unfortunately her only purpose is to be a motivation for Sage. She doesn’t get that much page time, and I couldn’t take her and Sage’s budding romance seriously at all throughout any of the three books. I’ll get into it more in a bit, in another section. Anyway, the other relevant female character is Amarinda ✨ , who I liked a lot more than Imogen and thought was far more interesting, even though neither of them had that much of a personality aside from being kind and brave. I felt like Amarinda had a bit more to her character, though – probably because she wasn’t stuck in Middle-Grade Protagonist Love Interest Hell like Imogen was.
The Story
What’s the point of gaining peace if it costs us our freedom? I won’t trade the one for the other.
The Runaway King
I think that the plot – especially for the first book – is pretty intriguing and will draw people in, as it did me like seven years ago when I first read part of this trilogy. The False Prince 👑🔷 has a very compelling premise and the way the writing is keeps readers pretty engaged. Even if you know the big twist ahead of time, there are still little nuggets carefully placed throughout the novel that hint at it and make a reread interesting, too.
My favorite of the first three books of The Ascendance Series was The Runaway King. ⚔️💚 I don’t really know why, I guess because I already knew the big twist of book one ’cause I’d read it years before (though I figured it out almost immediately when I read The False Prince the first time as well). I also preferred Sage’s character during the second novel – he was far less of an annoying brat, though he definitely still had his moments that really irritated me.
The Shadow Throne 🗝️🔴 is also pretty good, and works well as the second half of the story set up in The Runaway King as well as an engaging climax. Almost all of the loose ends in the trilogy were also all tied up by the end – there were basically no hanging threads left over – which is always really nice to see. I love it when series do that.
The Romance
Villains and plots and enemies are simple things to me. But friendships are complicated, and love is harder still. It has wounded me deep.
The Shadow Throne
Even though it wasn’t a big focus in this series – the adventure was the main thing here – I still gotta talk about the romance. Because I don’t think any it was really that great.
There were two couples that have focus so far in the first part of The Ascendance Series, but one doesn’t really happen until the third novel, so I’m not really gonna talk about that one. That’s not the one I’m really annoyed with either, as it’s more of a side pairing and both of the characters in this relationship get equal screentime. No, the romantic relationship I’m talking about is the main one, between Sage and Imogen.
I don’t like this romance. For one thing, Imogen is barely a character, and for another, her and Sage only have like one or two interactions before they’re suddenly extremely protective and interested in one another. And this felt really weird to read, both times I went through the books. Not to mention, particularly in The False Prince and parts of The Runaway King, Sage makes Imogen uncomfortable quite a few times and that kind of made me uncomfortable to read.
I want to stress that he wasn’t being weird or anything – he was being pretty kind actually! – it just seemed like he overwhelmed her and would pile a lot of changes on her shoulders. Their relationship definitely moved too fast for two barely fifteen year-olds, though. Not to mention, Imogen didn’t really show up that often in any of the books, which didn’t help their relationship feel like it was evolving. So yeah, their romance basically never felt like it got any development, really. I do understand and acknowledge that this is a middle grade fantasy-adventure series that is likely primarily targeted towards boys, and that I’m definitely not the audience intended for these books though, so it doesn’t bother me that much.
The Writing
Nobody gives you respect in this life. You must take it, you must earn it, and then you must hold it sacred, because no matter how hard respect is to attain, it can be lost in an instant.
The Shadow Throne
I think that the actual prose itself in The Ascendance Series – as well as the dialogue – was pretty good. I felt that it was great for middle grade novels. Nielsen is a pretty good writer, and her writing really starts to shine in the second and third books.
I don’t like the way that the author has Sage narrate the books, however. Yes, I understand that Sage is meant to be an unreliable narrator… in the first book. And the way that he’s an unreliable narrator bothers me the same way that Gen is an unreliable narrator from Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief – I’m not gonna say how because that would spoil the twist of both novels. But anyway, I don’t think that Sage should still be as unreliable (but in a different way) as he is in the subsequent two books that I read.
In books two and three, Sage is unreliable in the same way that I’ve heard Bryce Quinlan from the Crescent City novels is unreliable: they both do stuff off screen. Yeah, Sage basically always makes plans without telling the reader what he’s doing and then it almost always comes together in the end. And I hate that, when characters are written like this, because I think it’s a way that authors use when they’re trying to make their characters seem smart and clever, but they either aren’t skilled enough to do this in a better way and/or are lazy. So yeah, I’m not fond of this at all, and it’s the main thing that annoys me about Sage in the second and third novels.
Final Thoughts
With introductions out of the way, Erick got down to the business of having abducted me.
“Why were you asking Fink about the priest?”
“I have some sins to confess,” I said. “For ruining the life of the last man to kidnap me.
The Runaway King
All in all, I think that The Ascendance Series is a pretty solid middle grade fantasy series. Again, as I mentioned earlier, I’m definitely not the target audience for this series, but I was able to get some enjoyment out of it as an adult.And though there were some writing decisions that bothered me, they probably won’t bother middle schoolers – heck, they likely won’t even notice them! I think that kids in the intended age group will really enjoy it, actually.
And though there were some writing decisions that bothered me, they probably won’t bother middle schoolers – heck, they likely won’t even notice them! I think that kids in the intended age group will really enjoy it, actually.
Anyway, with everything in mind, my star rating for this series as a whole is:
Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!
See ya ~Mar
My Star Ratings for Each Book
Some Other Quotes I Enjoyed That Have Spoilers (for the First Book)
“From all I’m told, the prince they sent away was selfish, mischievous, and destructive. The king who returns is courageous, noble, and strong.”
“And a fool,” I added.
Mott chuckled. “You are that too.”
The False Prince
“You should thank me for tolerating you. I had hoped that becoming a royal would cure your foul manners.”
“That’s interesting. My father hoped that stripping me of royalty would do the same thing.”
The Runaway King
“It’s your storm, and the future of us all depends on you now. So who are you? Sage, an orphan boy who cares only for himself? Or the undisciplined, rebellious prince your father sent away? Life has tested your resilience and strength and willpower, and you have succeeded in ways nobody ever thought possible. But the storm has never been worse, and it will either destroy you, or define you. When everything is taken from you, can you still stand before us as Jaron, the Ascendant King of Carthya?”
Ugh. Thanksgiving kicked my butt once again. What am I even doing with these posts being at least a day late?! It is what it is, I guess. Sorry about how lackluster the blog has been in general this past week, as well. Thanksgiving, why are you so busy?!
Anyway. It’s time for that certain annual post of mine – Books I’m Thankful For. It’s something I started the first year I started this blog (about the first month in, even), and I think that the name is pretty self explanatory. It’s just me talking about a book or series that I’m really appreciative of or felt was something life changing for me to read.
My post from 2022, the year I started this, was all about Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Treehouse series. And in my post from last year, I focused on Obert Skye’s Leven Thumps series. This year, the book (or series) I’m gonna gush about is… 🥁🥁 The Warrior Cats books by Erin Hunter (who’s actually five people – or more is it more now?? – under a pseudonym but whatever)!!
Full Disclosure: I’m very aware that Warrior Cats does not really hold up as an adult. These books have got all kinds of issues and weirdness: reused plots, ridiculous written romance (it’s always forbidden love), and Omen of the Stars gets really weird at times. But if you were there in its hay day in the late ’00s you’d get it. There’s just something about these cat books that kept you coming back for more.
So, first off, we have to start with the honest truth. What originally attracted me to these books was the fact that beautiful and colorful cats were the main focus of these series and I wanted a cat very badly growing up but wasn’t allowed to have one. That’s it, that’s what primarily caught my eye about Warrior Cats. It let me live out my fantasy in an extremely overly fantastical way of experiencing cats. And that’s what I liked most about it. Maybe.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about these novels was how. Freaking. Many. There were. When I first got into these books the first two series – The Prophecies Begin and The New Prophecy – were already out completely and even in paperback. The first super edition, Firestar’s Quest, had also been released (and was in paperback as well). Warrior Cats was currently on its third saga, The Power of Three. The first three books of this series had come out (though not all in paperback yet) and the fourth book was poised to come out any time. So yeah, I had a lot of books to occupy my time.
And boy did I spend a lot of time with these books. I’d read them, then I’d reread them, and then I’d reread my favorite parts of them. I even acquired one of the official guide books, Cats of the Clans, and read and reread that. And admired all of the pretty cat artwork, of course. Not to mention, I spent a substantial amount of time on the (unofficial) wiki once I discovered it and these books got me into drawing as well. (They made me want to learn how to draw cats, okay?) And don’t get me started on the fanfiction. This was one of the first book series I read fanfiction for, and was the second thing ever I considered writing fanfiction for. I also owned all of the books and super editions that were out at the time and came out while I was following all of the series.
So yeah, basically, I was obsessed with the Warrior Cats books. For a good two years or so, at least. Then I kind of started losing interest sometime in Omen of the Stars (I told you, it gets weird), and dropped off. Also, I was beginning to suspect a certain cat I Ioved was gonna die and I wasn’t ready to read that. (I ended up being right, btw.) But I never forgot these novels and how they took over my life for a while. And how they filled the void inside myself that desperately wanted to have a cat.
About five years ago, a few Warrior Cats videos started popping up on my YouTube feed and I got back into it a little. I sort of caught up to where the books were currently at (only like how many series there were at the time and the vaguest notions of their plots), and even bought a couple books. Specifically, one of the other super editions, and the second half of Omen of the Stars. Because I’d never finished it, and I kind of wanted to.
I still want to. Because I never did end up reading them and it’s always been something I’ve regretted a little. Like, I’m definitely gonna stop after Omen of the Stars (I’m really not interested in the stuff that comes after), but it feels a little weird leaving it unfinished, you know? I mean, these books were my life (to some degree) for two years. That’s not insignificant. But who knows. Maybe I’ll read them, maybe I won’t.
I didn’t really get into it, but I did like a lot that the novels had to offer, despite the lower points and some of the odd decisions made. I really liked the characters (for the most part), and even adored some of them. Also, I loved the setting and aesthetic of the groups of cats living in the forest, and then later around a lake (but still actually in the woods – just with a body of water in the middle this time). And I really enjoyed the magical aspect of these books too; it added a mystical fantasy aspect to the novels that wouldn’t feel the same without it. (Well more fantastical than cats that fight over territory and have human-like interactions with one another already are.) Someday, I might even do a massive review of all the books I’ve read from this gigantic series. Who knows.
Anyway, even with all the weirdness, the Warrior Cats series was really impactful for me, and I’m really thankful for it for various reasons. I’ll never, ever regret the time I spent with all of these books. And I recommend giving them a shot to any middle grade readers who are interested, but in the same way that I recommended One Piece to people. Because they’re both so ridiculously long at this point. (With Warrior Cats you can stop off much easier, though. You can just read the individual series within the bigger series if you want to. It’s mostly a bunch of books that are simply set in the same universe at this point. You just gotta read them in order.)
So yeah, it’s a bit late (again), but Happy Thanksgiving 🦃🥧 to everyone and anyone who celebrates it! I hope you all enjoyed good food with the ones you love.
What books are you thankful for? What are your favorite novels?
Thank you for reading. I’m always so thankful that anyone reads or follows my little blog at all. I hope you have a wonderful day/night!
A story of ghosts, family, loneliness, and laundromats.
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for. Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world. When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.
Sheets illustrates the determination of a young girl to fight, even when all parts of her world seem to be conspiring against her. It proves that second chances are possible whether life feels over or life is over. But above all, it is a story of the forgiveness and unlikely friendship that can only transpire inside a haunted laundromat.
My Review
Humans are delicate, too. The teensiest mistake can ruin them, even if you do everything else right. Just because mistakes seem small and insignificant, doesn’t mean they are.
Delicates
Ugh. I wanted to have this review out on Halloween. Clearly, that didn’t happen, lol. So much for that. (Here’s a belated Happy Halloween 🎃👻🐈⬛🧹🦇🕸️ to everyone, by the way.) But it’s here now, I guess. Anyway.
I decided to read the Sheets series because it looked cute, and… honestly, that’s kind of it. But I don’t think I really need to have another reason than that. I mean, that’s my initial reason for picking up most books – there’s something about them (usually their covers) that draws me to them. And this wasn’t any different.
Since there are actually three books in this series (it isn’t just the same book split into three volumes, like The Glass Scientists), and I felt differently about each one, this review is actually gonna be split into three mini reviews. So let’s start off where this series starts off – with the first book in this little series: Sheets.
Sheets
“But this place is home, baby. And once you have that, there’s nowhere you’d rather be.”
Sheets
I rather enjoyed Sheets. It was a solid start to this little series of graphic novels. My favorite thing about this installment – and I guess the rest of the books as well – was how nostalgic it made me feel.
If I put the pieces together correctly based on the information provided, and am remembering that correctly, this series starts in 1998. I was very young at that time, so I barely remember anything, but since a bunch of nineties stuff carried over a bit to the 2000s, it was enough to make me feel the nostalgia. The Gameboys, the lack of cell phones everywhere – all these things awoke ancient memories within me. It was so weird, but it was nice to look back on that time.
The thing that I loved the second most about these graphic novels was how ghosts’ forms come from bedsheets. I absolutely loved that idea – I thought that was so clever and adorable. The ghosts were also my favorite part of the art style.
The characters were also cute. I really liked Marjorie and Wendell’s friendship, but I wished we’d gotten to see them more as friends during the novel, instead of just becoming friends near the end.
Speaking of the ending, it was kind of… eh. Everything wrapped up just a little too neatly, and parts of it didn’t make sense. If being seen by humans is such a huge law in the ghost world, why is it suddenly okay at the end? But I recognized that this series is targeted towards middle grade and younger, so I kind of get why everything was wrapped up so quickly and efficiently.
Delicates
“Everyone has ghosts. I think we all need to learn that there’s no shame in letting them out.”
Delicates
Out of the three graphic novels in this little series, Delicates was unfortunately the one that I enjoyed the least. Don’t get me wrong – I still liked it, I just didn’t like it as much as the other two.
The main reason for this was definitely all the middle school drama. It just annoyed me to read about, likely because I already lived it. I didn’t enjoy middle school drama when I was in middle school and I don’t enjoy it now. And out of all three books in the Sheets series this one definitely deals with it the most, which is why it’s my least favorite. I think that actually kids in middle and primary school will enjoy it for this reason, though, because they’re probably going through this stuff right now.
I did enjoy the new main character introduced, however. Eliza was awkward and quiet, but she really rounded out our main trio in the best way. Unfortunately, like in Sheets, we didn’t get to see as much of this interaction as I’d have liked. We also didn’t get to see too much of Marjorie and Wendell just hanging out as I had expected either, which was also disappointing. Because most of Delicates was focused primarily on introducing Eliza and the aforementioned middle school drama.
I will say that the topics focused on in this installment are important for middle school aged kids, as well as sensitive, so reader discretion might be advised. (Depression and suicide ideation are very heavily implied.)
Lights
It’s much harder to create light than it is to extinguish it.
Lights
Lights was my favorite out of the Sheets trilogy, and it really isn’t that surprising. It was the most “action packed” of the three, and had the most interesting plot to me. It focused on the thing I was most curious about from the beginning: Wendell’s past before he died and the events leading up to it.
This is also the installment where we got to see the friendships play out between the trio that I’d wanted to see since Sheets and that I felt were a bit neglected in Delicates. We also got to see a lot of catharsis playing out regarding parts of the story and between characters, so that was also nice to read.
All in all, I don’t really want to say too much about this one, as it is the last book in this series. But I will mention that I really enjoyed it and that it definitely had a satisfying conclusion for the trilogy.
Final Thoughts
“There’s good and bad in everyone, you know?But the more friends you have in your life… well… the more, uh, brightness you’ll have overall.”
Lights
Regarding this series as a whole, I think the Sheets series is a solid little collection of middle grade graphic novels. I definitely recommend this to kids that age that like cute supernatural stories with a bit of a darker side.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure teenagers and adults might find something (or things) to enjoy about it, whether it be the art, the nostalgia or the ghost story aspect of it. But I definitely think kids will get the most enjoyment out of this trilogy out of everyone.
As always, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope you have an excellent day/night! I hope everybody had a great Halloween, too!
In his continuing quest to earn college recommendation letters from the gods, Percy has to pet-sit the goddess Hecate’s polecat and giant mastiff during Halloween week. What could go wrong?
Rick Riordan’s newest Percy Jackson adventure is full of hilarious set pieces, a diverse cast of gods and monsters, and many other delightful tricks and treats.
Percy Jackson, now a high school senior, needs three recommendation letters from the Greek gods in order to get into New Rome University. He earned his first one by retrieving Ganymede’s chalice. Now the goddess Hecate has offered Percy another “opportunity”—all he has to do is pet sit her polecat, Gale, and mastiff, Hecuba, over Halloween week while she is away. Piece of cake, right?
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover settle into Hecate’s seemingly endless mansion and start getting acquainted with the fussy, terrifying animals. The trio has been warned not to touch anything, but while Percy and Annabeth are out at school, Grover can’t resist drinking a strawberry-flavored potion in the laboratory. It turns him into a giant frenzied goat, and after he rampages through the house, damaging everything in sight, and passes out, Gale and Hecuba escape. Now the friends have to find Hecate’s pets and somehow restore the house, all before Hecate gets back on Saturday. It’s going to take luck, demigod wiles, and some old and new friends to hunt down the animals and set things right again.
My Review
Her onyx eyes glittered. She sat forward and laced her fingers, looking more like a principal than my real principal ever did. “You may call me the Torch Bearer, the Star Walker, the Night Wanderer, the Disturber of the Dead, the daughter of Perses and Asteria, the Triple Goddess!”
“Uh-huh,” I said, still clueless.
You’re probably thinking, Percy, you’ve been dealing with the Greek gods for years. How could you not know her?
So Percy Jackson book seven came out… and I enjoyed reading it. And yes, I understand that nostalgia had some impact on my reading experience and overall rating, as it did with book six. Because of this I have altered my rating accordingly for Wrath of the Triple Goddess. (As even though when I read both books six and seven both felt like five star reads, I know in my soul that they weren’t as good as The Battle of the Labyrinth or The Last Olympian. So think of four and a half stars as the same rating for Chalice of the Gods now, I guess. I was a bit overzealous with that review.)
Out of the two new PJO novels, I’m honestly not sure whether I enjoyed The Chalice of the Gods or Wrath of the Triple Goddess more. On the one hand, TCOTG was the first actual-not-a-spinoff Percy Jackson book in years, and I loved the cameos and references, and seeing how Percy, Annabeth and Grover have grown up. But book seven was fun too, and it had Halloween vibes out the wazoo, which I always adore. I guess I enjoyed them equally?
Anyway, I never knew I needed a PJO book set around Halloween until now. It was great, and the book was released during the literal perfect time of the year for it. It’s still a little weird to me reading novels from this series that take place in the fall – nearly all of them, except for The Titan’s Curse which takes place over winter break – are set over the summer. But it’s a nice change.
Grover and I exchanged a look of relief. Whenever Annabeth joined the chat, the odds of us doing something idiotic went way down. The odds were never zero, mind you, because I was still in the mix.
Percy is still as sassy as ever, perhaps even more so than book six, and Annabeth and Grover still balance him perfectly. This really is one of the greatest trios I’ve ever had the pleasure of following. Grover also doesn’t feel like a third wheel here, which was a very minor problem in TCOTG, and his feelings on potential third wheel status and Percy and Annabeth moving on from him are addressed here and it’s great.
And I can’t forget about Percabeth, one of the greatest relationships ever written. Still here and still fantastic – Percy and Annabeth really are a great couple. They just work so unbelievably well together.
Annabeth and I were more than just two people. We were a pair, and when we stood at the crossroads, we did it together.
The plot, even though I really enjoyed it, might be a slightly weaker aspect of this novel, as it was with book six. But that probably feels that way because it doesn’t feel as big as the plots of my memories, nor is it a world ending prevention story like basically all other Percy Jackson novels and spinoffs. It was fine on its own, but is far more down to earth than the rest of the series (save TCOTG).
I can’t believe the final book in this additional trilogy to the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians is coming out next year. That’s twenty years after the original book, the one that started it all – The Lightning Thief – did. I can’t believe it’s been that long already. Just, the timing. I can’t wait to see how this ends. But at the same time, I’ll once again feel a little sad to see it go.
“Hey, Wise Girl,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice, “be wise. I don’t know much, but I do know we’re stronger together. Always.”
I definitely recommend Wrath of the Triple Goddess to fans of the Percy Jackson series. Alsoto fantasy fans who enjoy middle grade and YA stuff. But mostly to preexisting fans, ’cause you have to read the original five books (and book six) and have some knowledge of the sequel/spinoff series the Heroes of Olympus to really enjoy this novel. Also, read this book in October – the vibes are perfect.
Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic day/night!
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve had upcoming books to talk about. But I’m finally back with more!
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.
This week’s book is:
Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan! 🐾🔥
I’m a long time Percy Jackson fan and seeing the original series continued years after still feels surreal to me. I acknowledge that book six, The Chalice of the Gods, wasn’t the best and most amazing thing ever (and ended up not loving it quite as much a few weeks after I read it), but it was still good. I’m thinking – and hoping – that this one will be the same.
In his continuing quest to earn college recommendation letters from the gods, Percy has to pet sit the goddess Hecate’s polecat and giant mastiff during Halloween week. What could go wrong?
Rick Riordan’s newest Percy Jackson adventure is full of hilarious set pieces, a diverse cast of gods and monsters, and many other delightful tricks and treats.
Percy Jackson, now a high school senior, needs three recommendation letters from the Greek gods in order to get into New Rome University. He earned his first one by retrieving Ganymede’s chalice. Now the goddess Hecate has offered Percy another “opportunity”—all he has to do is pet sit her polecat, Gale, and mastiff, Hecuba, over Halloween week while she is away. Piece of cake, right?
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover settle into Hecate’s seemingly endless mansion and start getting acquainted with the fussy, terrifying animals. The trio has been warned not to touch anything, but while Percy and Annabeth are out at school, Grover can’t resist drinking a strawberry-flavored potion in the laboratory. It turns him into a giant frenzied goat, and after he rampages through the house, damaging everything in sight, and passes out, Gale and Hecuba escape. Now the friends have to find Hecate’s pets and somehow restore the house, all before Hecate gets back on Saturday. It’s going to take luck, demigod wiles, and some old and new friends to hunt down the animals and set things right again.
Are you looking forward to Wrath of the Triple Goddess? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?
As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a awesome day/night!
In the long-awaited sequel to Fablehaven, the dragons who have been kept at the dragon sanctuaries no longer consider them safe havens, but prisons and they want their freedom. The dragons are no longer our allies….
In the hidden dragon sanctuary of Wyrmroost, Celebrant the Just, King of the Dragons, plots his revenge. He has long seen the sanctuaries as prisons, and he wants nothing more than to overthrow his captors and return the world to the Age of Dragons, when he and his kind ruled and reigned without borders. The time has come to break free and reclaim his power.
No one person is capable of stopping Celebrant and his dragon horde. It will take the ancient order of Dragonwatch to gather again if there is any chance of saving the world from destruction. In ancient times, Dragonwatch was a group of wizards, enchantresses, dragon slayers, and others who originally confined the majority of dragons into sanctuaries. But nearly all of the original Dragonwatch members are gone, and so the wizard Agad reaches out to Grandpa Sorenson for help.
As Kendra and Seth confront this new danger, they must draw upon all their skills, talents, and knowledge as only they have the ability to function together as a powerful dragon tamer. Together they must battle against forces with superior supernatural powers and breathtaking magical abilities.
How will the epic dragon showdown end? Will dragons overthrow humans and change the world as we know it?
My Review
Writing a novel is like climbing a mountain that does not yet exist, reaching for handholds that become tangible only as you curl your fingers around them, yearning for a tower- ing summit that must be willed into reality before you can stand on it.
Brandon Mull, author of Fablehaven and Dragonwatch
So, I finally got around to reading the final Dragonwatch book. And honestly, I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Especially after how subpar books three and four felt at times while reading.
Though not as good as Fablehaven – and I’ll talk about why that is in a bit – Dragonwatch is a very solid middle grade fantasy series. And just a solid fantasy in general, if we’re being honest here. It was a wonderful, yet completely unexpected continuation of a series that I thought was over. Many writers return to their biggest successes years later, or never stop to begin with and just keep milking the cow, and so often it overstays its welcome or sours the earlier installments. But Dragonwatch didn’t do that – it continues a story from beyond its original ending in a way that feels very natural. (Not to mention the lack of sequel bait at the end of The Keys to the Demon Prison was wonderful, even if finally reaching the end of Fablehaven book five felt bittersweet.)
As this is a sequel series – and is considered to be the second half of a story by the author himself – it would be impossible to discuss Dragonwatch without talking about Fablehaven. At least a little bit. (Don’t worry – I’m not gonna get too much into it.)
Creating an entire series is an even grander and more daunting expedition. Writing the Fablehaven and Dragonwatch series has been quite a climb. I spent ten years of my life producing these books, and now I’m finally done. I believe these were mountains worth climbing, and I am happy to leave them as part of the landscape so others can explore them.
Brandon Mull
But anyway. Fablehaven. It’s a series from the ’00s that I feel got a little bit lost in the shuffle ’cause of certain other big fantasy books at the time that were targeted towards YA and middle grade. But I really enjoyed it when I first discovered it around 2008. I thought that the individual plots of each book were each engaging and stood on their own very well. I adored the characters, particularly Seth and Kendra, and loved their character growth. And I loved the dialogue and the writing and the execution of Mull’s ideas. Not to mention the pacing of each novel was incredible, I don’t think I was ever bored or felt like any of the books suffered from Middle Book Syndrome.
And this is why I feel that though it’s a great series, Dragonwatch doesn’t quite hit the same for me as Fablehaven did. And yeah, I’m sure that nostalgia is definitely at least a little involved here, but I just don’t think that Dragonwatch is quite as good. For one: books three and four – Master of the Phantom Isle and Champion of the Titan Games – definitely feel a little bit middle book syndrome-y. There’s just something about the pacing of them for me, I dunno.
Second of all: Seth is incredibly annoying in these same two books, and I hated following his chapters at times (sometimes I just DESPISE amnesia plots if they’re done certain ways). It felt like I was following a different character at times, which kind of irritated me during a few parts. Like, I get it I know how an amnesia plot works, but at the same time it was a bit frustrating.
And last of all: there were just so many more new characters introduced and other miscellaneous stuff that felt a bit unnecessary and usually disappeared after a while. I also wasn’t too keen on Kendra’s and Seth’s younger cousins for much of the series either. They were introduced in the first Dragonwatch book, yet they felt unnecessary for much of the story of the series. Sure, they fulfilled their character arcs at the end of the books, but they just annoyed me for whatever reason.
I’m sure that you can tell by now that I felt that the third and fourth books were the weakest of the series. And you’d be correct – I definitely think that. But I also felt that it had a strong start as well as a strong finish. And my grievances with the series are honestly very few; as I’ve said – this is an absolutely solid fantasy series.
I didn’t want to write Dragonwatch unless it would build upon what Fablehaven started in a way that felt important. Now that I’m done, I feel like Dragonwatch is the second half of a single sweeping story, and that without these five books, the adventures of Kendra and Seth would be incomplete.
Brandon Mull
Let me just make a little list of some of my favorite things about Dragonwatch (Note – The Return of the Dragon Slayers was the most recent book I’ve read – it’s been well over a year since I read any of the others – so my points will basically be about this book in particular or the series as a whole):
The way the entire series – Fablehaven and Dragonwatch – came full circle in a few different ways.
Muriel, the witch antagonist from the first Fablehaven book, appears and has a significant part to play in book five of Dragonwatch.
Kendra and Seth have a moment in the room they originally stayed in during Fablehaven.
Themes from the first series return and circle back in a satisfying way.
Kendra and Bracken have another touching moment at the end of the Dragonwatch series that builds on the moment they had five books earlier at the end of the Fablehaven half of the series. I adored it.
I loved seeing many of the characters return from the Fablehaven part of the series. So many books come back years later and ditch much of the original cast, but this one doesn’t do that, which I appreciated.
Seeing new magical places was awesome. Moving beyond the magical preserves was awesome. I just love the Fablehaven world building and universe in general.
Brandon Mull managed not only to stick a series ending with Fablehaven not once but twice. So many series struggle with this aspect of writing, but neither half of the series does. Both Fablehaven’s and Dragonwatch’s endings are satisfying and feel earned.
So yeah, I liked a lot of stuff about the Dragonwatch series. But this review is already getting super long so I can’t talk about everything I enjoyed. I definitely recommend this series to anyone who enjoys middle grade fantasy, and especially kids in middle school. As someone who read half of this series in middle school when it was still just Fablehaven, I think that kids this age will find it to be a great series and will enjoy it.
Because of this, my median star rating for the entire Dragonwatch part of the series is:
Anyways, as always, thank you to everyone so much for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic day/night!
Also, if you celebrate it, 🇺🇸🎇 Happy4thofJuly!! 🇺🇸🎇
See ya ~Mar
I have many other books and series to write. Some of my fa- vorite ideas have yet to be written. I can’t wait to share them in the years to come.
Sooo… It’s been a few weeks since I participated in First Line Fridays. Not to mention my posting has been pretty spotty this month as well. Sorry about that…
Anyway, 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:
For the first time since he had arrived at the Museum of Gigantic Achievement, Knox heard no sounds of dragons wreaking havoc above.
Any ideas on the book? Here’s another hint or two if you still can’t figure it out…
Still not quite sure yet? Here are some lovely photos of books to admire while you think about it…
Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 Return of the Dragon Slayers by Brandon Mull!!
The magical world teeters on the brink of collapse. The Dragon King, Celebrant, has united the dragons into a vengeful army, and only a final artifact stands in the way of them unleashing their fury against humankind. With established allegiances shifting under the strain, Seth and Kendra find themselves in desperate need of new allies.
Seth must face his most dangerous quest–the fulfillment of his pledge to the Singing Sisters. With only Calvin the Tiny Hero at his side, Seth needs to collect the pieces of the Ethergem, including the stones from the crowns of the Dragon King, the Giant Queen, and the Demon King.
Halfway across the world, Kendra finds herself torn between her duty to Dragonwatch and her desire to rescue Bracken. Can she challenge Ronodin’s control of the fairy realm without leaving the five legendary dragon slayers to be hunted by Celebrant and his sons?
Left behind at Titan Valley, Knox and Tess must survive the aftermath of the Giant Queen’s fall. Will the secret crown in Knox’s possession prove too much for him to handle?
In this fifth and final volume of Dragonwatch, our heroes make their last stand at the hidden Kingdom of Selona. For the defenders of light to stand a chance, the legendary dragon slayers must arise, lost secrets must be uncovered, and ancient powers must awaken. Get ready for the gripping, revelatory, and unforeseen conclusion to the epic ten-volume New York Times best-selling Fablehaven and Dragonwatch series.
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!
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!
