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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Holly Black and Cassandra Clare usually always write very captivating stories. I am sure that any story where children get drafted into a magical school is going to get a lot of comparison to Harry Potter, but I thought the authors did a good job making it distinct from Harry Potter. First, the protagonist Call isn't the savior of the magical world. In this book he is more of the screw up, side kick role though he gets his own staring role at the end. Tamara is the token female/super ambitious type though. At least for the first book, I thought Black and Claire did a good job of balancing describing the world, getting to know the characters, and still having a funny plot with enough action in it. I felt like the Magisterium was enough different from other magical world that it didn't get boring. Callum Hunt is an interesting and likable enough character. I will definitely read the next book. All that being said though, it is missing that something that keeps you up late reading and would make it the next Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.
I've seen a lot of reviews com comparing this book to the Harry Potter series and I really see where they are coming from. There was a lot of similar things and just a general vibe but I actually liked that about the book. I like the dynamic of the book and the friendships. The book just didn't wow me.
Like, it seemed pretty generic for a book about a magical school and the is the villain that no one knows much about and then there is the chosen one to fight then. I got a bit bored in the book. Some of the tropes were changed in the book to become their own thing and that was pretty interesting.
Call was a very angry 12 year old and he got on my nerves sometimes. He also had a lot of sarcastic sass for someone so young and that was kind of unbelievable.
I like Aaron and Tamara. They were a lot of fun and really good friends to Call.
Jasper was the one that just tried to make Call's life a living hell and he didn't do a really good job in my opinion.
I liked Master Rufus. He was actually pretty cool. I got Dumbledore vibes from him haha.
This book was ok though and I want to continue on with the series.
Like, it seemed pretty generic for a book about a magical school and the is the villain that no one knows much about and then there is the chosen one to fight then. I got a bit bored in the book. Some of the tropes were changed in the book to become their own thing and that was pretty interesting.
Call was a very angry 12 year old and he got on my nerves sometimes. He also had a lot of sarcastic sass for someone so young and that was kind of unbelievable.
I like Aaron and Tamara. They were a lot of fun and really good friends to Call.
Jasper was the one that just tried to make Call's life a living hell and he didn't do a really good job in my opinion.
I liked Master Rufus. He was actually pretty cool. I got Dumbledore vibes from him haha.
This book was ok though and I want to continue on with the series.
It was as good as we can expect from Cassandra Clare, but the story was kind of dull and predictable , it needs more fire
This was a very enjoyable read. The dialogue is pretty on point (but hey its clare and black how can it not be?). The story dragged a bit in the middle for me and I noticed a few plot holes but maybe they will be addressed in future books. Overall not blown away but i did enjoy myself while reading this and I will for sure continue the series. I would recommend this to middle grade fantasy lovers!
Another great series to point Harry Potter fans toward! Twelve-year-old Callum has been raised by his dad ever since he was a baby; all he knows about how his mother died is that it happened when he was a baby, and at that time his leg was damaged. Now he limps and can never play sports, and he has no friends. His father has always told him how horrible Mages are, that magic is not something you want to use, and that it only leads to bad things. But now Call's shown he has the capacity to use magic, and he's been summoned to take the Iron Trial, a screening test to see if he qualifies to join The Magisterium, the mysterious underground (literally! in caverns!) boarding school for budding Mages. His father tells him to fail, on purpose, so that he'll never be picked to be a Mage's apprentice at that horrible place. And Call thinks he has failed, miserably, even without trying--he's made a mess, things are exploding, etc. But then it happens--he's chosen! Against his father's angry protests. And thus begins his education and training in the ways of Elemental Magic, for as he begins painfully to learn, "Fire wants to burn, water wants to flow, air wants to rise, earth wants to bind, and chaos wants to devour." This spooky refrain is the mantra of the Mages, and soon Call is embroiled in a mystery concerning his father and his own past, and is confronted with elemental creatures and magical enemies that threaten to overwhelm him just as he is finding friends who trust him and a place to belong.
Lots of fun action set in a nifty magical realm, with some clever surprises. Great story of friendship, fitting in, learning to trust, etc. Kind of reminded me of Harry Potter a little (including the Hermione-like smart girl character and the various Masters with their own agendas) but also a little of Star Wars and how Luke and other Jedi learn to use the Force. I can't wait for the next volume of this five-volume series!
Lots of fun action set in a nifty magical realm, with some clever surprises. Great story of friendship, fitting in, learning to trust, etc. Kind of reminded me of Harry Potter a little (including the Hermione-like smart girl character and the various Masters with their own agendas) but also a little of Star Wars and how Luke and other Jedi learn to use the Force. I can't wait for the next volume of this five-volume series!
Ok I would have given this book three stars if I had read it. The narrator for this audiobook is… not my favorite. It either gets better as you listen or I just adjusted but it significantly impacted my enjoyment of this book. I see how people connect and compare this to Harry Potter and I think it’s only done in such a critical way because of how poorly nuit this world is during this first novel. It just felt incredibly slow and after finishing the book I still don’t know a lot about how magic works in this series. Personally I also had zero connection to these characters and even dislike some of them because all we get to hear about are their insecurities and how sad they are.
Ugh. I think this is two stars for me right now but I'll have to think about it. I wanted to like it but even though it was a fast read, it kind of dragged. I was hoping for more excitement and a gripping plot from a Clare novel. But it wasn't there like in her YA books. Also, there were just way to many parallels to the Harry Potter books. And it's not just because they are both MG stories about wizards. It's everywhere. And maybe it's just because I love the HP books so much that it's easy for me to see the similarities, but I just can't get past it. Maybe if you haven't read HP you'll enjoy it more.
Unfortunately did not connect to the characters within this book and struggled to finish the book even though it was just under 300 pages long.
adventurous
medium-paced