Reviews

Spellhacker by M.K. England

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andykarnik's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Another home run from M. K. England. Apparently there's a formula to make me love a book:

take a bunch of queer anxious teenagers
turn them into a found family over the course of the story
have heists be a significant part of the plot
set it in a Sci-Fi or Fantasy world

That's it, I'm easy. 5 stars every time

kirstyreadsblog's review against another edition

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4.0

More of a 3.5

content warnings: grief, mentions of death of parents, poverty, disease/pandemic

Spellhacker follows Diz and her squad of best friends in a world where they had magic freely available and then one day a plague happened which killed a lot of people and made the use of magic restricted. We’re dropped into the story in the middle of a heist. Diz and her friends run jobs to steal the magic from the pipes of the company who controls the magic.

I absolutely loved how queer this book was. One of the squad’s members, Remi, is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns and it is SO normalised in this world. I absolutely loved this. There’s a lot of feminist fantasy books where you see a young woman fighting against a horrible world, and it was nice to see a fantasy world where people aren’t ignorant about gender. There is also an older queer couple who are very lovey-dovey and it was so cute.

Continue my review here: https://kirstyreadsblog.com/2020/01/15/spellhacker-by-m-k-england-review/

lunaballz's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is a lot of fun! The characters get great development, and the story is really interesting. The world building leaves a little bit to be desired though, with some things not really being explained until late in the book. The difference between magical ability I never understood; such as why some characters could use maz but only if it was contained in their tools but others could use it wherever it was?

Anyways, it's a fun, found family adventure with a non-binary love interest so definitely check it out

hermoonreads's review against another edition

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4.0

Ive been waiting to read this one for a while, and I'm so glad to report it lived up to my high expectations! Amazing adventure heist vibes, funny banter, and incredible characters.

I love Dizzy, she's a snarky little shit with an A+ sense of humour, and she's not about to pull her punches. Her found family group is a little dysfunctional, a little messy, but thats the best kind.

I also enjoyed the normalisation of non binary and queer characters, they simply existed in the world with no explaination needed. Having a main character using they/them pronouns is so refreshing and I hope we get more of this in the future.

I'd love to see more books set in this universe in the future, the mix of magic and tech is so interesting and the ending feels as if its possible for a continuation

ravenclawkate's review

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*DNF at 200 pages, 50%
I enjoyed the authors other book, The Disasters, but this one just wasn’t working for me. Almost half way through and did not care about any of the characters, felt zero stakes or tension that was supposed to be there, and was tired of being repeatedly told about the main characters conflicts that were based on miscommunication or wrongfully made a conflict. The characters are supposed be in trouble with the police, but they can just safely hide in their parents’ basement, which completely erases any stakes in this book. Additionally, the conflicts between characters seem to exist solely to provide plot rather than actually make sense for the characters. Unfortunately, this book just did not work for me.