Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

37 reviews

tracy713's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0


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renpuspita's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 Buku ini masuk kategori YA, tapi entahlah gue merasa dari segi usia tokoh2nya saja sudah diatas YA. Okelah tokoh utama, Ceony Twill itu 19 tahun, tapi dengan setting cerita di awal abad 20 umur segitu benernya sudah dianggap dewasa. Belum lagi love interestnya Ceony, Emery Thane, usianya dah 30an lebih. Lebih tua dari Ceony 12 tahun! Kalau dari segi cerita ya memang ini bisa juga masuk YA karena termasuk sederhana juga world building. Walaupun magic systemnya tuh unik! Pengendalian akan material di dunianya Paper Magician itu hanya terbatas pada materi buatan manusia, seperti besi, kaca, karet, plastik, kertas dll. Jadi yg bukan buatan manusia ga bisa? Bukannya ga bisa, tapi pengendalian akan material di luar buatan manusia seperti katakanlah darah, akan membuatmu jadi Penyihir Pembelot atau penjahat deh. Sistem sihir yang unik ini emang mau ga mau ngingetin gue sama salah satu author yg juga bikin magic system dari hal2 sederhana. Siapa lagi kalau bukan Brandon Sanderson? Ternyata waktu gue baca bagian acknowlegdment, Charlie N. Holmberg bilang kalau Sanderson itu salah satu mentornya di kelas menulis. Haha pantesan kok rada - rada familiar penggunaan sistem sihirnya, walau Sanderson jauh lebih detail lagi jelasinnya ketimbang Holmberg.

Walau awal - awal ceritanya agak slow dan kita diperlihatkan sama Ceony yg kesel banget gegara ga bisa jadi Pengendali Besi dan harus jadi Pengendali Kertas, cerita mulai seru saat Emery diserang dan jantungnya diambil. Vibe awalnya emang kayak cerita daddy long legs, apalagi Emery jauh lebih tua dari Ceony. Walau Ceony kesel, toh dia pasrah juga mau jadi Pengendali Kertas dan diajarin sama Emery macem2. Menurut gue kelebihan cerita ini emang di proses Ceony belajar sihir Kertas yang ajaib banget! Gue yakin tiap orang yg abis baca buku ini jadi pengen belajar origami. Nah saat jantung Emery diambil dan Ceony pergi sendirian buat nyelamatin si jantung, alur ceritanya mulai cepat dan cuma hitungan hari karena jantung sementara Emery yg berasal dari kertas ga akan bertahan lama. Di bagian inilah akhirnya Ceony tahu masa lalu Emery yang kompleks termasuk hubungan Emery dengan Lira, dimana Lira ini ada Penyihir Pembelot yang mengambil jantung Emery.

Untuk segi romansanya sih tipis-tipis ya dan kelihatan banget Ceony yang jatuh cinta duluan sama Emery walau alasannya karena pas dia tahu Emery yg kasih beasiswa buat belajar dan juga gegara lihat masa lalu Emery itu agak kurang kuat buat gue. Tapi ya orang mau jatuh cinta itu kadang alasannya macem2, lol. Romansanya sendiri ga terlalu fokus kok dan ceritanya emang lebih ke upaya Ceony buat nyelamatin Emery. Ceony sendiri emang berbakat ya karena dia bisa menguasai sihir kertas dengan cukup bagus walau bagian yang susah seperti membuat anjing dari kertas itu baru Emery yang bisa. Menarik buat tahu gimana Ceony nanti akan berkembang jadi Pengendali Kertas yang sesungguhnya.

Terjemahannya sendiri rapi meski ada beberapa typo. Sayangnya, hurufnya kecil - kecil BANGET dan mayan bikin gue spaneng. Edisi asli buku ini tuh 222 halaman sementara diterjemahkan jadi 236 hal. Hemat kertas banget ga tuh? Ironis mengingat kertas juga jadi fokus utama cerita ini, hehehe. Kekurangannya memang di bagian awal yang agak slow karena setelah Ceony masuk ke jantung Emery itu ceritanya mulai oke dan gue kagum sama cara Holmberg menganalogikan kenangan dan impian manusia itu di jantung. Dalam bahasa Inggris, jantung itu heart, sementara heart di bahasa Indonesia juga berarti hati; tempat kenangan berasal. Menurut gue ini cukup puitis dan lebih bisa diikuti ketimbang pakai bagian otak misalnya 😆.

Untuk sebuah debut dan buku pembuka sebuah series, The Paper Magician ini cukup seru dan cukup bikin penasaran karena ceritanya emang masih berlanjut. Cocok juga buat yg nyari fantasy ringan dengan jumlah halaman yg ga terlalu banyak. 

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codylew's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.25


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marinadah's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5

The story dragged for me, and I almost didn't finish. But I was curious what would happen NEXT, so I powered through.

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moody_gobling's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The ills of this book: 
Woman in the fridge trope,
Thin background,
Incomplete and rushed character development. 

I wish this had been the thrilling Victorian-magican’s academy that I had hoped for. I’m proud to not have DNF’d it, but it took more effort to not do so than I would have liked. 

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a2_rache11's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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passionatereader78's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted tense fast-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

4.0

This was a fun read! I enjoyed this adventure. The writing is cute and light. If you like A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher you will like this. Just be warned their is blood involved.  Ceony is a paper magician unfortunately if you ask her. She meets her mentor and he changes her world.  He shows her different ways to use her magic and she cooks great meals. A perfect match until an old frenemy shows up and steals Emery's heart literally. Ceony goes after the culprit and finds herself in Emery's heart floating through his most memorable moments. 

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bigskydolphin's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Several people have tagged this as adult/minor relationship. It's not. There is a 12 year age gap but she is 19 and he is 31. It was a quick read but I loved it and will be continuing with the series.

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kartoffel_00's review against another edition

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fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

8/10/2023 


This was a very short and arbitrary book. Infact it was so short that it suffered extremely from not having any natural progression of events. 

Every went like this
Apprentice protagonist meets kind and sweet teacher → crazy lady barges in and steals his heart →protagonist learns about his whole life while getting the heart back and confesses→ fight, gets heart back→ done


To me it read like an outline with sparse details. Things were happening because the author said so, not because it was a natural progression of the story. 

I couldn't immerse myself in it despite the interest in the magic system. 

Final Rating: 1 Star

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aspiereads33's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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