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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Waking up the morning after the town party, Olive notices that things have disappeared. Some more valuable than others. Her friend, Rose, may or may not have also lost something more important that she can’t talk about. They then meet Ivy, Rowan and Hazel. Three teenagers that ran away and have many secrets. When they find a spellbook that promises them ways to fix their problems, they can’t help but cast a spell that could do more damage than good.
I have to firstly say that I adore Moïra’s writing. She’s able to evoke such beautiful imagery and explain things in magical ways. I haven’t read many books set in Ireland (which I should do more of seeing as I live here) and she’s able to capture rural Ireland perfectly,
For what ever reason though, I found it hard to pick this book up. There was just something about the plot that didn’t have me hooked. It was perhaps a bit too long and too slow for me to be gripped by it.
I did however think the ending was perfect. The mystery was extremely satisfying and shocking even if I don’t think the lead up entirely made sense. But I have been reading the book for a while so that might have been my fault.
While I like the characters in theory, the execution wasn’t there. I spent the majority of the first third of the book confusing them all. It didn’t help that the names sounded familiar but I don’t think it was just that. The characters didn’t feel that distinct from one another. I just never connected with any of them and wanted more from them. I do appreciate the representation in this book and how it was never the sole focus of the characters, just a part of who they are.
All in all, while I loved elements of this and the mystery, the characters felt distant and made me not care for the story as much. I’m looking forward to reading All the Bad Apples, hopefully I like it just as much as The Accident Season.
"Big bones, big meat, I'm a meal of a girl. Tall, too. A mass of curly brown hair to top the whole thing off. But I've got a sailor's mouth and skin inked black over freckles, and I know I've got legs that go on for days. A meal of a a girl and you wouldn't go hungry."
I finished this at like 2am, so this will just be dot points for now.
Things I liked...
o ALL THE REPRESENTATION IN THIS BOOK.
o I loved the writing style, it was incredibly charming.
o The entire atmosphere and build up was 👌👌👌
o I loved all the main characters (except kinda Ivy but that's just my own personal bias, the character separately was fine).
o I found the relationships each character had with one another to be very real and even relatable, specifically the way the three girls (Laurel, Ash, and Holly) treated Jude in the beginning.
o The way magic was treated throughout the story -is it real or is it all just coincidental.
o The Author's notes including corrections of things said in the book such as the phrase "kill your darlings" actually originating from another writer as "murder your darlings". I also liked the addition of a crossword puzzle because I'm a huge nerd.
Things I disliked...
o The pacing overall was good but I felt like somethings towards the end things were a bit rushed.
o One of the later plot twists,
o Some things kinda didn't add up or weren't explained or resolved but then again they don't really have to be in a story like this.
Overall, this has definitely become a favourite of mine.
I really enjoyed Moïra’s writing style when I read The Accident Season but I feel like she’s upped it a notch for Spellbook. Every sentence was full of atmosphere, magic and some higher meaning. Every single word felt like it had been carefully planned and somehow she managed to spin them into one of the most atmospheric, magical stories I have read. It wasn’t until the end of this book that I realised how wonderfully written the story was. The writing style is elegant but at the same time dense and full of metaphors and elements of magical realism. It took me a little while to get used to but I fell completely in love with it very quickly.
I loved the little twists and turns throughout this book. There was such a huge element of intrigue and I was curious from start to finish to see where this was going. As I started to put the pieces together I couldn’t help but flick back to see if I should have picked up on things sooner. Moïra certainly tied up all the loose ends and by the end of the book it was clear that the book was about so much more than magic. It is full of passion, friendship, romance, family, grief, sadness and happiness. It covers such a span of feeling and emotion.
I really enjoyed reading the book from the different POVs and thought each had a fairly unique voice. All of the characters were really well written and I loved how their stories interlinked in ways I hadn’t imagined at the beginning. There’s also great diversity among the characters with deaf, WOC, bisexual and gay representation. I loved learning about the other characters through the lenses of Olive, Hazel and Laurel and thought it was a clever way to also end up learning about our POV characters.
I can’t remember the last time I was so captivated by a book. I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole and entered a whole new, magical world with vibrant characters, mysterious surroundings and was trapped in a whirlpool of emotion.
With gorgeous writing and a truly atmospheric feel this is surely a book that will stick with me for a long time.