Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Marvellers

The book is actually 401 pages long. Its an amazing read and as a fan of Harry Potter I loved it. This book is so magical and inclusive and I wish this were real so bad. I want to be part of this world. All of the characters are so diverse and I feel like many people are represented through this book. I can't wait for the second one

Content Warnings

halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

I love that this magical school in the clouds. Our MC Ella is the first conjuror ever to be accepted into this school. She comes from a family of conjurors and as a whole are looked down on and thought to be bad or unnatural.

Then a dangerous criminal escapes prison and thought to be aided by Ella. She then becomes a suspect in the Marvellian world and her mentor has also disappeared. So she teams up with her newfound friends to clear her name and find her mentor, Masterji Thakur.

I love the plot twists and learning the different magical abilities people possessed.

Content Warnings

emily_mh's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

3.5

I can definitely see the overwhelming potential for this series and I will be continuing with it, but unfortunately this first book fell a little flat for me.

Let's start with the positives! Clayton has created an incredibly rich magical world. I liked the steampunk vibes and how this played into the types of transport featured. In terms of the Arcanum Training Institute, it was clear a lot of thought had gone into the Paragons and what magic could do, and it was cool seeing this reflected in the classes that Ella took. My absolute favourite part of the worldbuilding was the shops and foods that Clayton envisioned. It's these little details that really bring worlds to life for me!

As well as this, the main character Ella was a lovely one to follow. I liked her determination and curiosity. Finally, I thought it was sweet that Clayton named so many minor characters after her author friends - it was a nice touch.

Now time for the negatives. My biggest one is that you are really thrown in the deep end regarding worldbuilding - names and terminology are thrown at you in a kind of info-dumpy way so that for the first wee while I was a bit lost and overwhelmed. I still don't fully understand the difference between Conjuring and Marvelling, and why the latter shunned the former (maybe I missed something important??).

My other major issue with the book was pacing. I am being fully serious when I say that an actual plot directly involving the MC doesn't begin until you are over 60% of the way through the book. Prior to this Ella is finding her footing at the ATI, which is an important part of the story, but means that the overarching plot that is mentioned in the synopsis is pushed into the last third of the book and rushed through. I also found the way the climax was written to be quite anti-climactic. I will say that when the plot did kick in I was enjoying my time with the book much more, which gives me lots of hope for the next instalment in the series.

Overall, while I was a little disappointed by this book I would by no means say it was bad and I'm really looking forward to picking up the next instalment and seeing where Ella goes next.

As a side note, I listened to the audiobook for this one which I definitely would not recommend. The narrator could not do the accents required by the narrative and there were too many mispronunciations (e.g. preening was pronounced as pre-enning, and mimicry was pronounced as me-me-cry). The narrator also didn't follow textual cues (e.g. "she whispered" or "she hollered") and seemed more focussed one enunciation than narrating naturally and with flow.

Content Warnings

rinku's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I was so excited to read The Marvellers since I love magic and boarding school but, in the end, I noticed that MG may not be my genre (excluding Warriors lmao). For me, it was just too childish, and the plot was too simple, but the diverse world was still so amazing.

The plot was just progressing so slowly since the introduction to the world was quite lengthy. Ella is the first of her kind to go to the magic school Arcanum. Since everything is new to her, there was barely anything happening in the first two-thirds of the book which was a bit boring. Additionally, there were big time skips that further slowed down the story. The main event that was described in the synopsis that one of their teachers disappears only takes place after two-thirds of the novel. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this whole event, and the kids became way too obsessed with this teacher they only knew for a few months. Another problem is that the plot goes in circles for a long time which is partly caused by the bad communication between characters. The ending was so predictable as well – but okay, it’s a children’s book.

I really don’t want to give HP any more attention, but the inspirations from it were very obvious at some points. I didn’t like that the general idea of different houses was taken over because it always separates the children in an arbitrary way. Just to list of a few other similarities I noticed: Like Harry, Ella is something special and different from the other students; there’s a mysterious prison that is very isolated and where people break out in the course of the story; there are talking statues of the school founders, similar to the house ghosts; a random sport event is mentioned; there’s one scene where Ella raises her hand but she isn’t called by the teachers even though she’s the only one raising her hand.

But of course, the magic system was quite different. It was a bit complicated at the beginning and I could imagine that children could find it complicated as well. Another problem I had was with the writing style. Like I’ve said, I’m not the target audience, so children may like it, but the humour was so juvenile. There were also some similes that were just weird.

One of my favorite things about The Marvellers and why I still gave it three stars were the characters. I love how diverse not only they were, but also the school and the world itself (e.g., the teachers, the food they eat). Sadly though, I wasn’t able to bound too much with the main characters. I also find it a bit annoying that we still need the cliché mean girls.

With all things considered, I won’t read the next book of The Marvellers series. It’s a great diverse series for children but I’m just not the target audience for it.

Content Warnings

librarianlayla's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Everything we needed and more.

If you're looking for a book filled with mystery, diverse characters and set in a magical school with a best friend trio - then this is for you.

Ella's journey through her first year at the Arcanum is non stop action. This world is rich and fully fledged with magical creatures, marvellous abilities and very real, raw, experiences.

The way that Ella is treated by students and teachers alike really drew a lot of parallels with my childhood as we as struggles that continue to this day. This book really made me feel things.

Book 2 cannot come quick enough!

Content Warnings

traeumenvonbuechern's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Willkommen am Arkanum-Trainingsinstitut ✨

Habt ihr Lust auf ein Buch mit ...

... einer internationalen magischen Schule im Himmel? ☁️
... süßen magischen Kreaturen? 🦄
... einem einzigartigen Magiesystem, das auf den fünf Sinnen basiert? 👁️
... einer Protagonistin, die ihr von der ersten Seite an ins Herz schließen werdet? 👧🏿
... einer spannenden Geschichte, die euch auch nach dem Lesen nicht mehr loslässt? 📖

Dann seid ihr bei "Die Marveller" von Dhonielle Clayton genau richtig! Ich lese eigentlich selten Kinderbücher, aber zu diesem wunderschönen Cover konnte ich einfach nicht Nein sagen. Und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht: "Die Marveller" ist eins meiner bisherigen Jahreshighlights, und ich freue mich schon unglaublich auf den zweiten Band!

Leider wurde in der deutschen Übersetzung aus Bex, einem im Original nichtbinären Kind, ein Junge gemacht. Das fand ich sehr schade, denn trans Repräsentation ist in Kinderbüchern immer noch viel zu selten. Ich würde mich freuen, wenn das in zukünftigen Auflagen geändert werden könnte.

Content Warnings

purplepenning's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

More...