Reviews

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

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lasagna12's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

fantasynovel's review against another edition

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5.0

After, like, 12 years, I've finally finished this book! And I loved it so much. Reading it almost gave me the same experience I used to have reading fantasy as a kid. This book gave me such a feeling of wonder. I love the worldbuilding so much. I'm not even into England anymore like I was as a kid, but I still loved how British it was. Since I'm not a kid I did notice all the places where there could have been commentary on colonization and there wasn't, but also, this is a book for kids and maybe I'm overthinking it. Still, it would have added an extra layer of meaning that would have been really cool. There was definitely commentary on social class, so it wouldn't have been a stretch to talk about how all these Asian amulets and other magical objects ended up in Britain.

Whatever, colonization aside, this book made me so happy to read. I was so invested in Nathaniel's story. When you're a kid you have so little agency, and the book captures so well how bad that feels. Also, the book has so many great parallels. Yeah, it's simple, but I still love how the book starts with Nathaniel summoning Bartimaeus and ends with him releasing him. And Nathaniel's moment where he saves the day felt earned, if super obvious. But it's a kid's book, so it was perfect.

This seems to me like the beginning of Nathaniel's villain origin story, which I'm obsessed with. I have the next two books right here and I can't wait to read them and see how much worse he gets.

rhrie38's review against another edition

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2.0

the characters were so annoying, i hated it

bolsbooklooks's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

3.75

Enjoyed the story LOVED the footnotes

mkhare's review against another edition

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3.0

3.25 stars

hannahhbic's review against another edition

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4.0

Let's be real. Nathaniel is a pretty annoying dude. Fortunately, another protagonist emerges in books two and three and Kitty makes this trilogy worth reading. Bartimaeus himself is hilarious and maximum amounts of snarky at all times, of course, but he is not the main character. I really loved books two and three so if you can make it through this one, I highly recommend this series. The audiobook versions were also amazing!