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faerngrey's review
3.0
Firstly, I have to applaud the author for introducing a character who uses they/them without EVER making a fuss about it. It normalizes it instead of unnecessarily parading it around like it's a ploy to get clout. It was handled beautifully.
Sadly, I found this book to be a massive waste of potential.
The main character is very hard to like, mostly because she never seems to learn anything from her mistakes that sticks for longer than 30 seconds. She makes astonishing leaps in skill without practice. One paragraph she's blowing up her aunt's house, the next she's making perfect potions without any real effort being needed. I would have loved to see her working on that so much more. There was a lot of importance placed on her getting her aunt to teach her and then, other than a sentence or two, nothing comes of it. She doesn't even stay at her house for very long after her aunt makes the bizarrely timed trip to the nether. It felt like as soon as her aunt agreed, the entire thing was forgotten about. Very poor execution of something that was integral from the start of the book.
The rest of the characters are similarly flat. We get a few small bits of their personalities but not enough to really get a feel for them.
Given that this is a middle grade book, none of that is as important, but the ending is horrible and that IS important.
The entire last chapter feels so rushed and cramped. I hit the end of the book and it took me by surprise. It genuinely felt like there should have been another chapter at the very least.
There was so much potential here. The setting was handled so well and the ideas present could make for a rich and detailed story, but sadly it just fell flat.
Sadly, I found this book to be a massive waste of potential.
The main character is very hard to like, mostly because she never seems to learn anything from her mistakes that sticks for longer than 30 seconds. She makes astonishing leaps in skill without practice. One paragraph she's blowing up her aunt's house, the next she's making perfect potions without any real effort being needed. I would have loved to see her working on that so much more. There was a lot of importance placed on her getting her aunt to teach her and then, other than a sentence or two, nothing comes of it. She doesn't even stay at her house for very long after her aunt makes the bizarrely timed trip to the nether. It felt like as soon as her aunt agreed, the entire thing was forgotten about. Very poor execution of something that was integral from the start of the book.
The rest of the characters are similarly flat. We get a few small bits of their personalities but not enough to really get a feel for them.
Given that this is a middle grade book, none of that is as important, but the ending is horrible and that IS important.
The entire last chapter feels so rushed and cramped. I hit the end of the book and it took me by surprise. It genuinely felt like there should have been another chapter at the very least.
There was so much potential here. The setting was handled so well and the ideas present could make for a rich and detailed story, but sadly it just fell flat.
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