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bibliovino's review
3.0
Apparently this book is the first in an off-shoot series from John and Carole Barrowman’s Hollow Earth series, which I’ve not read. But I definitely enjoyed it without having that background. The magic system is set up there as artists who can draw into reality, and in this series you can also use music to create. The use of art as a magical medium is a wonderful concept. Traveling through paintings seems like the way to go!
I wish the characters had a little more depth, but it’s possible I just missed out on their arc from earlier books. Remy is given quite a bit more time, but I felt the book was a bit rushed on general, especially at the climax. Perhaps the rest of the series lengthens the plot line.
I wish the characters had a little more depth, but it’s possible I just missed out on their arc from earlier books. Remy is given quite a bit more time, but I felt the book was a bit rushed on general, especially at the climax. Perhaps the rest of the series lengthens the plot line.
linyarai's review
3.0
Definitely an interesting concept and likeable characters, but everything felt too shallow and simple and I wish the story had gone more in-depth into the background and events.
scatterbooker's review
4.0
I have to admit that I am a massive Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Captain Jack Harkness fan, so I was a little bit geeked out to have the opportunity to read John Barrowman’s latest novel written in collaboration with his sister, Carole E. Barrowman.
There were a lot of features that I loved about this novel. First of all, there was a really great mix of diverse characters. Considering that Conjuror’s target audience is mostly teenagers, it made me smile to find a bad ass female Indian policewoman, an African American teenager, and LGBT characters all in the one book like it was no big deal.
Secondly, combining magic, mystery, art, and music into the same book is a pretty interesting concept and not something you come across every day.
I did feel as though I had missed out on some of the general background of the characters, especially the twins, although I have recently discovered that they appear in the Hollow Earth series also, so that’s probably why I felt their stories just jumped right in.
I would recommend Conjuror to fans of YA fantasy. It was an enjoyable and quick read, with some really interesting and diverse characters and concepts. I will definitely be hanging out to read the second installment because I’m dying to find out what happens next!
There were a lot of features that I loved about this novel. First of all, there was a really great mix of diverse characters. Considering that Conjuror’s target audience is mostly teenagers, it made me smile to find a bad ass female Indian policewoman, an African American teenager, and LGBT characters all in the one book like it was no big deal.
Secondly, combining magic, mystery, art, and music into the same book is a pretty interesting concept and not something you come across every day.
I did feel as though I had missed out on some of the general background of the characters, especially the twins, although I have recently discovered that they appear in the Hollow Earth series also, so that’s probably why I felt their stories just jumped right in.
I would recommend Conjuror to fans of YA fantasy. It was an enjoyable and quick read, with some really interesting and diverse characters and concepts. I will definitely be hanging out to read the second installment because I’m dying to find out what happens next!
tashachowdory's review
3.0
I was lucky enough to meet John and Carole Barrowman in person when they did a book signing a few days ago. (The queue was so long that was able to read a fair amount of the book before they had even signed it LOL!).
The book itself was actually better than I thought it would - the characters are engaging and it's a really fun, really well-researched story. As always I'll start with what I didn't like and then tell you what I did like.
- The pacing is a bit off. I'm not sure what happens but there's a fair chunk where the action races along but you're left blinking and going whaa?
- It's a bit clumsy in some places, as in I'm not sure that the plot works in some instances but that could just be me.
- Parts of it are good and other parts are actually pretty poor - which is why my review is 3 stars (I like things to be consistently good ;)
But what did I like?
- a main protagonist who isn't white!!! It's great!! And there's a lot there where the protagonist does use the stereotypes against people with his skin colour quite like that.
- There's an Indian female police officer!! OMG!! I wet myself a bit
- Lots of history
- Art and music
I reckon this is going to shape up to be a fun series :)
The book itself was actually better than I thought it would - the characters are engaging and it's a really fun, really well-researched story. As always I'll start with what I didn't like and then tell you what I did like.
- The pacing is a bit off. I'm not sure what happens but there's a fair chunk where the action races along but you're left blinking and going whaa?
- It's a bit clumsy in some places, as in I'm not sure that the plot works in some instances but that could just be me.
- Parts of it are good and other parts are actually pretty poor - which is why my review is 3 stars (I like things to be consistently good ;)
But what did I like?
- a main protagonist who isn't white!!! It's great!! And there's a lot there where the protagonist does use the stereotypes against people with his skin colour quite like that.
- There's an Indian female police officer!! OMG!! I wet myself a bit
- Lots of history
- Art and music
I reckon this is going to shape up to be a fun series :)
tachyondecay's review
2.0
I signed up for NetGalley last week (as of the time I’m writing this review). I’ve been aware of NetGalley for a while but never gave it much thought because I have enough books to read as it is. Lately, though, I’ve been getting excited about more and more new releases and thought this was a good opportunity to try to snag ARCs for some of them before they come out. In this case, Conjuror has been out for a little bit now, but I still got an ARC! However, as I began reading, I genuinely started to wonder if there had been a mix-up and I’d been sent the wrong book—that or the Goodreads description was wrong. Because the Goodreads description talks about twins named Matt and Em being “Animare” and therefore able to “animate into” paintings, but this book is about a guy named Remy who can sing. Matt and Em do show up, but only about eighty pages in. So colour me confused until then, and that confusion is a thread running through my entire experience with this book.
It’s cool that John Barrowman and his sister, Carole, are writing YA fantasy. I know Barrowman also makes music; polymaths are awesome! I haven’t read their Hollow Earth trilogy, which apparently features a younger Matt and Em, but I hope it’s better than Conjuror. This is a book with its heart in the right place but is in dire need of editorial assistance. The characters, the plot—the pieces are there, but they are disorderly. The whole novel feels very sloppy, sorry to say.
As I mentioned above, it takes far too long for the people billed as the protagonists by the cover copy to show up. Maybe this is just a marketing miscommunication, an attempt to sell this book based on its connection to the previous series. It’s all very confusing, though. Worse still, the Barrowmans never really get into what it means to be an Animare. The twins and other Animare can “fade” into paintings and somehow use these for travel. The rules behind this are left very ambiguous. Matt and Em join a secret organization dedicated to protecting and policing the Animare, but we don’t get a sense of what that organization is like. It seems to be run by one dude. It would have been nice to see some more typical operations before Remy and the Camarilla show up.
I like Remy and his origin story. The idea of magic powered by song and music is nothing new, of course, but the Barrowmans pull it off very well. The Barrowmans weave his personal history into the political history of the slave trade, acknowledging Remy’s African American identity and making it part of the reason he has these powers. Unlike the Animare issue noted above, we get a better idea of what Remy can do with his powers and what his limitations are.
The bad guys, the Camarilla headed up by Don Grigori and the Grand Inquisitor, are a nebulous threat. I like the sense of danger that follows Grigori as he tears up his henchmen while going after the twins and Remy. The omnipresent flies that he controls are a gross and sufficiently disturbing image. Unfortunately, we never really learn the nature of the threat that the Grand Inquisitor represents. We just get frustrating eschatological hints that he’s some kind of demon who wants to bring about the “Second Kingdom”. I assume this is supposed to be groundwork for future instalments of the series, so I’m willing to forgive. Nevertheless, it detracts somewhat from the punchiness of Conjuror as an introductory read. If you scrub these mentions, if you ignore the prologue (which is superfluous), and you focus solely on Matt, Em, and Remy’s fight against Grigori, you get a better and more straightforward narrative—almost too straightforward. A lot happens in this book, but at the same time, not much happens.
There is a fun story in here. I genuinely enjoyed the characters. I like their interactions, the way that Matt and Em don’t always get along like siblings do (obviously the Barrowmans are drawing on their own experience!). Remy’s arc feels very true, very significant. Conjuror has small moments, glimpses of brilliance. But these are embedded in an all-too-familiar cloud of confusing plot twists and seemingly-unrelated scenes, resulting in a book that confounds itself as much as its reader.
It’s cool that John Barrowman and his sister, Carole, are writing YA fantasy. I know Barrowman also makes music; polymaths are awesome! I haven’t read their Hollow Earth trilogy, which apparently features a younger Matt and Em, but I hope it’s better than Conjuror. This is a book with its heart in the right place but is in dire need of editorial assistance. The characters, the plot—the pieces are there, but they are disorderly. The whole novel feels very sloppy, sorry to say.
As I mentioned above, it takes far too long for the people billed as the protagonists by the cover copy to show up. Maybe this is just a marketing miscommunication, an attempt to sell this book based on its connection to the previous series. It’s all very confusing, though. Worse still, the Barrowmans never really get into what it means to be an Animare. The twins and other Animare can “fade” into paintings and somehow use these for travel. The rules behind this are left very ambiguous. Matt and Em join a secret organization dedicated to protecting and policing the Animare, but we don’t get a sense of what that organization is like. It seems to be run by one dude. It would have been nice to see some more typical operations before Remy and the Camarilla show up.
I like Remy and his origin story. The idea of magic powered by song and music is nothing new, of course, but the Barrowmans pull it off very well. The Barrowmans weave his personal history into the political history of the slave trade, acknowledging Remy’s African American identity and making it part of the reason he has these powers. Unlike the Animare issue noted above, we get a better idea of what Remy can do with his powers and what his limitations are.
The bad guys, the Camarilla headed up by Don Grigori and the Grand Inquisitor, are a nebulous threat. I like the sense of danger that follows Grigori as he tears up his henchmen while going after the twins and Remy. The omnipresent flies that he controls are a gross and sufficiently disturbing image. Unfortunately, we never really learn the nature of the threat that the Grand Inquisitor represents. We just get frustrating eschatological hints that he’s some kind of demon who wants to bring about the “Second Kingdom”. I assume this is supposed to be groundwork for future instalments of the series, so I’m willing to forgive. Nevertheless, it detracts somewhat from the punchiness of Conjuror as an introductory read. If you scrub these mentions, if you ignore the prologue (which is superfluous), and you focus solely on Matt, Em, and Remy’s fight against Grigori, you get a better and more straightforward narrative—almost too straightforward. A lot happens in this book, but at the same time, not much happens.
There is a fun story in here. I genuinely enjoyed the characters. I like their interactions, the way that Matt and Em don’t always get along like siblings do (obviously the Barrowmans are drawing on their own experience!). Remy’s arc feels very true, very significant. Conjuror has small moments, glimpses of brilliance. But these are embedded in an all-too-familiar cloud of confusing plot twists and seemingly-unrelated scenes, resulting in a book that confounds itself as much as its reader.
lilyn_g's review
5.0
Conjuror is a wonderful read and a fantastic break from the logic and terror that I normally gravitate towards. An urban fantasy filled with action, intrigue and not a werewolf or vampire in sight! From the very first pages the book felt like a breath of fresh air. The basic premise brought to mind the Rhapsody series by Elizabeth Hayden. John and Carole Barrowman do a delightful job in opening up a world of possibilities and reminding us of the power that lurks inside art. Who hasn’t heard a perfectly sung song, and got a shiver from it? Or closed their eyes and let notes of music paint a scene across their eyelids? It’s easy to believe in the magic possibilities of music when we already have tasted the potential.
Matt and Em Calder are the perfect siblings to keep the novel’s overall feel at a lighthearted level. Their mental conversations and playful interactions may cause you to make very unladylike snorts of laughter in public. It very much has the tone of some of the 9 & 10 Dr. Who episodes, where tension is high and danger lurks, but snarky banter keeps you smiling. Remy, the Conjurer’s son, is a brave and fascinating character in his own right. His seriousness provides a great foil for the twin’s charisma. Conjuror definitely earns itself a place on a “Great Diverse Books” list for reasons you’ll have to discover yourself. We need even more books like this, that promote acceptance without heavy-handed preaching.
I think I’ve found a new series to follow. I hadn’t read anything from the Barrowman team before, but this brother and sister duo are definitely talented. Conjuror draws you in and by the time you’ve reached the final page, you’re ready to beg for just a few more pages. The writing style may not suit everyone, but I didn’t mind it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Matt and Em Calder are the perfect siblings to keep the novel’s overall feel at a lighthearted level. Their mental conversations and playful interactions may cause you to make very unladylike snorts of laughter in public. It very much has the tone of some of the 9 & 10 Dr. Who episodes, where tension is high and danger lurks, but snarky banter keeps you smiling. Remy, the Conjurer’s son, is a brave and fascinating character in his own right. His seriousness provides a great foil for the twin’s charisma. Conjuror definitely earns itself a place on a “Great Diverse Books” list for reasons you’ll have to discover yourself. We need even more books like this, that promote acceptance without heavy-handed preaching.
I think I’ve found a new series to follow. I hadn’t read anything from the Barrowman team before, but this brother and sister duo are definitely talented. Conjuror draws you in and by the time you’ve reached the final page, you’re ready to beg for just a few more pages. The writing style may not suit everyone, but I didn’t mind it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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