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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reader: I loved following a magical school book from the perspective of a professor and getting to see some of the administrative/behind the scenes parts of a magical school. It also was nice to see people actually caring for and trying to help the students in a magic school. As well Walden was fun to read from because she was so into her job that it made you as the reader into her job as well.
Writer: I liked that we had mature characters and their problems were accurately reflecting their maturity. Walden didn’t want to give up her job so she had to have a romance that was in her vicinity and maturely dealt with that. She was stressed out from her job but not from her love life because she is an adult and the story recognized she was an adult and had her make adult decisions.
As for my own writing I think it’s important to structure the book from my MC’s age. Certain problems read immature for an older person to be dealing with so it’s important to think about how to make a problem read as something an adult might deal with and how they would deal with it as opposed to how a teen or a kid would deal with the same problem. I think a way to check this for myself is to write down how I think different age groups would approach certain problems and then see where my MC falls. If it seems like they are actually more mature or immature then make sense I can then either give reasoning or tweak it from there.
Writer: I liked that we had mature characters and their problems were accurately reflecting their maturity. Walden didn’t want to give up her job so she had to have a romance that was in her vicinity and maturely dealt with that. She was stressed out from her job but not from her love life because she is an adult and the story recognized she was an adult and had her make adult decisions.
As for my own writing I think it’s important to structure the book from my MC’s age. Certain problems read immature for an older person to be dealing with so it’s important to think about how to make a problem read as something an adult might deal with and how they would deal with it as opposed to how a teen or a kid would deal with the same problem. I think a way to check this for myself is to write down how I think different age groups would approach certain problems and then see where my MC falls. If it seems like they are actually more mature or immature then make sense I can then either give reasoning or tweak it from there.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-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:
Yes
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Sapphire is the director of magic at Chetwood academy and she spends her days keeping teenagers from getting themselves killed when they summon demons. A huge incident occurs when one of the students summons the major demon that haunts the school grounds always looking for a way in, leading to several more situations as things snowball...
One of the few dark academia/academia stories i've actually enjoyed, the ending felt rushed and a bunch of stuff that could have been very interesting was skipped over but otherwise this was fun.
One of the few dark academia/academia stories i've actually enjoyed, the ending felt rushed and a bunch of stuff that could have been very interesting was skipped over but otherwise this was fun.
3.5 rounded up. Enjoyable almost slice of life about a magical school from a teacher’s perspective.
Something about growing older means that I more and more appreciate magic school books told from the perspectives of the teachers. It is deeply, deeply satisfying to read a story in which, yes, you've got some absolutely brilliant teenagers, who do absolutely normal teenage stuff, like being stupid and insecure and fumbling with relationships and dealing with past trauma and expectations about their future lives, but who also are not , in fact, as experienced and skilled as the adults who have spent decades perfecting their abilities in the same skills that the kids are learning for the very first time. Sometimes the smartest thing a kid can do is to get a responsible adult to fix the problem.
This is like Magic For Liars meets Scholomance: a magic school, one of whose main concerns is making sure the baby magicians don't get eaten by demons, but the main plot is much more sophisticated than just 'oooh, there's a big scary demon, let's defeat it!' That happens in the first quarter of the book. What remains is a much more interesting exploration of what happens after you defeat the big bad. What does the government think about the tools you used for such a victory? How does your own sense of self, your own commitment to your role in life, evolve, as you consider what you did to defeat the big bad? One of the best themes of this book is the idea of choosing which self you want to be, and the idea that this is a choice that you make, and can make consciously. The differences between demons and humans -- and indeed the areas in which they overlap -- make the character work really sing beautifully here.
Gosh, I liked this book so much.
This is like Magic For Liars meets Scholomance: a magic school, one of whose main concerns is making sure the baby magicians don't get eaten by demons, but the main plot is much more sophisticated than just 'oooh, there's a big scary demon, let's defeat it!' That happens in the first quarter of the book. What remains is a much more interesting exploration of what happens after you defeat the big bad. What does the government think about the tools you used for such a victory? How does your own sense of self, your own commitment to your role in life, evolve, as you consider what you did to defeat the big bad? One of the best themes of this book is the idea of choosing which self you want to be, and the idea that this is a choice that you make, and can make consciously. The differences between demons and humans -- and indeed the areas in which they overlap -- make the character work really sing beautifully here.
Gosh, I liked this book so much.