A review by rinku
Die Marveller – Magie aus Licht und Dunkelheit - Das gefährliche erste Jahr by Dhonielle Clayton

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. 

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