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A review by yangyvonne
The Magnolia League by Katie Crouch
2.0
Alexandra Lee has spent her life on a communal farm with her mother. There, they grow herbs and live a happy and simple CA life. When her mother is killed in a car accident, Alexandra is forced to leave and go live with her (maternal) grandmother in Savannah, GA. There, she learns that she is part of the Magnolia League, a group started by her grandmother and 3 other women in the 1950's. The group has ties to hoo-doo and the members use spells to perform various things. Alex just wants to go back to CA, but when she runs away, she finds that the farm is now a pot operation, the boy she loved lied to her, and she returns to Savannah. Now immersed in the League, she begins to learn more about her powers and the group's connection to the local hoo doo family. At the end, she discovers that her mother's ghost is trapped in a room in the mansion and she is determined to help her, even if it means becoming leader of the League.
This is your typical young adult fiction. Heavy on drama and love triangles and light on facts or history. There is zero mention of who Alex's father was, why her mother got the stone (we only know vaguely how), how they hide their eternal youth from the public, and why the hoo doo family hasn't stopped the arrangement in all these decades. The hoo doo element is interesting, for sure, and different from the usual "magic" you see in YA lit. But Alex is your typical bland and uninteresting "heroine". She is naive, clueless, dispassionate and easily swayed into being friends with almost anyone. She floats from boy to boy and takes advice from her fellow Leaguers without really considering the source. She "rebels" in the most ridiculous ways and somehow expects she can fool her grandmother? WTF? I'm not sure Book 2 can save this mess.
This is your typical young adult fiction. Heavy on drama and love triangles and light on facts or history. There is zero mention of who Alex's father was, why her mother got the stone (we only know vaguely how), how they hide their eternal youth from the public, and why the hoo doo family hasn't stopped the arrangement in all these decades. The hoo doo element is interesting, for sure, and different from the usual "magic" you see in YA lit. But Alex is your typical bland and uninteresting "heroine". She is naive, clueless, dispassionate and easily swayed into being friends with almost anyone. She floats from boy to boy and takes advice from her fellow Leaguers without really considering the source. She "rebels" in the most ridiculous ways and somehow expects she can fool her grandmother? WTF? I'm not sure Book 2 can save this mess.