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megsslibrary 's review for:
The Iron Trial
by Holly Black, Cassandra Clare
ARC provided by netgallery in exchange for an honest review.
Okay let's get the obvious out of the way - there are a lot of similarities to Harry Potter, but I really liked the book anyway. While the premise is familiar - kids going to magic school, the characters however felt completely different to the characters in Harry Potter. I am a massive Harry Potter fan and despite the similar themes and troupes used in this book I still loved it.
The magic system in this story was very elemental and it felt different and what I liked about it was that it was clearly very dangerous if messed around with. A big premise of the story is that true power comes from control. Just because you can blow something up doesn't make you strong.
I did think that some of the important character development stages happened a little too quickly. There were a lot of students and masters in the book and I had trouble remembering who everyone was outside of the key players.
I'm excited to see the friendship between Callum, Tamara and Aaron get explored further in the next books. I love the fact that Callum is disabled and therefore is limited in how heroic he can be physically. His heroics come more from his mind than the feats he can achieve. Even the bully in the book has hidden depths and isn't a black and white character.
I read a lot of books and I read a lot of YA books so I went into this one feeling pretty confidant that I knew what was to happen. Callum is an angry kid with a secret past, there is an evil overlord who needs concurring and a chosen one the magical word is waiting for... everyone knows where this is going. I knew where this was going. A curve ball was thrown in the middle of the book - I was confused for a moment but then I figured out what was going to happen. Then I got to the end and it turns out I had no idea what this book was about. my smugness was for nothing. There were two twist I did not see coming! I loved the ending and it makes me very excited for the next one.
I think this book is set up for the rest of the series and I think the themes and ideas that the ending has bought up makes me think this series will be amazing. If this was a once off book I'd rate it only 4 stars - but it is getting 5 stars from me for the promise it bring for the rest of the series. Bring on book 2!
Okay let's get the obvious out of the way - there are a lot of similarities to Harry Potter, but I really liked the book anyway. While the premise is familiar - kids going to magic school, the characters however felt completely different to the characters in Harry Potter. I am a massive Harry Potter fan and despite the similar themes and troupes used in this book I still loved it.
The magic system in this story was very elemental and it felt different and what I liked about it was that it was clearly very dangerous if messed around with. A big premise of the story is that true power comes from control. Just because you can blow something up doesn't make you strong.
I did think that some of the important character development stages happened a little too quickly. There were a lot of students and masters in the book and I had trouble remembering who everyone was outside of the key players.
I'm excited to see the friendship between Callum, Tamara and Aaron get explored further in the next books. I love the fact that Callum is disabled and therefore is limited in how heroic he can be physically. His heroics come more from his mind than the feats he can achieve. Even the bully in the book has hidden depths and isn't a black and white character.
I read a lot of books and I read a lot of YA books so I went into this one feeling pretty confidant that I knew what was to happen. Callum is an angry kid with a secret past, there is an evil overlord who needs concurring and a chosen one the magical word is waiting for... everyone knows where this is going. I knew where this was going. A curve ball was thrown in the middle of the book - I was confused for a moment but then I figured out what was going to happen. Then I got to the end and it turns out I had no idea what this book was about. my smugness was for nothing. There were two twist I did not see coming! I loved the ending and it makes me very excited for the next one.
I think this book is set up for the rest of the series and I think the themes and ideas that the ending has bought up makes me think this series will be amazing. If this was a once off book I'd rate it only 4 stars - but it is getting 5 stars from me for the promise it bring for the rest of the series. Bring on book 2!