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chrissymay 's review for:
The Incandescent
by Emily Tesh
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There’s a lot to like about this book even though it could be tedious at times. The beginning of the book was overly detailed for a non-teacher reader. I’m sure teachers might love the many avenues of reaching students and running a school but I found myself skimming paragraphs frequently. Sure, it was character building and all that, but my mind wandered a bit at the beginning. At about the 2/3 mark things fell into place, picked up, and I started to enjoy it very much. Some characters were incredibly unrealistic, but this takes place on magical-earth and has some fantastical stuff happening at all times everywhere so the characters weren’t completely out of the ordinary for the setting.
Once I settled into this fantasy boarding school barely hovering above a demonic realm(think Sunnydale High but incredibly wealthy and magical happenings are everyday life on earth), I just let it ride. That said, a few of the characters gave me a chuckle because they reminded me of the Buffy cast. There were perfect nerd girls, awkward weak-willed boys, teachers with confidence complexes that bit them in the ass, gorgeous yet bullish authority figures, and the many non-magical folk either tripping over themselves for the magic-abled people or acting like it’s NBD that there are essentially millions of unrestrained sorcerers that could easily destroy the world whenever they wish.
Speaking of destruction, the plot was pretty fun and held my interest until the very end. The last few chapters were…different…and a little surprising. I didn’t love the ending, but I can’t say it wasn’t expected.
Once I settled into this fantasy boarding school barely hovering above a demonic realm(think Sunnydale High but incredibly wealthy and magical happenings are everyday life on earth), I just let it ride. That said, a few of the characters gave me a chuckle because they reminded me of the Buffy cast. There were perfect nerd girls, awkward weak-willed boys, teachers with confidence complexes that bit them in the ass, gorgeous yet bullish authority figures, and the many non-magical folk either tripping over themselves for the magic-abled people or acting like it’s NBD that there are essentially millions of unrestrained sorcerers that could easily destroy the world whenever they wish.
Speaking of destruction, the plot was pretty fun and held my interest until the very end. The last few chapters were…different…and a little surprising. I didn’t love the ending, but I can’t say it wasn’t expected.