A review by thebalancedbookshelf
Phantasma by Kaylie Smith

3.0

. Initially this was a fun read but overall there were a lot of parts I didn’t enjoy. I think that this book is reminiscent to another fantasy series and by the end it was all too similar to be enjoyable. 

The elements I did like were the necromancy, the different types of ghosts and devils, and even the contest inspired by the 9 levels of hell. Another one of my favorite aspects is the portrayal of the main characters mental illness. The way the author uses the Shadow Voice as a manifestation of OCD was done really well. I like how her ticks and intrusive thoughts were shown throughout the book and how Blackwell doesn’t treat her different because of them. 

Unfortunately, I had quite a few issues with this book. One being I think that the contest and trials fell to the background of the story where I would have liked them to be more forefront. I feel like we get little to no information about this competition before we are just thrown into it. I think a little bit more world building and even time with the sisters could have benefitted the story. 

I also think that this book is longer than it needs to be. It starts to drag on towards the end and I feel like Ophelia’s story with Blackwell takes focus as opposed to her sister. She supposably goes through this whole contest for her sister and they are reunited for a chapter before she leaves. Their relationship didn’t seem authentic to me but more of a caricature of how sisters should be and a plot device for the story.  

The main issue I had is that this book is so similar to another very popular fantasy series. While it was fine while reading it’s very clear by the end where it’s taken its inspiration from.  That alone kind of ruined the experience for me especially since some of the big reveals are literally the same. 

I think overall the story isn’t bad but it gets a little tiresome by the end. I think it was still a fun read but the writing and plot started to lose my interest and it’s hard to not compare it to the other series that I’ve read.