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A review by dinipandareads
The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton
Did not finish book.
DNF @ 50%
This is the second highly-anticipated MG fantasy that disappointed me in February. What's going on? 😠I should've DNF'd the first one and regretted not doing it, so as much as it pains me to DNF this, I decided to listen to myself and put it down for now (although I'm not entirely sure whether I'll come back to it in the future).
The main issue for me is that I didn't care about any of the characters and I was honestly kind of bored. As the MC, I was confused by Ella's actions. She's so contradictory and I know she's young and young people can make questionable decisions but I found it frustrating. She wanted to fit in but was unfriendly to the one person who was kind to her from the start. She pushed him away because he was assigned to help her but after snapping at him she'd ask him questions anyway? I dunno, it was irritating! I also understood her desire to fit in and be liked but she was very passive. The friendship triangle that forms between Ella and her two friends should have been a highlight for me but her roommate was very... Unlikeable for reasons that were unexplained and the other person was someone I liked but we didn't get enough page time with them to balance out the other two characters.
I will say that despite a great boatload of info dumping, I thought the world-building was fun. I loved learning about Conjurers and what they're responsible for. This magical boarding school up in the sky surrounded by all the star-related things seemed like a lot of fun but it was also a lot of information. I'm pretty bummed that I couldn't get into this.
This is the second highly-anticipated MG fantasy that disappointed me in February. What's going on? 😠I should've DNF'd the first one and regretted not doing it, so as much as it pains me to DNF this, I decided to listen to myself and put it down for now (although I'm not entirely sure whether I'll come back to it in the future).
The main issue for me is that I didn't care about any of the characters and I was honestly kind of bored. As the MC, I was confused by Ella's actions. She's so contradictory and I know she's young and young people can make questionable decisions but I found it frustrating. She wanted to fit in but was unfriendly to the one person who was kind to her from the start. She pushed him away because he was assigned to help her but after snapping at him she'd ask him questions anyway? I dunno, it was irritating! I also understood her desire to fit in and be liked but she was very passive. The friendship triangle that forms between Ella and her two friends should have been a highlight for me but her roommate was very... Unlikeable for reasons that were unexplained and the other person was someone I liked but we didn't get enough page time with them to balance out the other two characters.
I will say that despite a great boatload of info dumping, I thought the world-building was fun. I loved learning about Conjurers and what they're responsible for. This magical boarding school up in the sky surrounded by all the star-related things seemed like a lot of fun but it was also a lot of information. I'm pretty bummed that I couldn't get into this.