kattie

I'll admit that I went into this blind without knowing it was a sequel and without having read Furthermore. That probably made it harder for me to enjoy this book which is a little unfair. However, it was an enjoyable read with a wonderful dark undertone. What didn't work was the emphasis on two romances that had zero chemistry beyond boy meets girl. Tahereh Mafi also has this tendency to skip over character interaction altogether which only exacerbated the problem.

I got this in a giveaway for an honest review and I've put that off for long enough.

It was a mess.

The premise was interesting, I mean who doesn't like magic schools?? The plot and characters were pretty standard for the genre, but they worked alright. The problem was the execution. Things jumped around too quickly with scenes coming out of nowhere that contributed nothing to the story, while others that should have been expanded on were glossed over entirely.

It feels like this needed a few more rounds of editing to pull everything into place. It's a shame because this book really seemed like it had a lot going for it.