Noor

I don't usually care for YA. A few pages into it I had to go to Goodreads and double-check the categories... okay, confirmed, solidly tagged as “Adult Fiction”... but it's not. It's distinctly YA utopian magical fantasy. Still, as YA utopian magical fantasy goes, it was pretty darn good: strong characters, great tensions between them, original setting, creative story arc and side plots. This was my second try after abandoning it some months ago, and I'm glad to have picked it up again. It was worthwhile, I just had to be in a more forgiving mood, acknowledging and forgiving the everpresent dei ex machina and convenient handwaving. (After all, “Then a miracle occurs” worked for Sidney Harris).