Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed on 5/30/2021 + 1032 more book reviews

These days, any book with young wizards and a school is going to get compared to Harry Potter, so we'll get that out of the way: this school has no adults and there are things actively trying to kill you every day. Novik is an excellent writer and I enjoyed this very much. El is a wonderfully unlikeable likeable character. Novik does a really nice job making you want to smack her for the first half and then feeling a lot more sympathetic towards her. Obviously the start of a series as there is an annoying amount of set-up - explanations about the school and how things work in this world easily take up half the book. Told with El's first-person POV, it's not dull, but it does go on and on. We get to know a couple other likable characters but the cast is fairly small. Interesting world, good setup for further books, but the last half is definitely faster-paced than the first.

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