Another random book I picked up at the library because it looked interesting. Let's see if it's good! Spoilers ahead.
After the Worldquake took place which set technology back to the early nineties and magic became pretty much outlawed in the world, a girl named Effie finds her grandpa, her beloved mentor, dead. He left her many cryptic hints, and a large collection of magical books. However, Effie's father doesn't want Effie to have the books due to their connection with magic, and sells them off to a shady character. Effie now must discover magic on her own through the only book she managed to save: Dragon's Green, and find a way to bring home the rest of her books.
This book...it's good in concept, I'll give it that. I liked the idea of an apocalyptic event that doesn't outright get rid of all technology, but just sets it back a lot. I liked the concept of magic in this world, the split two realms (the magical and less-magical) and above all I love the concept of books being magical in and of themselves.
However, in execution I really do think this book falls flat. The pacing is at times either too fast or too slow, leaving me dissatisfied as a reader. I also didn't really care for how these interesting world building concepts were portrayed in execution. The characters also I didn't care for (Effie's friend group got together way too fast to feel organic, and they felt rather underdeveloped sans maybe Maximillian). And overall the book's biggest crime, to me at least, was that it's boring.
I don't know why because, again, I love these concepts. But unlike most of the many others I have read this year (over a hundred) I found myself enjoying this one among the least. I was just bored and wanted to put it down repeatedly. The only reason I still finished it rather quick was because I had a three-hour train trip that day and didn't have anything else to do during that other than being on my phone. So I did read all of it but I just didn't enjoy it.
The author also draws some clear inspiration from Harry Potter (I know that nowadays sounds like an insult, sorry), and I found the author's writing style seeming to draw inspiration from Rowling's parentheses tendencies rather annoying. I also wasn't the biggest fan of how exposition was delivered in random infodumps; it didn't feel organic and was distracting.
So while I like this book in concept, the execution left me really wanting more and I just didn't have a good time reading it. It made for a decent time-killer while riding the train, but nothing more. This isn't a horrible book or anything and if the concept sounds interesting to you and these points I mentioned don't distract you, I'd say you could still give it a go. But I think this is one of the rare occasions where I won't be checking out the next books in the series. I just have no gusto to after finishing book one.
Also, if you want dragons, you'll be rather disappointed as there's only one in the story and he's rather pathetic as far as dragons in fantasy usually go.
Rating: 2.5/5
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