Caitlyn Aguirre is the only magic-less person in her family in a world where magic is power and as a triplet, she was supposed to be extra strong. Resigned to her life as a zero, Caitlyn is dismayed to learn her parents are sending her to Jude's Sorcerous Academy with the hope that she'll overcome her magic problem. Or die trying.

This book sucked me into the story and I was all there for Caitlyn. The despair she felt regarding her magic and her position in society was terrible and I rooted for her as she pushed the bounds of her mind and creativity in finding a solution. She could be petty and jealous and envious at times but she was also brave and honourable and quick witted and I loved her.

On the other hand her family just sucks. Like her sisters were terrible but they were also twelve. Her parents and other adult figures though were disgusting. Although she seems to accept being turned into a frog and the target of all magic - I hated it. It seemed like she was being tortured and all adults and her own parents were turning a blind eye. It just made me mad.

I was glad she met Rose. I was a little unhappy with her fierce envy and jealous at the beginning of their friendship but she's also twelve and missed out on magic - I get it. Rose was fantastic. She was level headed and smart and loyal and I loved that her and Caitlyn develop a fierce and steadfast friendship.

But the bullying in this book is intense and I hated it. It seemed like every time Caitlyn turned around she was being punished for ridiculous things and like no one ever stepped in. The limits were so wide it was ridiculous. It just seemed like they were basically given free reign to kill, maim and torture. It made me anxious to read and I think that's honestly why I couldn't rightly give this book 5 stars. The whirlpool of emotions just made me feel sick.

That said, the world building was really interesting and I loved the focus on inventing and learning and testing the limits of magic. The plot was predictable with all the familiar elements of a magic school but the execution was strong and delivers a unique take on an old idea.

A worthwhile read for anyone after a progression fantasy or a magical school setting. 4 stars. ( )

Technical review ahoy! Well written and engaging. Very interesting premise and world building. Complex interactions between characters - without giving away several leading plot lines. Looking forward to the next novel. Yes Mr. Nuttall, I read the postscript - you should continue.


( )

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to (and more than I enjoyed this author's other series, "Schooled in Magic"). It's also a bit like the Harry Potter series in that it chronicles the journey of a special person through a magical school. It is very unlike the Harry Potter series in what happens. It is clearly not just a rip-off.

I think what made this book good is (a) good, interesting characters, and (b) a well-thought-out system of magic. One of my complaints about Harry Potter, and to a lesser extent this author's "Schooled in Magic" series, is that the magic doesn't make any sense. There is no logical coherence to the system in Harry Potter at all; not even the people in the system understand it. In the "schooled in magic" series, apparently the people in the system seem to be able to predict what a spell will do (it's more like engineering), but we aren't told anything about it, at least as far as I have read, and the ending comes completely unexpectedly. Here, from the very beginning, we get a bit more of a glimpse into how it works--just a glimpse, but it was a lot more satisfying than the completely random stuff that happens in Harry Potter, or the less random but still completely unpredictable other series from this author. We can see how this could have happened, and why this ending happened and not some other--and yet, the ending is surprising enough to be avoid being predictable. (Ok,, from reading the cover you could have predicted that the protagonist solves her problem of lack of magic, but I don't think I could have predicted exactly how, and that's one of the things I found especially interesting.)

I think as Christopher Nuttall continues to churn out books (at an amazing pace), his characters have been getting more interesting. The protagonist here has a problem, a very serious problem, that I can understand and sympathize with--and, by the end, she has a solution, of an unexpected sort, that leads to a whole series of other problems which the remaining books in the series expand on. She's a likable enough character, but flawed in some ways.

Part of the dynamic of this book that makes it interesting are the flaws: the three sisters don't get along well, for very understandable reasons, but towards the end of the series they begin to grow enough to not be spiteful. The protagonist is obviously flawed, but flawed in a totally understandable way. I don't think I'd make some of the decisions she made, but I can certainly understand why she would have made them (I'd have made different flawed decisions).

Like Harry Potter, there are bullies at this school, and they're pretty nasty. (What is it about these English schools?) But it's worse than that, because the protagonist's sisters have been treating her like crap for a long time at home too. But the antagonist, the bully Isabella, turns out to be much more interesting than, say, Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, who is all bad and no good. In a later book in this series, Nuttall takes here and makes her the protagonist of another story in which she basically is redeemed. I've seen this sort of thing in several of Nuttall's books, and I really like the idea that the antagonists aren't simple characters. (That's later in the series, but even in this book, you do get attempts at reconciliation.)

Finally, another thing I liked about this series and I absolutely hated about Harry Potter is that the protagonist herself is actually responsible for the ending--there is no deus ex machina (Dumbledore doesn't come in and save the day in a completely unexpected way). It's all the protagonist's work, and you can understand exactly how she struggled through it and grew enough to do it.

The one thing this book and this series does NOT have that Harry Potter did well is humor. These characters are serious, and there aren't lots of ludicrous magical accidents--the magical system is worked out well enough that arbitrary slapstick things don't happen. ( )