Cat doesn't mind living in the shadow of his sister, Gwendolen, the most promising young witch ever seen on Coven Street. But trouble starts brewing the moment the two orphans are summoned to live in Chrestomanci Castle. Frustrated that the witches of the castle refuse to acknowledge her talents, Gwendolen conjures up a scheme that could throw whole worlds out of whack.--
| This book reminded me a lot of other fantasy novels I read as a child - especially Dealing with Dragons. It has a similar style of writing and the way magic is handled, and characters that are a bit quirky or off in some way. I enjoyed how this book is so matter of fact about the world it explores that you just sort of take everything in and you just have to accept that that's the way it is. I will say, for the whole book, all I could think about was how much I hate Gwendolyn. I hated her through the whole thing and the entire time I was hoping she'd finally get what's coming to her. I can't say whether or not she does, but I'm just putting it out there - if you read this book, be prepared to read about one of the most insufferable characters ever written. This book is rather fun, for the most part. It's light fantasy, light magic (even though it's about magic). It definitely feels a bit surface level on the whole, so hopefully the other books in the series bring more bite to them. The book itself gets wrapped up quite quickly (in just the last few chapters), where most of the book is spent not really providing any directional plot, just a bunch of sequential events in the life of the Chant siblings. In this case, I would not recommend it to any struggling readers - there is not enough oomph to propel anyone through the story, you just kind of have to like the writing style and be vaguely interested in finding out how it will end up. I will read the rest of the series, though, as I am intrigued by the idea of Chrestomanci. |
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