A derivative take on the magical boarding school novel that offers little entertainment.
In this YA fantasy novel, students attend a magical boarding school where they learn spells, play Mageball, and contend against evil forces.
Soon after Greg Warren’s birth, his parents received letters informing them that he was gifted and would receive private school scholarships. Greg and his friends—Annie Petersen, Zach Talbut, and Annabelle “Belle” Blue—are in their last semester at Bourdinbaugh Preparatory Middle School in Milwaukee. Upon graduation, they’re chosen for the prestigious Hazelwood Academy. When the new school year begins, they travel by a special train, in which Greg and his friends learn that magic exists. Outside the Academy is Hazelwood Village, where shops selling magical items line the cobblestone streets; the school itself is “like a castle…and like a modern commercial high-rise,” with a surrounding forest. The luxurious, co-ed dorm rooms include four-poster, canopied beds and other perks. The foursome meets other students, some friendly, some less so, such as “Magical-Born” Alec Sterling, who sneers at those born to “Normals,” like Greg. As the students learn and practice magic, choose a “Magical Focus” (an “Elemental Spirit” connected with an object), and play Mageball, an evil cabal is hatching a plot against the magical world. Meanwhile, Greg goes on a quest to help strengthen his Magical Focus. In his debut novel, Bandor owes many obvious debts to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, with elements similar to the Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts itself, Hogsmeade, Quidditch, Muggles, and more. Bandor does elaborate more on just how magic works; for example, humans have an “ætherial” core, but need an elemental spirit to amplify it, and this ties in well with the story. However, these explanations are dull, and Bandor lacks Rowling’s lightness of touch; there’s much leaden jollity, and Bandor’s adolescents blush and giggle with tiresome frequency. The style, too, lacks grace, as when Greg explains a cheese grater to Annie, who blushes (of course) and notes “the efficiency with which Greg utilized the grater.”
A derivative take on the magical boarding school novel that offers little entertainment.Pub Date: March 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5232-9041-3
Page Count: 402
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.
The conclusion to the Villains trilogy asks, In a world where there are no heroes, what does victory really mean?
Schwab’s world is one where violent near-death experiences can engender ExtraOrdinaries, people who come back to life with a new superpowered ability, but lacking empathy, patience, and a variety of other, gentler qualities. In this installment, Victor Vale is becoming increasingly desperate; ever since Sydney Clarke used her power to bring him back from the dead, control over his own ability to cause and dampen pain has been slipping. Sydney herself is chafing against her life on the run with Victor’s protective ex-cellmate, Mitch Turner, and struggling with missing both Victor and her dead sister, Serena, whom she might not be able to resurrect—and definitely shouldn’t. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Gray, discovers the existence of ExtraOrdinary people and seeks to harness their power for himself with tragic consequences for himself and many other people. Because the narrative skips around in time, it becomes clear fairly early that a final conflict is looming at EON, a high-tech facility where ExtraOrdinaries are imprisoned and experimented upon. This series has really lived up to its title; while antiheroes and villains have been popular protagonists for quite some time, not every writer is willing to lean into the darkness as hard as Schwab does. Some of her characters were psychopaths even before their near-death traumas, which means they didn’t have much moral fiber to begin with. And even the people who are basically good do a lot of bad and often foolish things when faced with a crisis…and there are a lot of crises. The strength of this series lies in Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary power to make you care for many of these incredibly rash, ethically dubious—some verging on irredeemable—characters anyway. As a result, the story rises above the usual grimdark cynical slog; instead, this is a gripping and nuanced saga with an ending that feels both inevitable and well earned.
Who is victorious? The author and the readers.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781250192233
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
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