This book was everything I could’ve wanted out of a middle-grade fantasy. Between the reality bending powers, the ravens, the trickster, and the complexity of the powers shown through a potentially sentient (?) book, I had the best time! And all the characters definitely kept me intrigued and always wanting to know more. Even the main bully character was someone I became invested in and I’m still dying to know what his deal was and why he was Like That. And I was especially interested to see more of his brother, but we didn’t get that in here.
I know this book is part of a series and so probably a lot more that was only touched on here will be explored later, and for the most part, it still all managed to feel complete, but towards the end, it did feel like suddenly a lot happened without the proper space to pay it all off. I love the direction and everything that did happen, and I especially love the way the ending issue was actually something that was subtly built up throughout the book as sort of a background story unraveling. It’s just that the ending did happen suddenly, which threw off the pacing a little for me, which is extra noticeable because the whole rest of the book had great pacing and flow.
Despite the minor gripe about the ending, I overall loved this book so much. The conflicts were engaging, the characters really felt so alive and endearing and intriguing. The main relationships/friendships between characters were so sweet and I absolutely loved Cam’s family and the love they have for each other really shines through in every interaction they have. From the moment they were introduced, they all gave me really strong impressions of who they are as characters. This book had me asking so many questions in a good way. I just want to know everything about the lore of this world and the witches and the book.
Another thing that really stood out to me about this book was the descriptions and the similes and metaphors, that were both fun and creative and complemented the story’s tone really well. Not to repeat myself too much, but I had the best time with this book.
Thank you so much to the author for sending me a free copy of this book! Sent as part of me signing up for the ARC for book 2, which will be an upcoming review.