Madd’s Reviews > Innate Magic > Status Update

Having Hollister being skinned alive feels so unnaturally dark for a book like this. Like so out of place it’s bad. Like the author wanted to throw in that extra edge to prove how dark it is or sm idk I’m so tired of this book I just want it to be over

Bruh hollister wanting to actually bring his friend back from the dead was so random

Paul is such a manipulative asshole Jesus Christ poor Thomas free Thomas everyone needs to go

So desperate for attention that he can’t stand his brother being mad at him for five seconds even though he deserves it that he’s dragging along a girl into a mess that he started just so he doesn’t have to feel awkward around Thomas. I’m not sure if the author meant to make Paul this much of an asshole on purpose or believes I am genuinely supposed to root for him.

This entire book is just watching this whiny selfish prick be a terrible friend, making everything about himself, and pining after a girl he just met. Thomas is saving his life getting out of London and the only thing he has to think about is Verity. Not a thank you or care to the man he called his brother. God I hate him.

God and Paul pmo. So haughty and mighty in the way he speaks of God yet is like the hugest asshole ever. And not even in like a narrative sense of, “he’s a hypocrite it’s what makes his character slightly hate-able and realistic,” but it’s like the author just tried to cram a bunch of different character traits they liked into a character without giving it nuance

I’m confused on the class of this world. Like why does Paul, this world’s equivalent to a fashion designer/engineer want to dabble in politics. With people saying that only the wealthy can practice cloth magic it seems like an allegory for art school or majoring in something you love but doesn’t pay the bills, how is that related to wanting to be a Mage? A major political figure?

I feel like relative evils are the norm if this society, honestly it’s taking me a back how devastated he is about the revelation that a political guy is corrupted

This MC is all over the place. Portrayed as a lowk scumbag, a preachy Christian, a desperate leechy guy, a people pleaser. And Idk if this is meant to paint a certain narrative but he sleeps with like overtly older men and it’s never treated like a bad thing? Like he slept and dated with his very much older professor when he was just a teen and it’s brushed over?