Monday, March 4, 2013

Becky's View: Spellcaster by Claudia Gray


Spellcaster by Claudia Gray
♦publisher: Harper Teen
♦release date: March 5th, 2013
♦hardcover, 370 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Spellcaster, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review
When Nadia’s family moves to Captive’s Sound, she instantly realizes there’s more to it than meets the eye. Descended from witches, Nadia senses a dark and powerful magic at work in her new town. Mateo has lived in Captive’s Sound his entire life, trying to dodge the local legend that his family is cursed - and that curse will cause him to believe he’s seeing the future … until it drives him mad. When the strange dreams Mateo has been having of rescuing a beautiful girl—Nadia—from a car accident come true, he knows he’s doomed.

Despite the forces pulling them apart, Nadia and Mateo must work together to break the chains of his family’s terrible curse, and to prevent a disaster that threatens the lives of everyone around them.

Review:  The magic of witches, a cursed town, a mysterious boy who seems to be able to tell the future, and the author of one of my favorite reads last year…this book had all the makings of a perfect read for me.  Sadly, I found this one awkwardly told and hard to get into.  The plot was good, as were many of the subplots taking place within the lives of the three main characters.  What really got in the way of me completely loving this one was the alternating third-person points of view.  While I often don’t mind this style of storytelling, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a story that switched quite so often, as in several times in one chapter, and between 4 or 5 characters.  I found the constant POV change to be highly distracting as it took a few lines to realize whose perspective it was and made the flow of the story very choppy.   

There were several things I did like about the story. Gray’s take on magical spells was very unique and heartfelt.  Nadia literally had to call upon memories and her emotions to create the power of the spells.  I loved the character Mateo.  He's troubled by his strange new ability and not fully ready to just jump in and believe anything he's told.  He's loyal to a fault (albeit to the wrong people sometimes!) and had what I thought was a very natural reaction when his eyes are finally open to the truth.  I love that he defies the set laws of witchcraft and that there was, in the end, a very good explanation to that.  I loved Verlaine.  Her story has more coming, I'm sure, and when this series continues, I may return to it just to find out more about Verlaine's backstory---while we do learn a good deal about her, there is a lot about her and her parents that seems like it's yet to come.  And Nadia, she was a good character as well.  She is very self-reliant and strong for her little brother, even while stuggling so hard emotionally over her mother's abandoning of them.  I definitely feel there is more to that story, too, and I'm hoping she has the chance to confront her Mom in book 2.  She is left with a very incomplete training of witchcraft, and while it throws her confidence off a few times, she barrels through and finds a way to grow on her own.  The villain of the story was truly wicked, and it made the story more complex to see the villain's thoughts and merciless planning as well. 

The ending built up nicely and was exciting, but I felt like when we get to the climax it felt a bit rushed and easy.  I think that is one of the dangers of stories about magic and spells,(and this is a very slight spoiler, so I'm whiting it out, highlight between the astericks to read)...*if the heroine can simple cast a spell and the danger is over, if takes a bit of the breathless excitement out of the moment*.  Still, the end is not a true ending, it was just one baddie's plan foiled, and there is definitely more to come, so I guess it wasn't that easy, but it left me a little unsatified so far.  So, not a complete disappointment for me, although I did almost DNF this one a few times within the first 100 pages because of the frustrating quick-fire POV issues I mentioned, I stuck it out and was eventually drawn in and rewarded with a good story and some memorable characters. 

Give this one a try if you're looking for a unique take on magic and curses and interesting characters!
Find Claudia Gray online: Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Spellcaster:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound
   

12 comments :

  1. ooh good review. I really want to read this one.

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    1. I'll keep an eye out for your review if you decide to read it! Curious to know what you think!

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  2. Hm wonderful review! I really liked Claudia Grays first Vampir book, but then I stopped reading the series. I also get easily distracted with so many POV.. also it's harder to attach to the characters when the POV is so often changed..

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    1. Thanks, Danny! It's funny, sometimes I really love alternating POVs, but it just didn't work for me in this one. Maybe because it was also third-person perspective or that it switched too often? Not quite sure...

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  3. This makes me kind of sad because I really love this author but I have read several reviews now where people said they didn't really like/love this one. I'm sorry it didn't completely work out for you!

    Thanks for the great review!

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    1. I know what you mean...her book, Fateful, was a favorite of mine last year. I haven't tried any of her other books, though.

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  4. Multiple POV's can be fun, but they can also end up like this book, choppy and distracting. Such a shame that it didn't work out. The unique take on magic sounds interesting though, so I might pick it up once I see it in the library :)

    Mel@thedailyprophecy.

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    1. I definitely recommend this as a library check out! The things that bothered me might not bother some, so you may really like it! The magic really was neat, how she pulled from her own emotional memories to give her spells power. Very unique!

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  5. I have a feeling I wouldn't like this one - I'm not a fan of books that switch the 3rd Person POV in the middle of a chapter. The magic sounds great, though!

    Thanks for your honest review :)

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    1. Yes, I can do chapter by chapter POV changes, but I wasn't expecting several in one chapter. The magic is fun to read, though!

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  6. I have this one on my shelf and while I'm excited to read it, after reading your review I'm also a little scared. I'm not sure I like the sounds of the switching POVs since I can get easily confused if they switch around too much. I'll have to see about this one. Great review!

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  7. I can't wait to see what you think, Katie---just be prepared! It took a while to get used to, but the story itself is definitely worth a read.

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