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!

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