After losing the person most important to him, Lake Smithson stumbles across a letter he cannot explain. A single brush of his finger and he is thrust into the heart of a mystery only to slowly realize that lies and deception in his new reality can unleash untold evil. Faceless creatures, terrifying magic, unlikely friendships, and broken promises lead Lake and his friends to walk a tight line between the mage realm, on the brink of extinction, and the human realm, on the precipice of revelation. Will Lake become the first human to wield magic or will he be the last?
Plot
The book starts off intense and full of intrigue. Lake’s brother is murdered in front of him and, while sorting through his brother’s things, he finds a letter to a school of magic. I was really excited to learn more about this magic system and why Lake believes his brother was intentionally killed, rather than just an accident. However, about halfway through, the intrigue begins to fall apart as the author added more elements to the story that had nothing to do with Lake’s brother. At that point, I felt less attached to the story and my attention wandered.
Characters
The book alternates between two perspectives, Lake, the main character, and Nova, a teacher’s assistant at the school of magic. Lake is an openly gay character, which I appreciated, but his personality fell flat when compared to his brother in the beginning. I eventually grew to like and understand him better, but he is constantly overpowered by louder characters around him. Nova, the female perspective in the story, has a very strong personality by comparison but I did not feel connected to her. It felt like the writer wasn’t completely comfortable writing from a female point of view and overcompensated, which felt inauthentic.
Setting
My favorite aspect of this book was the magical realm and the author’s imagination in its creation. While many of these books have their magical world hidden within a human world, in this book, the magical realm is instead a separate universe. And, there are not just those two realms, but tons more that aren’t completely explored in this book. I look forward to seeing what else this author does with the world and rules he’s created.
My Recommendation
I think young teen boys would really connect to this story. It has a lot of adventure and excitement and is similar to Harry Potter in many ways. As a female reader, I struggled to connect to the characters and felt the female perspective character was a bit inauthentic. However, the world that the author has created is imaginative and unique and I look forward to seeing what else he does with it.
