I was orginially only going to give this book 1 star, however upon reflection I am not the target audience (I hope) and so I bumped it up to 2.
The Marvellers is a book about a magic boarding school in the sky, where Marvellers are trained to discover their inner magic and individual skill. The School was founded a couple of hundred years earlier by 5 master magicians, and helps to keep magic folk sage from Fewels (Non-magic people or 'muggles'. There are a lot of recycled/similar features to HP)
In the authors world there are also a separate group of Magic Users called Conjurers who have their own society, and different ways of using magic -primarily interacting with plants and Death.
The book centres around a controversy when the Head Conjurer forces the Magic school for Marvellers to accept his daughter as it's student.
Cue lots of arguments, discrimination and bullying from Marvellers, and a slow character progression for Ella, who is our main lead.
Unfortunately, this story definitely felt like it was aimed at older children, and not even YA. Whilst some of the concepts were intriguing, most of the other characters in the story had little to no depth or development, and parts of the plot jumped around or seemed written to force the story along.
In particular the evil witch and the ending left a lot to be desired, as although we read bits about her and from her perspective a lot, her motivations were never clearly explained, and the ending frankly made no logical sense and seemed rushed.
If you are, or have, a young child who isn't yet at the reading stage to try Harry Potter, give this a go. Anyone else would be better reading other magical novels I think.
The Marvellers is a book about a magic boarding school in the sky, where Marvellers are trained to discover their inner magic and individual skill. The School was founded a couple of hundred years earlier by 5 master magicians, and helps to keep magic folk sage from Fewels (Non-magic people or 'muggles'. There are a lot of recycled/similar features to HP)
In the authors world there are also a separate group of Magic Users called Conjurers who have their own society, and different ways of using magic -primarily interacting with plants and Death.
The book centres around a controversy when the Head Conjurer forces the Magic school for Marvellers to accept his daughter as it's student.
Cue lots of arguments, discrimination and bullying from Marvellers, and a slow character progression for Ella, who is our main lead.
Unfortunately, this story definitely felt like it was aimed at older children, and not even YA. Whilst some of the concepts were intriguing, most of the other characters in the story had little to no depth or development, and parts of the plot jumped around or seemed written to force the story along.
In particular the evil witch and the ending left a lot to be desired, as although we read bits about her and from her perspective a lot, her motivations were never clearly explained, and the ending frankly made no logical sense and seemed rushed.
If you are, or have, a young child who isn't yet at the reading stage to try Harry Potter, give this a go. Anyone else would be better reading other magical novels I think.