Community Reviews
I delved into this, thinking that it's a book about the Vikings or something along that line because of that cover. Obviously I didn't really remember the blurb as I did shelf this quite a while ago, and I started reading only because I knew I wanted to read it. It really surprised me when I realised that it's about an eighteen-year-old girl living in Texas during a time period that is very, very recent. I'd say it started out good, but when the trials began, my interest started to dampen.
The book starts off at a farm with Wild (ain't that a cool name?) and her family. Everything is going pretty well with them despite two deaths that has already happened within the family. You can tell how much Wild, her father and her siblings all care for each other, but there's always something niggling at the back of her mind: the lack of money. But then all of a sudden, there's a man standing just outside the perimeters of their home, telling Wild about an envelope. Turns out someone has broken into their house, cleaned it too, and left a letter behind. For Billy, the man had said, the envelope is for her brother. She opens it to realise that he has been selected to go for the Culling Trials. He better go for it, or... his family will die.
Knowing the dangers behind the very same envelope that took her other sibling away, Wild immediately knows that there is no way she is going to let her brother go. So what's her solution? To go in his stead. Plus, going for the Trials means that she'll able to bring the family more money. Two birds with one stone.
Wild is a girl who will do anything for her family. It makes her a very empathetic character. The author has also created her to be someone who has incredibly good instincts, one that she has learnt to trust since young. Although that's pretty cool, especially when paired with her intelligence, it's also something that brought the whole story down for me. At the end of it, I had to keep asking myself: so which part of her is imperfect? She can fight, she can solve puzzles, she's fast, she has such fantastic instincts that it's quite impossible for her to land into trouble... where is her flaw? As a character who is so capable of everything and anything, it makes her horribly boring.
BUT the side characters. Ohh the side characters. They really saved the story (besides Ethan, of course, the arrogant prick) for me. Wally, Pete and Orin â they are marvelous. I particularly like Wally for her pessimism and inherent morbid thoughts. What makes it funnier â even though I know it shouldn't be funny â is that she spouts them all out. Unabashedly. Almost all the time. When Wild met her for the first time, I knew she's going to be the reason why I'll enjoy this book.
Not a lot of secrets have been exposed thus far about this academy, or why Wild's parents have been keeping this from her. All I know is that Shadowspell is a school for students with out-of-the-world talents, from magic to shape-shifting. But in order to be enrolled, they have to go through the Culling Trials. They have Houses too. Who would have thought? It's like Hogwarts, but more dangerous and badass in a sense that in the process of getting enrolled, a student can get killed. What they'd do at the end of graduation, that's something one has to find out for themselves, hopefully in later installments.
Although it would be kinda interesting to learn more about these said secrets, I don't find myself compelled to move to the next book. I'm sure Wild will continue to be her perfect self, enough to go through the rest of the Trials anyway. Meh. I'd recommend this to readers who love lots of action though. You can find out first-hand how Wild is able to get through all the obstacles with her skills. There are just so many things happening throughout the Trial that I found myself struggling to keep up and understand that particular scene more than half the time. But who knows? You might just hold on better than I did and enjoy this a whole lot more.
By A Floret's Breath
The book starts off at a farm with Wild (ain't that a cool name?) and her family. Everything is going pretty well with them despite two deaths that has already happened within the family. You can tell how much Wild, her father and her siblings all care for each other, but there's always something niggling at the back of her mind: the lack of money. But then all of a sudden, there's a man standing just outside the perimeters of their home, telling Wild about an envelope. Turns out someone has broken into their house, cleaned it too, and left a letter behind. For Billy, the man had said, the envelope is for her brother. She opens it to realise that he has been selected to go for the Culling Trials. He better go for it, or... his family will die.
Knowing the dangers behind the very same envelope that took her other sibling away, Wild immediately knows that there is no way she is going to let her brother go. So what's her solution? To go in his stead. Plus, going for the Trials means that she'll able to bring the family more money. Two birds with one stone.
Wild is a girl who will do anything for her family. It makes her a very empathetic character. The author has also created her to be someone who has incredibly good instincts, one that she has learnt to trust since young. Although that's pretty cool, especially when paired with her intelligence, it's also something that brought the whole story down for me. At the end of it, I had to keep asking myself: so which part of her is imperfect? She can fight, she can solve puzzles, she's fast, she has such fantastic instincts that it's quite impossible for her to land into trouble... where is her flaw? As a character who is so capable of everything and anything, it makes her horribly boring.
BUT the side characters. Ohh the side characters. They really saved the story (besides Ethan, of course, the arrogant prick) for me. Wally, Pete and Orin â they are marvelous. I particularly like Wally for her pessimism and inherent morbid thoughts. What makes it funnier â even though I know it shouldn't be funny â is that she spouts them all out. Unabashedly. Almost all the time. When Wild met her for the first time, I knew she's going to be the reason why I'll enjoy this book.
Not a lot of secrets have been exposed thus far about this academy, or why Wild's parents have been keeping this from her. All I know is that Shadowspell is a school for students with out-of-the-world talents, from magic to shape-shifting. But in order to be enrolled, they have to go through the Culling Trials. They have Houses too. Who would have thought? It's like Hogwarts, but more dangerous and badass in a sense that in the process of getting enrolled, a student can get killed. What they'd do at the end of graduation, that's something one has to find out for themselves, hopefully in later installments.
Although it would be kinda interesting to learn more about these said secrets, I don't find myself compelled to move to the next book. I'm sure Wild will continue to be her perfect self, enough to go through the rest of the Trials anyway. Meh. I'd recommend this to readers who love lots of action though. You can find out first-hand how Wild is able to get through all the obstacles with her skills. There are just so many things happening throughout the Trial that I found myself struggling to keep up and understand that particular scene more than half the time. But who knows? You might just hold on better than I did and enjoy this a whole lot more.
By A Floret's Breath
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