A little bit of House
of Night, a dash of Harry Potter
and a whole lot of its own world mark this book which is obviously first of a
series. It is rather more simplistic than the other two but still an
entertaining fantasy.
Amy (Amelia) is a
sixteen-year old planning her future and working towards setting life goals and
study paths. Amy has ADHD severe enough to warrant medication. She also suffers
from horrible headaches and inexplicable social isolation at school. Amy’s
headaches seem to intensify around her hippy-ish aunt, Jess, and cousin,
Nightingale, which is weird because Amy actually likes them. On an evening out with said aunt and cousin, Amy and
her parents are attacked and Amy’s world changes when her aunt and cousin fight
the supernatural demons that have attacked the family. In the ensuing fight (in
which Jess’ friends appear and participate), Amy’s mother is wounded – not only
wounded, but cursed – and it is revealed that Amy is a witch. Jess takes Amy to
Ember Academy for witches in which Jess is a teacher. Amy is thrown into a new
world and into a new reality about herself (which includes discovering her
attraction to girls) while still carrying guilt about her mother being cursed
because of her, Amy. Amy is willing to do literally anything to make her mother alright.
As a beginning of a series, there is a
lot of world building which can get a bit much. The characters are also in the
process of being in the in-development stage so people, relationships, situations
and ‘surprises’ are mostly simplistic in this one. However, this is engaging
enough to have made us curious about Freya Snow and the series about her
(frankly, our interest is largely fuelled by the fact Freya seems to be
bisexual).
On the whole a decent, though not
earth-shaking or crazy exciting, start of a fantasy/paranormal YA series.
⭐⭐☆
