Synopsis:

For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements–books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna’s isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, they’ll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .

Rating:

Review:

I am in love with the idea of this book. It’s a book that’s about books. In this world, blood can be used as ink to create magical tomes that enact specific spells. Seemingly these spells are limitless, or at least we aren’t told much about the limits of the spells. There is even an immortality spell, so at the very least we can say that the limit is far reaching. Later, we find out that some spells even go further than just blood. They have inscribed onto skin, bound with hair and glued together with fat. Some of the darkest spells require a connection to the body of the person who wrote it. And two of our main characters have just recently lost their father to one of these books. He put his hand to it and it took his blood, all of it. That is a terrifying and amazing idea. It was that idea that interested me in this book to begin with.

This book was the very definition of “okay.” The characters weren’t interesting but there were too many of them. We spend a lot of time head hopping to the POV of different characters but there’s so many of them that I couldn’t keep track of who was who. It took me until about 30% of the book to figure out how everyone was related to the story. It would have been better to spend more consistent time with just a few characters so I could get to know them better. There was a few superb relationships in this book. The sister relationship and mother/daughter relationship were excellently written. But I had a hard time empathizing with the characters generally because we didn’t spend enough time with them. I couldn’t get to know them enough to care about them.

The story really picks up about halfway through. I really loved the adventure after that point. It was fast paced and horrifying. I loved it and got swept away in the ride. The ending was a little bit confusing, I actually went back and read the last chapter again because I thought I missed something. It ends on a cliffhanger….sort of. It is a well contained story but there’s definitely a “what happens next” vibe to the ending.

The biggest problem this book had was that the characters didn’t seem to have any agency. No one actually makes any decisions. They are set along a plot path and they just move along that pre-determined path. And they talk about making decisions. A LOT. But they don’t actually make any. At one point it felt like the main characters would be forced into making a decision. They were being left clues but were concerned about whether they could trust the person leaving the clues, or if it was a trap. They needed to decide whether to trust the clues or not. It took about 30 seconds for them to just blindly decide to trust the clue giver without any discussion or dissent. And back on the pre-determined path we went. It was frustrating. I wanted them to actually decide things. I think that might be the result of this being a debut novel. Sometimes it’s difficult to write to a planned plot without making it feel planned. That’s a very specific skill and sometimes it takes time to develop. Overall there was a lot of good things here, and I am glad that I read it. It was a solid debut novel