Monday, July 31, 2023

Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded by Sage Blackwood

Miss Ellicott's School for the Magically Minded

Miss Ellicott’s School for the Magically Minded is alright, I guess. It’s not exactly bad and not exactly good. It has a certain atmosphere that I enjoyed, but the story just wasn’t awesome.

Miss Ellicott’s is told from the point of view of a 13 year old who basically knows nothing about the society she lives in or anything about the history of the place. It shows. It’s in-built into the plot that this is eventually reversed, through stumbling through the bureaucracy and onto a hidden/lost library. Honestly, Chantel does a lot of stumbling around and not a lot of reasoning, which is what bugged me, I think. She also doesn’t have much of an inner voice, either, so I think it was hard to get into her as a character.

I liked the whole concept of Lightning. A snake familiar who can turn into a dragon if you let it grow with you so you end up influencing each other, essentially. I did find it weird that there weren’t any other familiars present or mentioned… probably another thing that bothered me. This magic system is just very airy and full of “wha huh?” The magic system is not the point but also not explained very well at all.

Miss Ellicott’s was kinda cute and engaging enough for me to get through it. I might have enjoyed it when I was younger, but… yeah. It’s very solidly in the “okay” column.

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