A dark fantasy that reads like YA and contains some similarity to themes of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games books.
This was definitely not a book that I normally would choose and probably one that I should have skipped entirely. I was enticed by the hype and ended up being totally disappointed in the story. It was surely an overreach of quasi philosophy and the concept of magic -- of course being misused by power hungry masterminds playing at being God. Another miss was that this ARC contained none of the promised illustrations.
The premise -- six magicians are chosen to attend the Alexandrian Society indoctrination with the ultimate prize of being asked to join this super secret collective and have access to all the lost and ancient knowledge. The characters are introduced and narrate their own chapters as their magical specialties are explained as they try to prove their worth to each other and to the Society. There is a catch, however. Out of the 6 invited, only 5 will be initiated members.
Very slow pace, a lot of repetition, and ultimately somewhat boring -- this was not my cup of tea. I did not like any of the characters and the whole concept of their purpose was only vaguely explained. I have no intention of reading further books in this series because I simply do not care about any of them nor their future conspiracies or manipulations. There is no sense of menace or foreboding even in the magic or the atmosphere of the mansion where they live and study. I was a trial to read through to the end and I am glad to be done.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for this e-book ARC to read and review. Sorry, it was not for me and I can see from other reviews that I am an outlier on this one.
This is meant to be the first in a series.
Genre - YA fantasy, sci fi, magic
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