#sparkers

okay storytime:

once upon a time, baby me joined a book club during my “say yes to everything” era and they sent me this random book with a vaguely magical cover. no expectations. just vibes.

and then I read it.

and suddenly i was like:

MAGIC! BOOKS! LANGUAGE NERDS! A PLAGUE! GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION!!

i was that crazy perso. it was my first real fantasy book post-harry potter and i thought it was literature.

fast forward to now: i reread it for the millionth time, this time with adult eyes and no glitter-goggles and like…

yeah. this book is basically 2014 dystopia vibes but for middle grade kids. and atp i'm not sure if i'm just seeing it through my rose colored lenses

PREMISE TL;DR

magic world, but surprise,the magic people (kasiri) are a minority ruling over the non-magical majority (halani)

our girl marah is 14, halani, a music + dead language nerd, and 100% That Girl

meets azariah (rich kasiri boy, also a nerd)

they uncover the cause AND cure of a plague that turns people’s eyes black (very casual)

the gov? useless. it’s up to the kids. classic

REREAD THOUGHTS

honestly? it was good… for a middle grade book. like, it did what it set out to do. cool world, interesting themes, smart main character, and a solid little mystery-plague-justice arc.

that said, reading it now, I couldn’t help thinking: this would’ve gone so much better as a YA novel. give me more depth, more danger, more emotional damage. marah deserved to be unhinged at least once.

i just wanted more. and not in a “this wasn’t enough” way, more like “this could be bigger"