I swear to God I already wrote this review, but here goes it! I buddy read this with my friend Aiya, and we honestly had a great time doing it.
First of all, the characters! I really like Alice and Henry, but also everyone else. I didn't think the other people had a whole lot of depth, only a whole lot of secrets, but it was fine to me.
For romance and relationships, I loved Henry and Alice, but I didn't think they had a huge influx of chemistry? They were great, don't get me wrong, but the book went by so fast that I felt like they were underdeveloped even though I didn't disapprove.
That brings me to the plot and world-building! You'd think the latter wouldn't be applicable to this book as it's largely contemporary, but I'm talking about Alice's invisibility. It was so unexplained and such a badly kept secret in so many ways that it gave me whiplash. She told like three people within a couple days, but then we never even got an explanation for the powers. It was so Matilda in the sense that she got the power, she used the power, and then suddenly it just wasn't relevant, but in this case, she still had them, she just couldn't control or explain them. It didn't really affect my enjoyment, but I was thinking about it a lot. I really liked the struggles with morality and commentary on Alice's life and poverty overall, but that element bugged me.
I'd recommend this to people who like academic rivals and moral struggles, but not those who like really comprehensive fantasy/urban fantasy.
First of all, the characters! I really like Alice and Henry, but also everyone else. I didn't think the other people had a whole lot of depth, only a whole lot of secrets, but it was fine to me.
For romance and relationships, I loved Henry and Alice, but I didn't think they had a huge influx of chemistry? They were great, don't get me wrong, but the book went by so fast that I felt like they were underdeveloped even though I didn't disapprove.
That brings me to the plot and world-building! You'd think the latter wouldn't be applicable to this book as it's largely contemporary, but I'm talking about Alice's invisibility. It was so unexplained and such a badly kept secret in so many ways that it gave me whiplash. She told like three people within a couple days, but then we never even got an explanation for the powers. It was so Matilda in the sense that she got the power, she used the power, and then suddenly it just wasn't relevant, but in this case, she still had them, she just couldn't control or explain them. It didn't really affect my enjoyment, but I was thinking about it a lot. I really liked the struggles with morality and commentary on Alice's life and poverty overall, but that element bugged me.
I'd recommend this to people who like academic rivals and moral struggles, but not those who like really comprehensive fantasy/urban fantasy.