A magic school trope book, The Marvellers holds its own in the genre. While at first seeming like a multi-cultural twist on the familiar story, it creates a world that still feels unique, refreshing, and fun.
I had a few problems with some of the pacing and world-building in the book. First, the world building is pretty limited to the school even though it does venture out of it. It takes awhile to feel like you understand where you are and why; however, as this is the beginning of a series, I do expect the world to be flushed out a little more as the world and series grows. There is a lot going on in terms of exposition, but if you just go with it and don't think about it too hard, it is fine and doesn't subtract from the main plot.
Pacing was a little jarring especially at the end of the book. There's kind of a slow lead up to everything and then bam bam bam all these MAJOR events happen to set up the next book and it's slightly unsettling. I wish there had been more weight to some of the decisions and impact of events at the end.
Finally, the characters are cute but don't develop too much throughout the course of this book. Again, I expect to see more development as the series progresses and book 1 (this one) serving as just an introduction to who these people are and how they all got here.
Despite the comments above, I did enjoy the book overall and plan to continue to the next book that is already out!
I had a few problems with some of the pacing and world-building in the book. First, the world building is pretty limited to the school even though it does venture out of it. It takes awhile to feel like you understand where you are and why; however, as this is the beginning of a series, I do expect the world to be flushed out a little more as the world and series grows. There is a lot going on in terms of exposition, but if you just go with it and don't think about it too hard, it is fine and doesn't subtract from the main plot.
Pacing was a little jarring especially at the end of the book. There's kind of a slow lead up to everything and then bam bam bam all these MAJOR events happen to set up the next book and it's slightly unsettling. I wish there had been more weight to some of the decisions and impact of events at the end.
Finally, the characters are cute but don't develop too much throughout the course of this book. Again, I expect to see more development as the series progresses and book 1 (this one) serving as just an introduction to who these people are and how they all got here.
Despite the comments above, I did enjoy the book overall and plan to continue to the next book that is already out!