Not Since Harry Potter Have I Loved A Magical Series Like This
It’s been almost 25 years to the month since the first of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter books were released and since I have not read a series or book that nears the world Rawlings introduced to the world. However, when I won a copy of The Marvellers, the first in the Conjureverse series, as the chapters flew by and I was drawn into the world Dhonielle Clayton created I said to myself, “This is it. Again. Finally.” Because no matter what I read after the Potter series, how much I hoped for it to marvel at what Rawlings had produced with Harry Potter and the magical world he was drawn into, nothing came close. Until now. Until Dhonielle Clayton and the Conjureverse world.
When you read about characters in a world where snowflakes taste like sugar cookies, even a small detail such as this causes my mind to overflow with delight when imagining what it would be like in a world such as the one Ella Durand, our heroine of the book, experiences. While the small detail of the taste of a snowflake pales in comparison to the fact that finally we have a female heroine to experience a magical world with and the many other things in the Conjurverse world, The Marvellers has everything readers have been waiting for in the young adult reading world of magic, mayhem and the fight to be a good practicer of magic amongst it.
The book begins with Ella Durand’s entry into the Arcanum Training Institute. While normally she would not be accepted, laws have been reversed so that Conjurers, not just Marverlers, can be trained there. Because the Conjureverse world is very much as discriminatory as the one reader’s find themselves in today. Within the pages we find Marvellers who look down on Conjurers, most teach their children that the Conjurers don’t fit in and stories are spread about why they are bad people. Of course, the stories are only meant to keep those with differences separate, only meant to install fear. However, the feelings of the Marvelers are not helped with the fact that there is a history of Conjurers who caused a lot of trouble in their world- a group known as the Aces. And, as the book begins their leader, Gia (nicknamed the Ace of Anarchy), who is locked away escapes.
As school begins Ella is the only Conjurer who enrolled since the law passed to let Marvellers and Conjurers be educated together. Many Conjurer families are unsure of enrolling their children and Conjureres have disappeared from the school in the past, like Ella’s aunt did long ago, who was her mother’s twin, when she was only eleven years of age. As school begins Ella finds herself facing a lot of discriminatory behavior, like when she is taken from the first dorm room she shared with three other students during the middle of the night, finding instead she will be rooming with a girl who quickly became the school outcast, Brigid.
However, as Brigid unthaws and the girls open up to one another, a close friendship develops. And Jason, a boy that communicates with all kinds of creatures (having immense talent for a first year like Ella), does everything he can to befriend Ella. Despite the fact he has been assigned to show her around the school (even for a first year, his large family makes him more knowledgeable about things) and Ella shies away from help and being singled out like this, a true friendship develops between the two which extends to Brigid. But Jason may have a secret that he does not share with the two, his family having more in common with Ella and her own than anyone knows.
School for Ella is awesome to attend and readers have lots of fun there too. Unlike Harry Potter who had all kinds of magical skills to develop while at school I felt that readers never got to see him grow in this way (as Rawlings didn't write much about what went on in many of the classes and subjects). Dhonielle Clayton however, gives readers a fun sense of what education is like at the Arcanum Training Institute. While we don’t get to go to every class with Ella, readers do get to learn a lot more than they did at Hogwarts where we might find ourselves in a potions class or defense against the dark arts but, for the most part, much of Potter’s education was a mystery. Oftentimes I remember wondering what Potter learned, if anything, at the school? I just didn't get a sense, from what Rawlings shared in the book, what classes and subjects were like for Potter as I did here, in The Marvellers.
An important relationship in the book is the one Ella has with her advisor, Masterji Thakur. When Ella has questions about the relationship that the Conjureres and Marvellers have, now and in the past, she seeks answers in the library only to find that anything she wants to know has been redacted. Even when Masterji Thakur tries to answer these questions for her, when he goes to speak about it there is always some medical emergency, whether he finds he can't speak or worse, as he tries to get anything out, wordwise, to Ella. And after Christmas break, when Ella is supposed to meet with Masterji Thakur only to hear from the Headmaster that his break was “extended”- immediately Ella and her friends are suspicious and, using a Conjurer’s spell, discover that the teacher never left his classroom.
The mysteries in The Marvellers only deepen when Brigid begins to knit a woman with a face painted like a clown. Having the Marvellers ability to knit the present, past or future, the girls wonder who this woman is and why Brigid is knitting her. When the three decide to track Masterji Thakur with a spell, they are led to a place where they may need more magic to defeat what is there than they have at their disposal currently. Readers only hope the entire trio will survive.
The Marvellers is a wonderful first book introducing readers to adventurous Ella Durand and the intense, magical, marveller and conjurer’s world of the Conjureverse. In September the second in the series will be released, The Memory Thieves. It has been a long time since I have been so excited for a book release and this will be one that I wait for and plan on spending the whole day with! Join me in reading about Dhonielle Clayton’s great new world!
Happy Reading all! This is a series you don’t want to miss!
When you read about characters in a world where snowflakes taste like sugar cookies, even a small detail such as this causes my mind to overflow with delight when imagining what it would be like in a world such as the one Ella Durand, our heroine of the book, experiences. While the small detail of the taste of a snowflake pales in comparison to the fact that finally we have a female heroine to experience a magical world with and the many other things in the Conjurverse world, The Marvellers has everything readers have been waiting for in the young adult reading world of magic, mayhem and the fight to be a good practicer of magic amongst it.
The book begins with Ella Durand’s entry into the Arcanum Training Institute. While normally she would not be accepted, laws have been reversed so that Conjurers, not just Marverlers, can be trained there. Because the Conjureverse world is very much as discriminatory as the one reader’s find themselves in today. Within the pages we find Marvellers who look down on Conjurers, most teach their children that the Conjurers don’t fit in and stories are spread about why they are bad people. Of course, the stories are only meant to keep those with differences separate, only meant to install fear. However, the feelings of the Marvelers are not helped with the fact that there is a history of Conjurers who caused a lot of trouble in their world- a group known as the Aces. And, as the book begins their leader, Gia (nicknamed the Ace of Anarchy), who is locked away escapes.
As school begins Ella is the only Conjurer who enrolled since the law passed to let Marvellers and Conjurers be educated together. Many Conjurer families are unsure of enrolling their children and Conjureres have disappeared from the school in the past, like Ella’s aunt did long ago, who was her mother’s twin, when she was only eleven years of age. As school begins Ella finds herself facing a lot of discriminatory behavior, like when she is taken from the first dorm room she shared with three other students during the middle of the night, finding instead she will be rooming with a girl who quickly became the school outcast, Brigid.
However, as Brigid unthaws and the girls open up to one another, a close friendship develops. And Jason, a boy that communicates with all kinds of creatures (having immense talent for a first year like Ella), does everything he can to befriend Ella. Despite the fact he has been assigned to show her around the school (even for a first year, his large family makes him more knowledgeable about things) and Ella shies away from help and being singled out like this, a true friendship develops between the two which extends to Brigid. But Jason may have a secret that he does not share with the two, his family having more in common with Ella and her own than anyone knows.
School for Ella is awesome to attend and readers have lots of fun there too. Unlike Harry Potter who had all kinds of magical skills to develop while at school I felt that readers never got to see him grow in this way (as Rawlings didn't write much about what went on in many of the classes and subjects). Dhonielle Clayton however, gives readers a fun sense of what education is like at the Arcanum Training Institute. While we don’t get to go to every class with Ella, readers do get to learn a lot more than they did at Hogwarts where we might find ourselves in a potions class or defense against the dark arts but, for the most part, much of Potter’s education was a mystery. Oftentimes I remember wondering what Potter learned, if anything, at the school? I just didn't get a sense, from what Rawlings shared in the book, what classes and subjects were like for Potter as I did here, in The Marvellers.
An important relationship in the book is the one Ella has with her advisor, Masterji Thakur. When Ella has questions about the relationship that the Conjureres and Marvellers have, now and in the past, she seeks answers in the library only to find that anything she wants to know has been redacted. Even when Masterji Thakur tries to answer these questions for her, when he goes to speak about it there is always some medical emergency, whether he finds he can't speak or worse, as he tries to get anything out, wordwise, to Ella. And after Christmas break, when Ella is supposed to meet with Masterji Thakur only to hear from the Headmaster that his break was “extended”- immediately Ella and her friends are suspicious and, using a Conjurer’s spell, discover that the teacher never left his classroom.
The mysteries in The Marvellers only deepen when Brigid begins to knit a woman with a face painted like a clown. Having the Marvellers ability to knit the present, past or future, the girls wonder who this woman is and why Brigid is knitting her. When the three decide to track Masterji Thakur with a spell, they are led to a place where they may need more magic to defeat what is there than they have at their disposal currently. Readers only hope the entire trio will survive.
The Marvellers is a wonderful first book introducing readers to adventurous Ella Durand and the intense, magical, marveller and conjurer’s world of the Conjureverse. In September the second in the series will be released, The Memory Thieves. It has been a long time since I have been so excited for a book release and this will be one that I wait for and plan on spending the whole day with! Join me in reading about Dhonielle Clayton’s great new world!
Happy Reading all! This is a series you don’t want to miss!