In Review: The Paper Magician

Goodread | Amazon

I've been meaning to talk about this books for almost two weeks now.  I got this book at the very end of summer through Amazon's Kindle first.  This program is great if you want to get your hands on some new books without having to wait the month to get them.  Every month amazon releases four books early on Kindle addition for super low prices.  Anyone with a kindle can read them.  The program is probably hit or miss but I'm sure it gets some new authors much needed publicity.  This book did come out in the beginning of September so if your looking to get your hands on a hard cover copy it is all yours. 

But first let me give you a brief synopsis from the lovely people over at Goodreads.

Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper, that will be her only magic…forever.

Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

From the imaginative mind of debut author Charlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician is an extraordinary adventure both dark and whimsical that will delight readers of all ages.

When I imagine this book as a movie all I can think is Tim Burton style or in the style of the Deathly Hallows drawn scene.  This book is filled with magic from the moment you read the first page.  It has bits of all the great magical stories wrapped into one.  The book also was incredibly cute.  

This being said, I feel like this book doesn't know where to stand.  It isn't quite a children's novel but it isn't quite YA.  While I would totally let any child read this book I sometimes felt it was trying to be YA but not quite getting there.  The relationships were not conceived well enough and the content was not quite as well thought out as I would have liked.  For example, the character of the magician could have been so great.  His relationship with his student could have been amazing but something was lacking.  It was like he had the skeleton of a character but not the flesh.  (Sorry can you tell I'm a little excited for all things fall?) 

I really wanted this book to be good.  The premise was incredibly cute and the characters had so much potential.  Holmberg is definitely going in the right direction with her writing she just needed to push it a little further. I think for a children's book this would be perfect but for an YA or adult read it is lacking the detail and character development.  

ox Caitlin