Why did I read this book?
I had seen this book on many best of the year lists and it fell under both young adult and fantasy, two genres I like. It's also by an author that I enjoy so when I saw the audio book available at our library a day before our long road trip to California for Christmas, I grabbed it. I knew I'd be able to listen to her books on audio and it was something I could listen to while Rob slept since he had no interest in that author (although I was quite wrong about that, he ended up really liking it!).
This book takes place in the eighth year of Simon Snow's magical education. It's his last year at Watford and he doesn't really know what to make of that. Until he got into watford he was bounced from foster home to foster home so never really has anywhere to go back to and always felt like he was most at home at Watford. There is an evil creature out there to get him and he still doesn't feel as though he has lived up to the potential everyone seems to expect of him. Yes, I realize that sounds like every other magician goes to boarding school story, but this one kept me interested nonetheless!
Why you should read it!
On the surface this book doesn't look like it has anything different to offer than every other fantasy story with a "chosen one". But maybe it was the fact that it was a standalone book or that the relationships were different than what I expected, or maybe even just that the writing was enjoyable but I really liked this book. There were some interesting turns/twists that happened some predictable and some not. This is nice because you don't have to commit to a full series but it comes to a conclusion and wraps up nicely. About halfway through the book I found out about the book Fangirl and that the main character is writing this book in that book! I now really want to read that book. I'd recommend this to pretty much anyone who wants a quick read, a bit on the young adult side but still very well written. Don't let the fantasy aspect of it scare you off either, I think this could entertain you even if fantasy isn't always your thing.
