Author: Humphrey Quinn
Date: 2017
Publisher: Rachel Daigle
ISBN: 978-1386671343
Quote: "Ivan's Initiation ceremony is tonight."
Ivan, who is ahead of Colin and Meghan at school, whom neither of them likes much, and who just might be Meghan's beshert, doesn't want a close companion during a "trial" of magic powers that's supposed to be a magical scavenger hunt. He's pushed into choosing Meghan. That means he gets her familiar Nona, the talking cat, and Colin, Meghan's twin (the first born but smaller), and Colin's friend Bird, who can shapeshift between bird and boy, as well.
They also pick up Catrina, Colin's dream girl. Colin has always thought she was real and living, but they find her in a glass coffin and most people don't see her. Is this because she's a ghost? Fantasy readers should beware of stereotypes. Catrina's magic powers are feared and some people want her dead. What would any sensible magic user do? Enchant her so that she's hard to see? We're not told but I read this series as whimsical rather than occult fantasy. Its audience includes children--Meghan and Colin have their fourteenth birthday in this book.
And, while testing Colin's ability to deal with the Scratchers, magical monsters who are predators on the Svoda tribe, they get into a real battle. Which means Colin uses magic to kill "people." Well, they're only rock goblins, so the spell simply grinds them down to sand, but: sentient characters get deanimated. This is not a cozy fantasy for little children.
How do parents feel about a fourteen-year-old girl being sent off, mostly on her own, to work in partnership with an older teenaged boy, in a magical wilderness far from her home world? Meghan's parents don't know about this. Meghan and Ivan are intelligent, and may display self-control even as they inevitably notice each other's likable qualities, but even though their four friends will be nearby I think these teenagers need a chaperone. In this book, however, they dislike each other.
I've read three volumes in this series. At the time of writing there were twelve.
How do parents feel about a fourteen-year-old girl being sent off, mostly on her own, to work in partnership with an older teenaged boy, in a magical wilderness far from her home world? Meghan's parents don't know about this. Meghan and Ivan are intelligent, and may display self-control even as they inevitably notice each other's likable qualities, but even though their four friends will be nearby I think these teenagers need a chaperone. In this book, however, they dislike each other.
I've read three volumes in this series. At the time of writing there were twelve.
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