Monday, September 12, 2016

THE BRONZE KEY by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black / Book Review


By: Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
Published by: Scholastic
Released onSeptember 6th, 2016
Series: Magisterium #3
Ages: 9 & up
Purchase from: Amazon | B&N
Add it to Goodreads
Rating: 5 Owlets - I Loved It
Source: purchased

Magic can save you
Magic can kill you
It should be a time of celebration. The Enemy of Death is dead; a severed head proof of his downfall. The magical world has no reason to believe otherwise, and Callum, Tamara and Aaron are celebrated as heroes.
But at a party held in their honour, things go horribly, brutally wrong. A fellow student is callously murdered, and it seems Call’s worst fears are confirmed: there is a spy in the Magisterium.
No one is safe.
Now, using the powerful magic they’ve been taught, the trio must risk their lives to track down the killer. But magic is dangerous – in the wrong hands it could bring terrible destruction. And reveal the deadliest secret of all . . .

Guest Review from Emmaly

I am not a large reader of Middle Grade any more, my kids are now both teens. But I still like to read it when I can, especially when I’m a fan of the author.  Holly Black is the queen of Middle Grade. She just seems to get that age of limbo between childhood and adolescence, when everything is awkward and the relationships between boys and girls is often confusing.  Cassandra Clare has an amazing way with with words and the conversations her characters have are LOL hilarious. The magic comes when you put the two together! (did you see what I did there - magic!)

This is book 3 in the series picking up where we left off with Call and his friends about to start their 3rd year at the Magisterium.  Call and Aaron are special Chaos Mages so they are attracting a lot of attention from both kids and adults alike.  This isn’t alway positive attention with a student dead and a spy at the Magisterium trying to hurt Call. The trio with the not always welcome help of Jasper, set out to find out who the spy is.

I love the characters in this story, and how Call Tamara and Aaron look out for each other and help each other, even if they have doubts. This is a strange time for them, someone is trying to kill Call and they are still coming to terms with their powerful magic. And to complicate things a girl might like Call, but he isn’t sure if he likes her back or what to do about it.  A lot of stuff for MG readers to relate to here! I love how funny some of the dialogue is. How we have characters like Jasper who we don’t like so much but also can’t help but love at the same time. And you have to love Tamara. She doesn’t let not being a Makar get in her way,  in fact she uses it to her advantage.

Although the world at first glance seems like one we have read before in many books, Black and Clare still put their own spin on it and then turn it on it’s head. I did promise no spoilers here but the ending is a real game changer for the series, Just when it looked like we have settled into routine years at the Magisterium, the world gets turned upside down.  Now I can’t wait for book four!

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~ Anna Quindlen

Good children's literature appeals not only to
the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
~ Anonymous ~