There are YA books that translate well to an adult audience, and there are those that are best appreciated by their actual target audience. I suspect Firespell is one of the latter. I found it an average read, but I think I’d have really liked it at the age of thirteen or so.
Case in point: Here is how magic works in the Dark Elite series. If someone has magical talent, that talent manifests at puberty. From puberty to the age of twenty-five, the magic is a really cool enhancement. But after the age of twenty-five, the person must give up magic, or else it becomes a corrupting (and addictive) force. The people who don’t give up their magic, called Reapers, have to steal the life force of young people in order to keep exercising their powers.
I keep thinking about this as a metaphor, and about how well it fits the way I saw the world when I was a teenager. I would look at adults back then and it always seemed that some of them had given up some essential “spark” they’d once had, and that others got a kick out of making sure none of the younger generation got to have any fun.
Moving on to the plot, Firespell is a novel in the “teen goes to boarding school and discovers magic” vein. Lily, the heroine, is sent to a posh girls’ boarding school in Chicago while her parents travel to Germany for research. She quickly finds a friend in quirky Scout, whose mysterious nocturnal excursions arouse Lily’s curiosity. She makes enemies, too, in the form of a trio of “mean girls.” When she learns that Scout’s secret is that she’s part of a team of magical adepts, her life changes forever…
The friendships are great; I really loved Scout and sweet, nerdy Lesley. I mostly liked Lily, too, though she had a moment about halfway through the book where she did something both unwise and insensitive, and had me mad at her for a while. Another strength of the book is Chloe Neill’s portrayal of Chicago. It’s one of my favorite cities and I had a strong sense of being there while reading the book.
There’s a romance, too, though it’s a bit skimpy. Lily seems mostly interested in Jason because he’s good-looking, and the two of them spend way too much time snubbing each other. An older reader may find this annoying.
Firespell is just a beginning; Neill introduces a lot of ideas and doesn’t explore them all here. For that, you’ll have to continue on to the next book, Hexbound.
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Oh, this sounds interesting!