Title: Atomic Magic

Author: MistickMage

Genre: Science-Fantasy

Quick Summary: I'm glad this was short, because it wasn't all that sweet.

Thoughts: 

Middle Grade does not mean that what you're writing can suddenly be lazy. Unfortunately, this writing was very lazy.

We take way too long to get to the plot. There's a solid five chapters, probably more, of Sorrel going to school before anything remotely-plot related happens. But once the plot happens? We go WAY too fast through it all. 

My largest, infuriating problem with this book is we skip over all the fun shit. Sorrel needs training? Skip over it! Want to talk about war without giving it any real thought? Skip over it! And if it's not skipped over, it's too simple. I couldn't even enjoy the magic system, which is something that would be cool in practice, because I hardly get any time to take it in. I don't get time to take in anything.

And if it's not completely skipped over, it's just kinda explained away in a really lazy fashion. No need for a fleshed-out conversation over the dangers Sorrel will be in! Her parents just hand-wave it and everyone moves on. But... why? 

Also, I know magic exists in all, but the first chapter Sarin is in... He's an eagle. How is he able to write? How? 

Slow down. Remove the first like... five chapters, expand the hell out of everything else. This sort of plot really isn't something you can just skip through like an Ocarina of Time speedrun.

Oh yeah, also the poem can be taken out. It has 0% of an impact on the plot and looks more like the author accidentally uploaded their poem to the wrong work on their page.