Author:

Genre: Fantasy

What I liked about this book:

The descriptions in Barrowby's School for Psychic Girls is fantastic. The author has a knack for weaving world details in a way that makes them easy to see, and I knew exactly where I was for most of the book. The city is interesting and has an air of glamour about it that I appreciate.

The prologue was also gripping, and had plenty enough description and hinting at the main plot that I much enjoyed reading it. It was well-put-together, and made me interested in the main character, Tal, if not so much her companion.

What I did NOT like about this book:

Almost everything else.

The pacing of this book is very odd. We have a super interesting prologue of an event that occurs almost six chapters later. The next chapter is a dry description of the city that reads like a Wikipedia article of a place I've never been.

I'm given almost no time to get to know Fenwick before he whisks Tal away, and at that point I don't really care so much about Tal, either. The prose is littered with adverbs and weakening words that make it a pain to read, and by the fourth chapter, I'd grown disinterested and had a very strong urge to skim. Unfortunately I can't give a good review if I do that, so I didn't.

This book would benefit STRONGLY from better pacing, a tightening up of sentences, and less description of the environment without the thoughts or actions of characters woven in. From the third chapter onward I remained confused about the setting and plot until I reached the book's current end.

Could this be a good book? Probably. The premise is very interesting. But unfortunately it didn't deliver.

Overall:

This book needs some serious work before I'd consider reading the rest of it. I would have given up after chapter one (which is really chapter two due to the prologue) had I not been reading it for a review, and it was a real effort to slog through.

Rating:

4/10. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but I really didn't enjoy it much, either.