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MY REVIEW:
Genre | Tropes: Fantasy, Mystery, Young Adult
Rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐
If you enjoy reading about a magic-filled academy where students are hiding things and a mystery must be solved, then check this one out!
The premise of this book caught me from the moment I read the blurb. It features an academy, magic and a most intriguing mystery to solve. Alice has found herself the recipient of a silent scholarship to prestigious Welkin Academy where she can continue her magic studies and potentially get even better at it. The problem is that the moment she arrives, she learns that the student she replaced, Alyse, has gone missing under strange circumstances. Hoping not to succumb to the same fate, she makes it a point to try and obtain as much information as possible as to why the girl went missing. But this leads her down the rabbit hole of a huge school-wide mystery that she’s now in the center of.
I’m not a plot spoiler, so I’ll end with that there. Some of the things I loved about this book:
Easy to appreciate characters
Each character was uniquely their own and had special qualities and traits about them. Whether you liked the character or not, some were a little odd on purpose (queue Richard), but you could easily differentiate the characters in the story. I struggled when Richard was on scene though. He would kind of just appear most of the time without warning and he was overly intense in most situations which made nearly every scene with him in it feel very awkward. Alice was wonderfully drawn up though and that’s the only point of view in the book, so you ultimately get to know her the best.
Immersive Magic Academy
The academy where the story takes place is not just a school for learning how to use this very special magic, but the entire school incorporates magic into everything. From the ways you get around, to the on-site restaurants, etc. It took me some time throughout the story to get a grasp on how to imagine some of the school hallways as there are some descriptions, but without a ton of detail that can leave you creating your own version of what the bouncy blocks to get to that classroom looked like. They sounded really cool, but the reduced imagery in the descriptions made me unsure of what to actually picture.
The Overall Mystery to be Solved
The major premise of the story is the mystery amongst the students. Something bad happened at one time and now there’s this special activity taking place on campus for those that know about it. Alice finds herself in the middle of this mystery game and must find out the history before it’s too late for her. The group involved is a unique cast of individuals that each try to get to Alice in their own ways. Some swoon her, some try to intimidate her, but she’s overall not put out by any of them in the pursuit of answers.
Overall, the book was interesting, even if I struggled to comprehend certain things about the school itself and was sometimes really weirded out about Richard. I enjoyed the setting, the mystery to be solved and most of the characters inside the pages.
GET IT HERE:
This story had it all – dangerous quest, magic academy, drama and intrigue – perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying and Pretty Little Liars.
Alice wanted to study at Welkin – the Spherical Magic Academy to create magic objects. Her dream is coming true.
She takes the place of a missing girl, lives in her room, studies according to her schedule, and takes part in an exciting game.
Here she meets her rivals. Mysterious, unpredictable and dangerous.
They are all lying.
Who’s hiding behind the masks of humans? Friends? Enemies? Monsters?
Alice doesn’t know.
The answer is in the game. What started as an interesting adventure turns into a struggle for survival.
Each round is a dangerous test, a challenge to test human capabilities. Alice gets control of the cards, and has to solve the secret hidden in them, and not let her opponents take them away – but they will use all methods available to them.
When playing, it’s important to remember that the monster is already in the academy.
Everyone will meet the monster, even if the monster lives inside.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Diana Shafran
Diana Shafran is a fantasy, young adult author. She has been writing books for more than ten years. Her professional background is that of an economist, but her real mission is to open her reader’s minds to the world of magic. Her books are a ticket to the fantasy world, where there are complex puzzles, dangerous games, complicated relationships, and friendships that can overcome anything.
In a real life, Di wears sweaters with cute animals on them. She is too shy to be in big groups of people. She loves lattes and fresh pastries.
Di herself couldn’t stand an hour as a character in one of her books. But she loves creating them and watching as their adventures unfold.
Di currently lives in city, spending all her time in home, while creating new magic worlds.
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Looking for book recs…
Adventures in Literature 
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