Book Information
- Title: Sorcery of Thorns
- Author: Margaret Rogerson
- Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction
- Type: Paperback
- Pages: 453
- Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
- Published in: June 4th, 2019
Stand-alone or series?
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson is a stand-alone novel.
Plot
When apprentice librarian Elisabeth Scrivener is implicated in sabotage that release the library’s most dangerous grimoire, she becomes entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy that could mean the end of everything.
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson, 2019, Impress
My Opinion
First of all, it took me ages (okay, days) to read more than the first chapter. The writing was off for me and I can’t really say, why. Later, when I took my time to properly sit down to read Sorcery of Thorns, I had more concentration and patience for this book and I managed to dive into the plot.
Which turned out to be not bad at all and very magical. I liked the world where sorcerers exist but are only able to do magic if they bound daemons to them. So, does this mean that theoretically every could practise magic? Either I’ve missed this information or nobody ever posed that question. Another theory of mine is that commoners are too scared of sorcerers, since scary stories and superstitions about them exist. So being a sorcerer is probably not the most wanted job in this world of Austermeer.
Speaking of scary sorcerers, our main character Elisabeth is a librarian apprentice, training to be a warden of the Great Library of Summershall. She got taught that sorcerers are evil and will kidnap and torture you once you got into their hands. But for what do libraries need wardens, one mights ask. Well, with Summershall being one of the five Great Libraries, it’s not a common book library, but it contains magical artefacts and books, so called grimoires. Grimoires contain daemon magic and those books might transform into proper, dangerous daemons. So these wardens exist so no sorcerer might try to free the worst of the worst daemons.
It happens as it had to happen that a high daemons gets freed at Elisabeth’s library. And the troubles start from here on.
Elisabeth, our protagonist, was a good, yet a bit shallow, character, if it wasn’t for her very stupid flaw: being very impossible to kill. Such characteristics kill the suspense when protagonists are supposedly in danger. Because then the reader knows that nothing can happen to her because she can’t get hurt. Which is boring.
Nathaniel Thorn is a very basic YA character as well, aside from being a sorcerer. Back in the day you could have fancast him with Logan Lerman, who was the average fancast actor for basically every YA book back then. That’s when you know that this book is very basic. Nathaniel is witty, has some horrible backstory and is allegedly very handsome. Dark hair, blue eyes, pale skin – I mean, come on – his character could have fit a couple of YA books I have read so far.
Last but not least, there is Nathaniel’s daemon, Silas, to mention, who shows that there is more to a stereotype. I think he was a breath of fresh air in the story and in the Elisabeth-Nathaniel team.
The pacing was off for me. There were scenes that lasted for ages and ones that were over within a blink of an eye. Which probably was the reasons why I had a feeling that the book was going on forever. It doesn’t have that many pages, yet if felt infinite. Another reason why the plot never seemed to end was because there were so many endboss scenes? If I had a graphic for the pacing it would constantly build up and fall down very fast, only to pick itself up slowly again. It was one odd book.
Last but not least, if that truly was a standalone book, why not drag out the last scene a bit longer? And why did Elisabeth never resolve the story around her strawberry jam incident? I get it, it was supposed to be a funny punchline, but at some point I felt like the author didn’t know the whole strawberry jam story either.
Conclusion
I give Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson 3 out of 5 stars. It could have become an outstanding 5 stars book, yet if failed me when it comes to the plot and its pacing.
BLATTZIRKUS 