#and I Know thats not a canon detail 🙄 but like its very clear in the story hes a puritan (16/17th century) think on it a lil bit

[pcktknife]

some of the tags/notes on the smash or pass belos post ooo I've never been so disappointed

[bnncat]

Just finished the book and i have a lot of Thoughts™: [spoilers ahead]

The mage had so much potential. He couldve been such a great villain. I think he shouldve been a morally-ambiguous-super-charismatic-politician-strict-father-figure character. I guess the morally ambiguous politician part is kind of canon but he felt more evil than that, i wouldve prefered him to like.. be a guy w really big dreams abt equality in the magic world but also power hungry and corrupt.

And the book really tries to convince you that he’s charismatic but in the brief scenes he’s actually in he mostly comes off as a smarmy ass so nope. He really shouldve been more charismatic and likeable also bc its pretty hard to trust a character when the only one who doesnt think he’s secretly evil is simon.

Also simon and the mage shouldve had a fleshed out father-son relationship with the mage being a strict and distant father figure but also a weirdy supportive one (perhaps in a manipulative way).

Anyways yeah what im trying to say is that he couldve been a really compelling character but he just ended up being an obvious badly executed cartoon villain with half an attempt to give him depth.

Oh and i know i already rambled about it but the worldbuilding🙄🙄🙄 i definitely think its possible to make a good harry potter ripoff . Like if the story started in a similar setting (which it did) but then fleshed everything out with, like, details and stuff, the attempts at subversion couldve worked.

But really it felt like the author assumed the readers know hp so they can fill in the details on their own, which to be fair i did, but it reallt sucked the life out of the world. None of the places in the story are memorable or even easy to describe because there are so little descriptions.

A lot of important info was just kinda thrown at the reader in the first 100 pages which felt like the author saying “oh u know this plot point from hp so ill just mention it here and youll get what i mean” but it makes everything feel weird

Generally i can excuse sloppy unoriginal worldbuilding when it has very clear vibes. But this book d i d n o t. I kid you not THE WORLD IN THIS BOOK HAS ZERO VIBES. its such a weird mess of harry potter and technology amd modern references and ₪?).?).?).). You really just dont get a feel for the vibes and its only exacerbated by the lack of dscriptions. Baz’s character is kind of a vibe on his own so scenes with him had a little more flavor but still. Horrible worldbuilding.

Now for the characters: baz is great, simon is bland, penny is cute and agatha is boring. I’ll elaborate,,,

Baz is a really cool interesting character and he was pretty well executed.

Simon wasnt bad per se but he just comes off as very bland. I like how the story kind of delved about the consequences of growing up as the chosen one but i really think it couldve delved deeper into that concept bc it was kind of the only interesting thing about simon. I really wanted to see the stress of expectations effecting him i guess.

I really like penny and her friendship w simon is really sweet but i wish she were more fleshed out. Idk she just wasnt flawed enough but perhaps im nitpicking bc she was an enjoyable character.

Agatha was boring but also she wasnt bad or anything. I kinda get her actions around simon bc their relationship just sucked. But her POVs were so fucking boring

Ok so now my favorite part of the book which is the romance. Not much to say here but the buildup was great and the pay off was great, just a really solid enemies to lovers romance. I wouldve liked to see simon and baz figuring out their relationship more in the epilogue bc it seems like they went kinda abruptly from still bickering and rude to just sweet. Idk i think it shouldve been in the middle.

Anyways thats it i dont think anyone is going to read this and also there are so many typos that im too lazy to fix. Also u bet your ass that im gonna read to next book bc i dont spend 20 minutes writing angry reviews abt books i don’t enjoy.

So yeah quality wise this book is a 4/10 but enjoyment wise its a straight 9/10

Currently reading carry on & the plot and worldbuilding is such a mess holy shit. It feels like badly executed harry potter fanfiction and its trying to change things up but the plot twists are either stupid or really predictable. The romance is kinda good tho i might keep reading just brcause of it