This book wasn't too bad, but it's not gaining a spot as one of my favorites. I imagine at some point I'll read on on the series, but I'm in no rush right now. I feel like this book was a slow burn. It had potential but didn't quite reach it. If not for the epilogue, I don't think I'd want to read more of this series.

*I received a copy of this book for free. The review is my own, honest and unsolicited. ( )

This is simply a fantastic read. Evander and Brooke are abducted from their ordinary human lives on earth and taken through portals into another realm in order to protect them from evil demons and dark realmers. (And can I just say I was a Brooke and Arantay shipper from that first entrancement scene? Yes, please.)

Collins’ world-building is top-notch. You get a universe packed with supernaturals of every sort, the evil, the ones fighting evil, and the lovely gray area in between. Every realm is wickedly creative, deadly and completely un-earthlike. As Evan and Brooke work to develop their magical powers at demon-fighting school (this book will appeal to anyone who loves boarding school-type series like Harry Potter and always wanted more fight scenes and awesome weaponry—the action scenes are amazing) they develop new friendships and potential romances. And as I write that, it’s easy to make a comparison and say “oh this has similarities to (blank) but really, it’s a completely original, fully-fleshed world that feels like you could open your eyes and picture it swirling all around you. The author does a great job in vivid descriptions, world-building and detail. One of the best-described fantasy worlds I’ve read this year.

There’s everything you would expect in a fortress filled with teen supernaturals learning to use their powers for the first time—including power struggles, friend groups, and drama. Classes and weapons/magic training all have a completely new spin. The whispers about “what is Arantay, really?” and wistful, slightly creepy dreams were snuck in nicely. You would think in a school filled with vamps, zombies and demons, whatever he was couldn’t be THAT big a deal, so that they were all freaked out really amped up the tension in addition to Brooke’s attraction. But all may not be well. Evan still seems to be in danger, from forces that no one can explain, and as the attacks continue, will they be able to identify who is behind them before he is abducted or killed?

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. ( )

I received this book as a part of Member Giveaway on LibraryThing in exchange for my honest opinion.

Good Lord. I started this review over a year ago, got about 20% in, and never finished it. I set it to "hibernating" as a status while I figured out whether I wanted to push through it. I have decided to dnf, as every time I think about trying to pick it up again, I become exhausted and defeated at the thought. I wouldn't even bother doing a review, except that I had already written much of this up, I owe a review in exchange for receiving this for free, and when I dnf a book or give it 1 star I like to be as explicit as possible about why so it is clear it was not an arbitrary decision. Whether or not others agree with my assessment, there is at least no mistaking that for me personally I had a multitude of issues to justify that rating. This will be a review of all the notes I had taken up to this point. Despite only getting 20% through, my notes are significant.

A couple years ago, I was very into doing the LibraryThing Giveaways, and this was the second-to-the-last book from the batch I had that was still waiting in my review queue. For various reasons, I chose to read this one next, even though the other one had been waiting longer.

I must tell you that I felt a little trepidation because it was clearly young adult, it was clearly fantasy, it was clearly about magic, it was clearly about some secret world, it was clearly overcompensating in the available monsters by including even aliens, it was clearly trying to take after Harry Potter. So many of the books I had read around that time with these basic attributes had disappointed me to my core. This book was no exception to that rule.

First, we have Evanson Umbra. (A decidedly odd name that was obviously begging for fanciful explanation, but if there was one, I didn't read far enough to find out.) He is an orphaned, plain-looking young man with one "interesting" characteristic about his face (his eyes have red "shards" in among the gray) who blames himself for his grandmother's recent death (but, of course, then we learn she's not even his real grandmother, he just calls her that, because he has to be an orphan in the extremest, most pitiful sense LOL). He can do and see things he can't understand or explain, is hunted by an evil person because he is doubly special (he is both special because he was born a demon hunter, but of course is special to the extreme in that his magical powers are unusual in their nature, particularly since they are very strong but also hard to detect), and is given an invitation to a special school for learning demon hunting skills.

Uh.

That's pretty Harry Potter. I am not opposed to books riding on the coat tails of other books, I just wish that so many young adult fantasies I have read lately weren't trying to reinterpret the Harry Potter series. (Though most of the time, I don't think authors even realize they're doing it because the Harry Potter series is so ingrained in society by this point OR the author is somehow convinced that their spin on this overdone scenario will be different, more intriguing, or stand out. So far, none of these coat tail-y books have ever stood out for me, either because the stories had promised but were not executed well or the stories were just not great to begin with.)

Then there is Brooke Carn, our other protagonist. She is not an orphan, but is of course from a broken family that ignores her (except for her brother who possibly abused her—I didn't read enough to find out for sure). Like Evan, she can see things she can't explain and seems special in the extreme in that she is less affected by one of the Venator's abilities (I think because he is a vampire with the ability to affect people's emotions, but again I didn't read enough to find out).

The first 12% is about the Arch-Realmers (high-level Venators) getting Brooke and Evan to the safety of the Veneseron Fortress, which is five white "orcish" (whatever that means—my only references for that are the game World of Warcraft and the Lord of the Rings movies, so in my mind it became a combination of Orgrimmar and Barad-dûr that is all white instead of black or camo colors) castles connected together by bridges and surrounded by a field and a forest. Oh, and for some reason there is a VAST CITY (which is later described as "the greatest city in all the realms") that Brooke doesn't notice until the next morning—why she couldn't see this enormous city from the field she was standing in, I have no idea. Getting them to safety requires lots of gruesome demon hunting and portal taking.

Once there, everything is explained to them about what the school is and they have one week to decide if they want to stay. If they don't stay, their memories are wiped and their magical abilities are dulled with a computer chip that is placed in their arm (why this method of tamping down memories is technology-based and not MAGIC-based I have no idea). If they do stay, they will be trained in the art of demon hunting so they can go on missions to protect humans from that danger. Additionally, Brooke learns that if she stays at the school, she could return to Earth visit her family (who would have their memories altered to think she is at a boarding school) once per month. (Evan has no family on Earth to return to so this is moot where he is concerned.)

So far, Brooke and Evan haven't met each other.

Evan has no qualms about leaving Earth behind and joining the demon hunters because anything is better than his old life, no one on Earth would miss him, and he has secretly always harbored the hope (demonstrated by his story-writing) that there is "something" more. He wants to be heroic, have a purpose. Brooke is less-accepting and more fearful about it all.

This is when the story starts to get hard to follow. There was a lot of jumping around. I almost would have appreciated entire chapters based on the perspective of a character. Once I realized how convoluted this would become, I stopped reading.

If a book requires me to create a OneNote file to keep track of plot points, characters, relationships, magical nuances, monsters, bad writing, liberties taken, etc., I lose interest quickly. It's not worth my time, nor is it enjoyable. To give you an idea of what I mean by this, here are all the notes I took of this nature up until that 20% mark when I gave up. I knew it wouldn't get any better or more cohesive.

Among any weirdness I already noted above, here are some other points of interest I highlighted along the way. Not included here are the too-numerous-to-bother-examining-individually sentences/exchanges with unfortunate structure that made them difficult to understand.

LIBERTIES TAKEN WITH MONSTERS

In this book, harpies are "winged snakes spliced with mermaids." Whu... In every "encounter" I've had with harpies from other books to gaming, they look like humans with clawed feet, winged arms, a human female head, and they are feathered all over (think like large flying chicken with a human woman's head).

I guess orcs can be vampires, creating "orc vampires." Or is it vampires turning into orcs?

Oh, and there are slug dragons, which I sincerely hoped they would have to battle, but never did before I stopped reading.

I... don't get these bizarre hybrids. Thinking on it now, I don't really know that there are any actual demons in this book; rather, the "demons" are just a bunch of mythical beasts that don't quite look like their traditional mythology would dictate. None of this is really explained (at least up to the point I stopped reading). I don't know if the author is implying that ALL mythological creatures (especially the scary ones) are demons or that mythological creatures become demons when they are made into hybrids or...? It just felt like another strained attempt to make this world different from other books. It backfired for me because it was a complication that wasn't necessary (these monsters are terrifying enough without having to be crossbred or whatever!), it was distracting because I had to keep trying to picture these in my head rather than just conjuring up a dragon or an orc or a vampire, and it brought up more holes in the world-building.

And don't even get me started on the shapeshifters. I have read many books with shapeshifters, but this is the first time I've encountered the word "were" being used for anything other than werewolves. In this book, the prefix "were" is used to designate shapeshifting in general. I did look this up, and (assuming Wikipedia is right) it does appear that "were" doesn't have to just be associated with werewolves, it is really a generic term to indicate basically "a human man or woman turning into something else," it is just the most common variation we see of the use of that prefix.

So, in this book there are "werebulls" and "wereleopards" and "werepanthers" and "werelizards," all of which are painstakingly described with "were" in front of them every time they appeared as though I would forget that they are not a real bull or leopard or panther or lizard. Though, it isn't consistent, either—eventually, the author gets tired of it during a fight scene, so then they are being referred to inconsistently. I just think it's a distinction that we could have done without. Especially since, apparently, the actual werewolves are somehow grouped separately from all the other shapeshifters in their own clans??

It also wasn't clear whether the shapeshifting is only confined to humans (and thus making them "demons"?) or whether there are... some other creatures who do this (and, if so, what are they when they aren't shifted?).

RANDOM NOTE I TOOK

This doesn't really belong anywhere else, but I am leaving it in because it was a thought I had:

Arantay held Brooke tight. Hi chest was cold and hard as stone.

After reading that, all I could think was, "Oh, dear God, please don't let this enter Twilight territory."

INCONSISTENCIES IN WORLD-BUILDING

As I understand it, all Venators (someone who has been trained at Veneseron Fortress school) are Realmers (someone who can travel between worlds), but not all Realmers are Venators).

What I don't understand, is why these terms are used interchangeably in this book 1) at all and 2) if they are, inconsistently.

If "Venator" is more specific to the school rather than random people/creatures who can travel between realms, why don't they call the high-level Venators "Arch-Venators" and "Mid-Venators," rather than "Arch-Realmers" and "Mid-Realmers"?

For that matter, it is not clear to me whether "Dark-Venators" is another term for "Dark-Realmers" or if those are two different things! And, if they are two different things, then what does that mean for the whole Arch-Realmer/Venator thing?

And, if "Realmer" is a colloquial term used by beings in the other worlds to refer to those who go between the worlds, how did ALL of the other people in ALL of the other worlds arrive at the same term and therefore use it "colloquially"? Their use of this term indicates that not everyone can travel between worlds, so how would these other worlds have been exposed to each other and therefore learn the term "Realmer" from each other during casual interaction? I guess realmers who aren't venators could have traveled to those other worlds and brought the term back and somehow it spread consistently that way, but it still doesn't really explain it.

These types of inconsistencies and gaps in vocabulary are typical of these books that feel they have to create an overly complicated world with overly complicated and overly interconnected things. I just... I don't understand why there has to be two terms for everything. I understand trying to create a world, I just think it is not done carefully enough and so many times there are parts that are not explained to the reader. Things have to match and work together to form a cohesive and consistent picture to the audience who is not inside the author's head, and too many authors forget that we don't have all the information they do (similar issue to Witch’s Reign).

STRANGE DESCRIPTIONS & PHRASES

I understand the desire to create atmosphere, but sometimes this book is a little trying-too-hard, both with creatively describing things like snow repeatedly that we're already pretty familiar with or in trying to make things seem magical/mysterious/strange.

"Innate Feeling"

The way this was used didn't sit well with me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why. At first I thought that it was just redundant because feelings are innate by nature, but that wasn't it. I then considered whether you could have feelings that aren't innate, but that wasn't it, either. Further, I considered that innate things are more like knowledge or know-how or abilities you are born with, not feelings or intuition. Finally, I discussed with a friend, and who very insightfully clarified it this way: "The ability to have feelings is innate, but the feelings themselves are not—if they were, they wouldn't change and you would always feel the same way about the same thing/person/occasion." I guess it could be argued that the feeling Evan had upon seeing the creature for the first time wouldn't change (thereby making that feeling "innate"), but:

1) We can't guarantee he would always feel dread around it

2) I don't think that is what the author meant

3) Even if that is what the author meant, the context in which the word "innate" is used there is still incorrect

"Imagined Worlds"

This is the title of the first chapter. But, Evan and Brooke never imagined them in their heads before knowing they are real, and, if they are real, then they aren't imagined. So, I don't get it.

"Too Red Like Clotted Blood"

To me, clotted blood is dark and to me if something is "too red" then it would be a bright Christmas-y red, not a gory almost-black red. So, this didn't work for me.
Tongue Piercing

Brooke describes seeing "what looked like a tongue piercing" and I guess the idea is that she saw it when Lok laughed? But, I just can't imagine that because she wasn't that close to Lok and when you laugh your tongue goes deeper into your mouth, which would hide it more.

Evan's "Mist"

I couldn't wait for this to finally be explained, mostly because I was tired of the descriptions of Evan being puzzled when it shows up and "seems" to be coming from him. One time, Evan even finally realizes it's coming from him, then when it does it again later he says it's "strange that the mist appeared to emanate from his body"! *beats head against wall*

"Bizarrely Hollow" Stomach

I know Evan was shot and maybe this is supposed to emphasize the literal "hole" in his stomach due to that, but it just made no sense to me. What would be “bizarrely hollow” is if he had just eaten and been super-full, then all of a sudden his stomach felt empty like he hadn’t eaten for days.

Action Sequences Difficult to Imagine

At one point, Evan "regains his balance by using the merry-go-round" to push himself off the ground and keep running. But, right before then, he had tripped over a fence and landed on the ground. If he was close enough after that fall to use the merry-go-around as leverage, how did he not hit the merry-go-round when he fell and knock himself out or hurt himself otherwise?

As Evan kicked wildly, he accidentally punted Ollie's disembodied head. It sailed off the monster's leg and landed on the park's slide.

I am all for comedic gore, but it has to make sense. I couldn't picture how this would work in my head. First, if you punt something, it is implied that it sails away, not that it bounces off something. Further, I'm not sure how it could get caught by one of the monster's legs at all, and after that continue to have enough momentum to fly across the park?

"Untamed Savageness"

Along the lines of the whole "innate feeling" thing, over and over the author used a redundant methodology of describing things by putting antonyms together, then altering the first one so it is then a synonym of the second word. "Untamed savageness" is a good example of this. If you are savage, then you are untamed! They mean the same thing and conjure the same mental image! That isn't expounding on what it is like, it is just describing it redundantly, which doesn't really enhance anything.

"Buildings So Huge and Yet So Beautiful"

This is meant to indicate Brooke's wonder of the city, but *I* could only wonder why Brooke would think a building being big would preclude it from being beautiful. Makes no sense.

"Feeling No Qualms"

Kurrlan felt no qualms killing him; he'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was all.

Usually if you "feel no qualms" about hurting someone, it's because in your mind they deserved it by doing something wrong, NOT that they were just an innocent bystander (under those circumstances, you WOULD feel qualms about it). Plus, it's just a weird thing to say about an antagonist who obviously wouldn't feel any qualms about killing anyone, no matter the circumstances. I just. UGHHHHH.

All that said, though, sort of like with The Zombie Doctor, when the descriptions and phrases worked, they really worked and were very entertaining in the visuals they created. A few examples where I felt this was done well:

The smoke of Ollie's cigarette lingered about his nostrils, furthering his resemblance to an angry bull.

The hail had morphed into heavy clumps of snow that splattered onto the ground, lighting the garden with a ghostly sheen.

His face was deeply scarred, as if an infant had been given a pen and put it to paper for the first time.

UNEXPLAINED PROLOGUE

There is a prologue with a letter from a special school letting a prospective student know they have now been accepted (very Harry Potter-esque). Except that no letter of this kind is mentioned in the story as being relevant. In fact, neither of the children in this book were given such a letter! Instead, the Arch-Realmers had to rescue these kids before they were discovered by demons and get them to Veneseron safely (reminiscent of the Protectors from the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series) and it kind of sounded like that was the norm for all children brought there, so what was the point of the letter at all? Plus, at the end, there is a post-script that says:

(P. S. Please specify at the front desk whether you're arriving by Airship, Alien craft, Bubble-sphere, or other means.)

I... don't get this. It makes it sound like you are supposed to go to the front desk of the SCHOOL to convey this information, but:

1. If you are already at the school you wouldn't need to convey this information to the school
2. If you aren't at the school already you wouldn't have access to that front desk to tell them this information
3. It is implied with what Evan goes through in the beginning that most kids going to the school don't get there on their own they are escorted there by protectors
4. Even if one had to get there on their own how would you even know how to book an appropriate airship, alien craft, or bubble-sphere??

I kept hoping this would be explained later, but I couldn't get that far.

“HELPFUL” PRONUNCIATION OF "VENATOR"

For some reason, it is detailed that "Venator" is pronounced ver-nay-ter, but it is v-e-n not v-e-r-n, so I have no idea. See my review of Sign of the Symean for my general notes on how to helpfully include pronunciations.

As with most fantasy young adult books I've been reading lately, this had potential but there are just too many faults for me; however, I could see a lot of other people liking it. If you did, I would also suggest:

• Sign of the Symean by R. A. Lindo
o I was not overly fond of this one either, but it is worth others exploring

• Dickensen Academy by Christine Grabowski
o I liked this one a lot.

• Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce
o First book in a new series that expands on a character from her Tortall universe who appears in the Circle of Magic series and her Immortals series, both of which I would also recommend if you liked A Darker Shade of Sorcery. ( )

William Collins grabbed my attention from the first chapter. Collins tells the story of magic wielding persons from all realms, of a school to teach young people how to tap into and use their magic to battle the evils in the universe. We start off slow and mysterious, and culminate in a huge battle at the end. I can't wait to read the next book in the series! ( )

I haven't read a ton of fantasy in the past but I am trying to expand my horizons. I really enjoyed this book. Even though it is a story of fantasy it still had relatable characters. The plot, setting and characters were all really interesting and creative. It is an easy read and as soon as I finished the book I was eager for the story to continue.