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readaloud_mom's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Okay, so I really, really wanted to love this book (and I think it is my kid's absolute favorite out of this series, it keeps appearing in many different places around the house), but most of this "review" is actually going to be me screaming into the void about how upsetting I find one of the subplots. (If you don't mind uneven power differentials in fictional romantic subplots, you should probably ignore me, 'cause I am in fact VERY EXCESSIVELY PICKY about romantic subplots.)
I like that gender-noncomforming Aster is making progress on becoming a witch, and that specifically his WLW (lesbian?) aunts are specifically being kinda weird and bigoted about that - it feels very much like the gender-essentialism gatekeeping that can happen within queer commmunities. Would have liked to see that explored more, but it turns out to mostly be driving the plot of why Aster needs Granny to help tutor him.
BUT WHAT, we have a new character who is super Goth and coded Hispanic and lives in a foster home (and is clearly a witch). Charlie is Welcoming To The New Student, and then pretty much instantly gets suuuuuper invested in Ariel on extremely limited aquaintance? It's not clear in this book whether Charlie is being Nice!!! because she's Nice!!! to everyone or whether she's being influenced by a massive crush on Ariel; but MASSIVE SPOILER the third book in the series implies that mutual crushing IS going on by that time, so probably that's an element here. Meanwhile, Ariel also promptly gets waaaaaaaay too invested in Charlie and instantly become massively possessive in abusive ways. (And by abusive, I'm not even just talking about emotional abuse! THERE WAS DIRECT PHYSICAL ABUSE RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE! OK, so the physical attack was via evil shadow magic, not actually at Ariel's own hands, and there's any plausible deniability that she didn't know the shadow-entity would interpret "give her a scare" as a directive for violence... but if we actually step back and look at it, Ariel still caused Charlie physical harm WITHIN 24 HOURS OF FIRST MEETING HER.) Charlie DOES set some boundaries about this ("You can't own me"), but the whole dynamic made me massively uncomfortable and I do not feel like it was ever properly addressed. There are a few hints in this book (and more in the next book) that Charlie and Ariel might become a couple, and I just... I really want to see more f/f relationships in MG, but I cannot ship these two. "Ariel hurt Charlie within 24 hours of meeting her and then almost killed herself within, like, a week" is not a healthy start to a relationship, and I do not actually buy the narrative that well-adjusted Charlie is Totally Fine!!! about all this now and isn't going to have "Ariel hurts people, sometimes a lot - but I love her and helped save her life, so now I feel responsible for managing that!" hanging over alllllll future interactions. Ariel has her reasons for being messed up, and I'm glad she survived and I'm absolutely rooting for her to figure out her shit and learn how to be a responsible human, but I do not think that Charlie can possibly offer enough Love & Understanding to "fix" things, and any attempt to have an actual relationship at this point has a 99% chance of turning into a codependent mess. :( Call me a cynical adult (who also fucking hates Twilight) - but this is not the relationship messaging that I want MG readers (straight or queer) to be absorbing.
FOR THE RECORD, tho, I am in fact a cynical demisexual adult who hated Twilight and also hates approximately 90% of all romantic subplots in any genre because I am extremely picky like that - and I do in fact support people's right to have escapist fantasy about all kinds of stuff that they wouldn't actually enjoy in real life, 'CAUSE IT'S FICTION. So, you know, it's not like the Ariel and Charlie dynamic is actually any worse than loads of other pop culture stuff! YMMV for sure!
Oh, also some other stuff happens, like the Big Bad from Book 1 being Redeemed by Death. And one of the cousins has a pretty interesting subplot about how he's too traumatized by Book 1 to enjoy being a shifter anymore, so he wants to go to school with the muggles now! And also we get to actually SEE Charlie's two dads as minor side characters, which is nice! And Aster and Charlie and Aster's parents and assorted other characters continue to be extremely loveable. <3
I like that gender-noncomforming Aster is making progress on becoming a witch, and that specifically his WLW (lesbian?) aunts are specifically being kinda weird and bigoted about that - it feels very much like the gender-essentialism gatekeeping that can happen within queer commmunities. Would have liked to see that explored more, but it turns out to mostly be driving the plot of why Aster needs Granny to help tutor him.
BUT WHAT, we have a new character who is super Goth and coded Hispanic and lives in a foster home (and is clearly a witch). Charlie is Welcoming To The New Student, and then pretty much instantly gets suuuuuper invested in Ariel on extremely limited aquaintance? It's not clear in this book whether Charlie is being Nice!!! because she's Nice!!! to everyone or whether she's being influenced by a massive crush on Ariel; but MASSIVE SPOILER the third book in the series implies that mutual crushing IS going on by that time, so probably that's an element here. Meanwhile, Ariel also promptly gets waaaaaaaay too invested in Charlie and instantly become massively possessive in abusive ways. (And by abusive, I'm not even just talking about emotional abuse! THERE WAS DIRECT PHYSICAL ABUSE RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE! OK, so the physical attack was via evil shadow magic, not actually at Ariel's own hands, and there's any plausible deniability that she didn't know the shadow-entity would interpret "give her a scare" as a directive for violence... but if we actually step back and look at it, Ariel still caused Charlie physical harm WITHIN 24 HOURS OF FIRST MEETING HER.) Charlie DOES set some boundaries about this ("You can't own me"), but the whole dynamic made me massively uncomfortable and I do not feel like it was ever properly addressed. There are a few hints in this book (and more in the next book) that Charlie and Ariel might become a couple, and I just... I really want to see more f/f relationships in MG, but I cannot ship these two. "Ariel hurt Charlie within 24 hours of meeting her and then almost killed herself within, like, a week" is not a healthy start to a relationship, and I do not actually buy the narrative that well-adjusted Charlie is Totally Fine!!! about all this now and isn't going to have "Ariel hurts people, sometimes a lot - but I love her and helped save her life, so now I feel responsible for managing that!" hanging over alllllll future interactions. Ariel has her reasons for being messed up, and I'm glad she survived and I'm absolutely rooting for her to figure out her shit and learn how to be a responsible human, but I do not think that Charlie can possibly offer enough Love & Understanding to "fix" things, and any attempt to have an actual relationship at this point has a 99% chance of turning into a codependent mess. :( Call me a cynical adult (who also fucking hates Twilight) - but this is not the relationship messaging that I want MG readers (straight or queer) to be absorbing.
FOR THE RECORD, tho, I am in fact a cynical demisexual adult who hated Twilight and also hates approximately 90% of all romantic subplots in any genre because I am extremely picky like that - and I do in fact support people's right to have escapist fantasy about all kinds of stuff that they wouldn't actually enjoy in real life, 'CAUSE IT'S FICTION. So, you know, it's not like the Ariel and Charlie dynamic is actually any worse than loads of other pop culture stuff! YMMV for sure!
Oh, also some other stuff happens, like the Big Bad from Book 1 being Redeemed by Death. And one of the cousins has a pretty interesting subplot about how he's too traumatized by Book 1 to enjoy being a shifter anymore, so he wants to go to school with the muggles now! And also we get to actually SEE Charlie's two dads as minor side characters, which is nice! And Aster and Charlie and Aster's parents and assorted other characters continue to be extremely loveable. <3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Confinement, Stalking, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Bullying and Abandonment
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