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sarahmfz09's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
ehparrish's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
thatonebookdragon's review
4.0
“Librarians can be very dangerous creatures. It’s not merely that they know where knowledge lives; it’s that they possess a second voice that, when they choose to use it, coaxes out your deepest secrets.” ~Corazon in The Spirit Glass by Roshani Chokshi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Pain is the price we pay to live.”
There are so many quotes in this book that has found a place in my heart. The Spirit Glass is a beautifully blended tale with Filipino mythology and family history and stories.
Corazon is prepared to become a Babaylan in the hopes to bring her parents back to life after they tragically died three years before. However, after her soul key is stolen, she must go one a quest to make a new one, unlock her powers, and fix the unbalance between the spirit and mortal realms. But, on her quest with her anito, spirit companion, Saso the blood thirsty gecko and her new ghost friend, Corazon learns the truth about the ghost she chases and the secrets of her powers.
I highly recommend this book. It is a tale with twists that may leave you crying. Corazon is a spirited girl who is determined to bring back her parents. She isn’t fearless, but knows that if she doesn’t do this quest that the consequences would be severe. Saso was by far my favorite character! He was hilarious and there were many times I laughed out loud because of his sudden reactions.
Add this to your never ending TBR! You won’t regret it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Pain is the price we pay to live.”
There are so many quotes in this book that has found a place in my heart. The Spirit Glass is a beautifully blended tale with Filipino mythology and family history and stories.
Corazon is prepared to become a Babaylan in the hopes to bring her parents back to life after they tragically died three years before. However, after her soul key is stolen, she must go one a quest to make a new one, unlock her powers, and fix the unbalance between the spirit and mortal realms. But, on her quest with her anito, spirit companion, Saso the blood thirsty gecko and her new ghost friend, Corazon learns the truth about the ghost she chases and the secrets of her powers.
I highly recommend this book. It is a tale with twists that may leave you crying. Corazon is a spirited girl who is determined to bring back her parents. She isn’t fearless, but knows that if she doesn’t do this quest that the consequences would be severe. Saso was by far my favorite character! He was hilarious and there were many times I laughed out loud because of his sudden reactions.
Add this to your never ending TBR! You won’t regret it.
breezyjean's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
elizbiz's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
sagun_shrestha's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I have complicated feelings about this book-
I will start off by saying that the writing is perfection, as expected of Rosh— she weaves magic into books and its always thrilling to read!
However, I was dragging myself to read this book for quite some time— I was stuck at the 30% mark for a while, and paused the book to read something else and only revisited it recently.
I will say I wasn’t very captured in the beginning- its very obvious that the true appeal of the story is in between the lines- the backstories of the main characters and the things that aren’t quite revealed yet- and it does take a WHILE to get there; I wasn’t very interested with the quest aspect of the story unfortunately
I will say that I loved the twist with Leo’s story, and the ending is absolutely amazing! You see Tina in a whole new light and it was a great end to the story as it tied everything up perfectly.
I will start off by saying that the writing is perfection, as expected of Rosh— she weaves magic into books and its always thrilling to read!
However, I was dragging myself to read this book for quite some time— I was stuck at the 30% mark for a while, and paused the book to read something else and only revisited it recently.
I will say I wasn’t very captured in the beginning- its very obvious that the true appeal of the story is in between the lines- the backstories of the main characters and the things that aren’t quite revealed yet- and it does take a WHILE to get there; I wasn’t very interested with the quest aspect of the story unfortunately
I will say that I loved the twist with Leo’s story, and the ending is absolutely amazing! You see Tina in a whole new light and it was a great end to the story as it tied everything up perfectly.
evamadera1's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book so much. While I found Chokshi's Aru Shah series enjoyable, I vastly prefer Corazon to Aru. I also loved the exploration of Filipino culture. This book focused more on Corazon's character development, her journey through grief than the fantastical elements, a welcome diversion for the typical elements I mentioned in my review of Dawn of the Jaguar. Chokshi wove all the elements together quite well in a single volume. I loved this story, especially Corazon's animal companion.
erinsbookshelves's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
dandelionsteph's review
I almost always like books under the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, and I really liked the Aru Shah series, so I figured I'd like this book. Unfortunately, I did not. While the setting of babaylans (from context, apparently shamans/witch doctors) and the spirit world was interesting, I wasn't able to go very far because of its writing style.
The writing style felt surprisingly amateurish, like fanfiction written by a 13-year-old, for multiple reasons. Firstly, there was a lot of "telling" (direct statements in the narrative), rather than "showing" (conveying something through dialogue, imagery or context). While telling is at times justified, its frequency and duration distracted from the narrative. For the sake of fairness, I inspected an Aru Shah book sample for telling-not-showing: Chapter 7 of Book 3, Page 1-2: "Aru couldn't help herself. She was jealous again[...]Was she so bad at being a Pandava that her own soul dad wouldn't stick up for her?" 3 out of the 10 sentences in this passage contain worldbuilding details from Indian mythology/religion that might be hard to fit elsewhere, given the sheer amount of mythological context needed to understand the references. That series often has "telling" when it concerns the mythological details, although at times it's conveyed outside of narration or dialogue in a "Pope in the Pool" (https://savethecat.com/tips-and-tactics/swimming-with-the-pope-in-the-pool) sequence of imaginative imagery.
In contrast, in The Spirit Glass, even things that would be quick and easy to convey in-story are conveyed through narration. In fact, sometimes information is conveyed in a redundant way: on Page 26, information is given that Tina's magic is powerful and graceful and Corazon's magic is clumsy and weak even after this was established by the showing technique on Pages 1-2. Sometimes the instances of "telling" accomplished nothing, to the point they could have quickly been edited out by a line editor.
In addition, the sentences frequently feel choppy and, occasionally, awkwardly-phrased. While Saso might have been an easy way to more naturally provide exposition or character personality details via dialogue with Corazon, more often than not, Saso functions as extraneous comic relief.
The writing style felt surprisingly amateurish, like fanfiction written by a 13-year-old, for multiple reasons. Firstly, there was a lot of "telling" (direct statements in the narrative), rather than "showing" (conveying something through dialogue, imagery or context). While telling is at times justified, its frequency and duration distracted from the narrative. For the sake of fairness, I inspected an Aru Shah book sample for telling-not-showing: Chapter 7 of Book 3, Page 1-2: "Aru couldn't help herself. She was jealous again[...]Was she so bad at being a Pandava that her own soul dad wouldn't stick up for her?" 3 out of the 10 sentences in this passage contain worldbuilding details from Indian mythology/religion that might be hard to fit elsewhere, given the sheer amount of mythological context needed to understand the references. That series often has "telling" when it concerns the mythological details, although at times it's conveyed outside of narration or dialogue in a "Pope in the Pool" (https://savethecat.com/tips-and-tactics/swimming-with-the-pope-in-the-pool) sequence of imaginative imagery.
In contrast, in The Spirit Glass, even things that would be quick and easy to convey in-story are conveyed through narration. In fact, sometimes information is conveyed in a redundant way: on Page 26, information is given that Tina's magic is powerful and graceful and Corazon's magic is clumsy and weak even after this was established by the showing technique on Pages 1-2. Sometimes the instances of "telling" accomplished nothing, to the point they could have quickly been edited out by a line editor.
In addition, the sentences frequently feel choppy and, occasionally, awkwardly-phrased. While Saso might have been an easy way to more naturally provide exposition or character personality details via dialogue with Corazon, more often than not, Saso functions as extraneous comic relief.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death