A review by octavia_cade
A Handful of Ashes by Garth Nix

adventurous fast-paced

2.0

I like a lot of Nix's work, but this one just didn't do it for me I'm afraid. I enjoyed the concept, in which several poor students from a magical college are bullied by their wealthier brethren, and have to find a way to escape the curse set upon them in order to complete their education. It's a great idea, with a sympathetic protagonist and an interesting beginning, but it all fell apart in the second half for me, and I think it's down to the form. This is, I believe, a novelette, but it might have done better expanded to novella length, because there's just so much crammed in that it begins to feel as if it's less a story than a bullet point list of actions. Or if not bullet points, then an outline in story form. 

I would genuinely like to read a longer version of this, but as I said: the current length is doing this story no favours.