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A review by iffer
The Ability by M.M. Vaughan
3.0
2.5 stars
The short version...
There's nothing really new in The Ability for anyone who has read a children's magic and/or spy boarding school book before, but, in my opinion, The Ability does rather well, even if it does have a lot of the same tropes. (As an aside, yes, indeed, there are plenty of boarding school books that *aren't* Harry Potter, many of which were even written BHP - Before Harry Potter, go figure!). In a lot of ways, including the characters, The Ability was very much a first, introductory novel (and also the author's first novel), but I do think that it has potential to grow its characters, plot and world-building. All in all, I think that this would be a well-written, entertaining book that kids would like.
The longer version...
The story was engaging and entertaining enough, and despite the fact that I'm not too keen on the "The Ability" as the name for the psychic power that 12-year-olds are able to access, I think that Vaughan's idea that a child's capacity to access the Ability is limited to one year, the 12th year. I'm interested to see what happens to the children after they no longer have their "magic" powers. I think that the story could've been paced better, since it felt like no "action" happened until the very end, and then the book was over. The characters were somewhat stock and not very well developed: the main character who's a nice guy; the annoying loud kid; the shy girly girl (blond of course); the short-tempered/feisty other girl (brown coloring, of course); the geek; and the charming but goofy Spanish kid.
There are times when it seems like Vaughan is trying to make the story more realistic and ethically gray, for instance making the villain a traumatized girl who is taking revenge for being abandoned, but I don't think that her writing has yet matured enough to do so very successfully. I didn't have very much sympathy for the "villain," because she was pretty vile, nor were we provided with more detail about her past to make her a three-dimensional character. Similarly, even though we as readers are supposed to feel suspense because people are being driven insane, a fate worse than death, it really doesn't seem like a big deal, since only the distasteful people were ever affected. Not to spoil anything, but due to the events in this book, it appears that another "good" person may be driven to do "bad" things, thereby becoming the new villain. I hope that the author delves more into the complexities of these things, and develops the characters more so that this novel, which is only ok/good, can lead to a series that good/great :)
The short version...
There's nothing really new in The Ability for anyone who has read a children's magic and/or spy boarding school book before, but, in my opinion, The Ability does rather well, even if it does have a lot of the same tropes. (As an aside, yes, indeed, there are plenty of boarding school books that *aren't* Harry Potter, many of which were even written BHP - Before Harry Potter, go figure!). In a lot of ways, including the characters, The Ability was very much a first, introductory novel (and also the author's first novel), but I do think that it has potential to grow its characters, plot and world-building. All in all, I think that this would be a well-written, entertaining book that kids would like.
The longer version...
The story was engaging and entertaining enough, and despite the fact that I'm not too keen on the "The Ability" as the name for the psychic power that 12-year-olds are able to access, I think that Vaughan's idea that a child's capacity to access the Ability is limited to one year, the 12th year. I'm interested to see what happens to the children after they no longer have their "magic" powers. I think that the story could've been paced better, since it felt like no "action" happened until the very end, and then the book was over. The characters were somewhat stock and not very well developed: the main character who's a nice guy; the annoying loud kid; the shy girly girl (blond of course); the short-tempered/feisty other girl (brown coloring, of course); the geek; and the charming but goofy Spanish kid.
There are times when it seems like Vaughan is trying to make the story more realistic and ethically gray, for instance making the villain a traumatized girl who is taking revenge for being abandoned, but I don't think that her writing has yet matured enough to do so very successfully. I didn't have very much sympathy for the "villain," because she was pretty vile, nor were we provided with more detail about her past to make her a three-dimensional character. Similarly, even though we as readers are supposed to feel suspense because people are being driven insane, a fate worse than death, it really doesn't seem like a big deal, since only the distasteful people were ever affected. Not to spoil anything, but due to the events in this book, it appears that another "good" person may be driven to do "bad" things, thereby becoming the new villain. I hope that the author delves more into the complexities of these things, and develops the characters more so that this novel, which is only ok/good, can lead to a series that good/great :)