About book Midnight Academy: Die Traumjägerin (2014)
Style and Substance Trumps Tired ConventionsThe blurbs for this book emphasize that magical Dusty has to team up with ordinary hot guy Eli in order to enter his dreams and collect clues leading to the discovery of a murderer. That's a decent one sentence summary of the book, but it doesn't do justice to the aspects of the book that are appealing enough to keep one reading.Dusty is half magic and she powers her magic by entering into and feeding on people's dreams. When she enter's Eli's dreams she becomes connected to him, and it turns out that together they have a unique, rare and very important ability. The proper exercise of this ability is essential to foiling a threat to the entire magical community.This book has major weaknesses that more than once took me right to the edge of abandoning the book. Dusty gets all drippy over dreamy hot boy Eli. Dusty is the victim of mean girl students because she is only half magical. Dusty is both aggressively smart mouth and lamely insecure, depending on what a scene requires. Dusty's Mom had a bad reputation as a difficult student, so every single adult at Arkwell Academy takes it out on Dusty. The sniping, the mean girl snark and the melting over the hot boy just get old.But. But. This book has it all over the competition on a number of fronts that really matter. First, the magic system is deep, interesting, well thought out and unique. How magic is fed and replenished, how magickind are governed, how "the Will" controls misuse of magic, how magickind are categorized and socialized, and how they interact with ordinaries - all of this goes well beyond the "school daze" melodrama of most magic academy books. It is one of the most thorough, consistent, reasonable and workable magical worlds I've encountered, certainly in YA magical fantasy. When you add this to a plot that is actually twisty, and a murder mystery that is actually mysterious, you have something,Next, Dusty grows on you. Once we get past the obligatory stuff - insecurity, late introduction to magic, dubious family history, tendency to tick off queen bee types - and see Dusty in action she grows on you. She does end up as a critical player in a dangerous magical game and she grows into that role. She keeps up the snappy patter, (I like smart mouth teen girls), but it isn't just random, inappropriate or counterproductive.As to Eli, the melty/dreamy angle fades away as the two become a functioning team, and I guess that's the most I could have hoped for. It helps that the author has taken care to create a lot of interesting secondary characters, and they aren't just cyphers planted in the story to explain a plot point or keep things moving. There are some appealing and/or well conceived characters who add humor or menace or color or distraction or authority to the action, and that adds depth to the proceedings.So, you do get all of the worn out conventions, but you get more than a fair share of novel and interesting angles that will keep you reading. That's a fair deal.Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book. I tend to steer clear of murder mysteries mainly because I always end up second-guessing who the person is all the way through the book & not being able to enjoy the storyline but with this one I threw caution to the wind (as they say) and decided to read it since it was about a Nightmare, it was something completely new to me. I was fully expecting the same to happen with The Nightmare Affair miraculously though it didn’t; I was able to stay completely focused on the story being told without spending every second guessing. Maybe that was because I figured out who it was half-way through the book, don’t let that stop you from reading this book though because it’s not obvious in any way.This book reminded me of both Harry Potter & Veronica Mars at times (you’ll get the Veronica Mars reference towards the end of the book) but I’m not talking writing style wise more the narrative structure of the book.When I found out this was part of a series & not a stand-alone I was only intending on reading the first book – I thought we would have to wait until the last book to find out who was responsible but I was wrong - all of that was resolved in The Nightmare Affair. The other books will focus on different mysteries & I for one cannot wait to dig deeper in to the world of Arkwell’s supernatural community. I will definitely be giving The Nightmare Dilemma a go.
Do You like book Midnight Academy: Die Traumjägerin (2014)?
Все до жути очевидно и как-то тухло.
—Marissa
A clever idea and a fun story, but not life-changing.
—sind
