Rashika, The Book Owl

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

This book was a delight to read and the best thing about it is that I hadn’t even read the Falling Kingdoms series but I still managed to follow along and enjoy the book.

A Book of Spirits and Thieves follows the lives of Crystal Hatcher, Farrell Grayson and Maddox Corso. Each of their stories is compelling in their own right and while I may have had a favorite storyline, I thought that there was enough time spent developing all of them that I enjoyed reading all of the storylines.

My biggest problem with the book all comes down to one quote.

“Sounds like a good book.” Or a piece of feminist trash.**

This quote made me see red but at the same time, I am not ready to write this book off just because of the one horrible quote. I want to give the book the benefit of doubt since everything else in the book was fantastic and pretty much contradicted the implications of that quote. Maybe the quote was a way of representing the character who said it (and how far gone he was) instead of just saying that books featuring strong women are feminist trash (which would be odd considering that this book features badass females!)

This book is classified as fantasy and I thought it was interesting that that two of the storylines are set in the modern day world where as one is set in a completely different world (Mytica.) I thought the transitioning between the two worlds worked very well and the author took steps to show us how the two timelines are related. But, I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHERE THINGS COULD GO. I have SOOOO many theories and I am dying to read the following books in the series to see whether or not any of them pan out.

Crystal Hatcher, aka Crys is not always the nicest kid but it isn’t because she thinks the world is out to get her. Over the past two years, since her father and confidant left her, she has become detached from her surroundings. She misses a lot of classes and spends most of her time taking photos. She isn’t as close to her younger sister as she used to be and she takes her family for granted. When her sister goes into a coma after touching a book, it’s a moment of awakening for her as she realizes what a bad sister she has been for the past two years. It’s up to her to solve the mystery of THE BOOK.

One of the great things about Crys’ storyline is that even though she sometimes doesn’t trust the right people, she does eventually confide in her mom and that made me happy. I like it when kids don’t always run around doing things on their own and instead choose to trust an adult who actually knows what’s going on.

Crys was a great main character. She frustrated me at times but people make the wrong decisions all the time. That doesn’t make them awful. Crys is determined, mostly smart, loyal female lead and super badass.

Farrell on the other hand, whose story is also set in the modern world, wasn’t as awesome. But then again, he wasn’t meant to be.

His story isn’t about him finally realizing all the things he has been doing wrong but rather about him sinking further into a deep dark place. Maybe to the point of no return. I don’t know.Farrell just worries me because we all know that he isn’t a horrible person. The initial chapters make him out to be a great person under all that yucky exterior. He obviously has self-esteem issues and is still grieving the death of his older brother; however, those two things don't mix well and lead him to making some veryyyy horrible decisions and saying a lot of mean things. It’s kind of terrifying to watch him become more and more detached and lose his morality. I just want to read the next books and see what will become of him. I want him to live up to the good person we all know he is.

This brings us to the last character, a young Maddox. I’ve said so much about the other two and I am trying to think about what sets him apart. I think what sets Maddox apart is that he isn’t as bitter or even detached as the other two characters. There seems to be a naivety to him (although that could be because he is a little younger than the other two characters), that makes him endearing. He has been through so much in his 16 years but he never completely loses hope and that’s great.

I love the way his story works out too. In his story, we really see the fantastical elements come to life since we are immersed in a world that is clearly not our own. We meet a fantastic array of characters who support him (INCLUDING Crys’ comatose sister. INTERESTING? …)

There is a bit of romance in the book which ended up not working for me. There isn’t much of it so it wasn’t that big of a problem but I just didn’t think it was needed ya know? I didn’t need there to be an insta-love kind of thing to make the book more enjoyable since I already thought it was fantastic.

So basically this book is great, a quote and romance aside. It’s easy to get into, it flies by and it’s quick to read. You maybe, definitely want to check this one out. ALSO DAT COVER THO. Lookit! IZ SO PRETTEH. I just want to stroke it all day….. NOW GIMME NEXT BOOK *makes grabby hands*

**The author confirmed that that quote was in fact meant to rile the readers.

Note that I received a finished copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.