Genre: Christian fantasy

Unfortunately, A Study of Shattered Spells isn’t yet released at the time of writing . . . and I don’t even have a release date to share with you! But I wanted to record my thoughts while the book is still fresh in my mind—and hopefully this review will be useful to posterity, if no one else! 🙂

I absolutely loved the premise of this book—a magic school story told from the teacher’s perspective! Since I’ve never actually been enrolled in a brick and mortar school as a student (if you don’t count college, which is different), I’ve always loved magic school stories—and honestly, any story set in a school. I’m guessing most people don’t see public high school as a strange and exotic setting for a story . . . but I have never been inside a public school while it was in session (and a private high school only once), so those stories have always intrigued me.

But after my last year as teacher’s aide at my parish school, I was really curious to know how the author would portray the school from a teacher’s perspective. (Because let me tell you, I suddenly had much more sympathy for stereotypical evil teachers after a year of teaching myself. . . .) And he did not disappoint.

The author did a fantastic job of portraying school politics (and, incidentally, left me very grateful that I worked at a better school than that), as well as the daily struggles a teacher faces. The main character, Kalina, was very relatable—and I appreciated that she made mistakes, often quite major ones, as a teacher. But despite her struggles, she persisted and continued to do her best for her students and for her country.

None of the ethical dilemmas were easily solved, and the author did a fantastic job of allowing his characters to wrestle through the implications of possible decisions. But even though there were times when no decision seemed right, the story never slipped into subjectivity.

I did have a hard time keeping all the students straight (the fantasy names did little to help. . .), but that didn’t interfere much with my enjoyment of the story. And the author did a good job of developing secondary characters, even though he definitely focused more on Kalina.

As a musician, I absolutely loved the music-based magic system! I was a little skeptical coming into it, since it seemed kinda nebulous . . . and I like my magic systems with rules. But the author did a great job establishing rules early on, and the magic system ended up as one of my favorite parts.

This book has a few references to sexual abuse, rape, child abuse, and bullying (nothing on-page except brief verbal bullying), and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone under 13 due to that and some of the ethical quandaries the characters face. Anyone over 15 should be fine, and I think a lot of younger teens would be as well. (There’s no language and minimal violence.)

All in all, if you enjoy magic school stories and unique magic systems, or you’re simply curious to know what the magic school trope looks like from the teacher’s perspective, I definitely recommend A Study of Shattered Spells!

You may have noticed I’m deviating from my typical review structure—like in this book review—in this review. I’m not sure which one is more appealing to readers. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!