Thursday 5 August 2010

Legacies - Book Review


Legacies (Shadow Grail #1) by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

What is it about:
Who—or what—is stalking the students at Oakhurst Academy?
In the wake of the accident that killed her family, Spirit White is spirited away to Oakhurst Academy, a combination school and orphanage in the middle of Montana. There she learns she is a legacy—not only to the school, which her parents also attended, but to magic.
All the students at Oakhurst have magical powers, and although Spirit’s hasn’t manifested itself yet, the administrators insist she has one. Spirit isn’t sure she cares. Devastated by the loss of her family, she finds comfort with a group of friends: Burke Hallows, Lachlann Spears, Muirin Shae, and Adelaide Lake.
But something strange is going on at Oakhurst. Students start disappearing under mysterious circumstances, and the school seems to be trying to cover it up. Spirit and her friends must find out what’s happening—before one of them becomes the next victim…


What did I think of it:
A very decent start of a promising YA series. There are some easy fixes here and there and lots of teen gullibility, but I've learned to accept the latter in YA fiction and know probably too much about occult matters to be fooled by the first. That being said: Even though the 'normal teen finds out she/he has magic powers and gets to go to a magic school' has been done many times by now, this is an original story and I really liked the diversity in characters which lead to interesting interactions. One point that might be perceived as negative by some: The story does end with lots of things still unresolved. It has me looking forward impatiently to the next installment anyway.

Why should you read it:
It's a suspenseful and promising start of a new YA series

4 comments:

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

I like school-based series very much--or to be more accurate, Juvenile Series which are set in schools. (I'm all about settings, remember? LOL!) There are so few of those I can think of, though--or just stand-alone novels with episodic chapters. And they're mostly MG, when I prefer YA. So this one, which is definitely YA, should be good! =)

Thanks for the review, Sully!

Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...

oooh sounds like a lot of cliffhangers!!

Aleksandra said...

Great review! I think I'll have to get it now ;)

Sullivan McPig said...

You should if you're into paranormal YA books, I really enjoyed it.