glennquigley's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it! Very imaginative story with shades of X-Men that built to a very exciting climax. I'm looking forward to reading the next one!
the_fenharel's review against another edition
3.0
** I got this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review **
I really enjoyed reading this books for many different reasons. I loved that the protagonist was flawed and sometimes unlikeable. I liked that the powers these people have weren't something to be desired and made me grateful I had nothing to do with them.
The novel revolves around James, a man with a few special powers. He has a contract with the CMRD and has to fulfill it - teaching students to control their powers all while being haunted by a ghost of one of his past students. It's a struggle to work with so many strong personalities in one room, but if he doesn't sort them out, they will be executed.
I loved the ideas of the Arcanes - people being possessed by some sort of spirit. Poor Annabelle! I'm hoping that in the future we get to see more indecision from her. She came from a religious background so this would have to bother her more than what is shown! She obviously couldn't worry about it too much in this book because it was a survival instinct that took over, but due to the ending, she doesn't have to support it anymore. I'm hoping to see great inner conflict from her!
I loved Chris as well! He has such a great backstory and I'm so curious about the mystery around him being taken in. Was it the CMRD? Or something else? Is his brother dead? I'm so ready to find out!
However, it had some inconsistencies that bothered me. Our protagonist, James, is scouted to teach these children because he's apparently powerful and unique. However, we see time and time again that he's not that powerful and not really that unique either. He has the power to control other people, but only if they are willing or don't know about his power. And he can also make shields that everyone else seemed to be able to as well. He couldn't hold onto either power for very long so how is he meant to be that powerful compared to everyone else who can do really amazing stuff. Like the guy who can turn back time? That's awesome!
Isaiah is a strange romantic option. First, he's described as resigned and not so happy, and we meet his demon first which is awesome! I was hoping Isaiah would be different, but instead he's practically the same character. So how is someone that holds himself in such a resigned manner be so outgoing? It just seems like the author set out to write one character and then got bored and changed him halfway.
Back to the powers - the whole reason James is there is to teach them. But... he doesn't. He's so "smart" at the start, but then claims to actually know nothing. He basically hands them books and they teach themselves. So why couldn't they have books earlier? Why did James have to teach them himself? And for people so "out of control" they learnt to control themselves within a few pages and be perfectly fine and managing powers they didn't even know they had.
To be fair, the ending was amazing and I really want to read the sequel. I feel like this series will get better and better and I'm excited for that!
I really enjoyed reading this books for many different reasons. I loved that the protagonist was flawed and sometimes unlikeable. I liked that the powers these people have weren't something to be desired and made me grateful I had nothing to do with them.
The novel revolves around James, a man with a few special powers. He has a contract with the CMRD and has to fulfill it - teaching students to control their powers all while being haunted by a ghost of one of his past students. It's a struggle to work with so many strong personalities in one room, but if he doesn't sort them out, they will be executed.
I loved the ideas of the Arcanes - people being possessed by some sort of spirit. Poor Annabelle! I'm hoping that in the future we get to see more indecision from her. She came from a religious background so this would have to bother her more than what is shown! She obviously couldn't worry about it too much in this book because it was a survival instinct that took over, but due to the ending, she doesn't have to support it anymore. I'm hoping to see great inner conflict from her!
I loved Chris as well! He has such a great backstory and I'm so curious about the mystery around him being taken in. Was it the CMRD? Or something else? Is his brother dead? I'm so ready to find out!
However, it had some inconsistencies that bothered me. Our protagonist, James, is scouted to teach these children because he's apparently powerful and unique. However, we see time and time again that he's not that powerful and not really that unique either. He has the power to control other people, but only if they are willing or don't know about his power. And he can also make shields that everyone else seemed to be able to as well. He couldn't hold onto either power for very long so how is he meant to be that powerful compared to everyone else who can do really amazing stuff. Like the guy who can turn back time? That's awesome!
Isaiah is a strange romantic option. First, he's described as resigned and not so happy, and we meet his demon first which is awesome! I was hoping Isaiah would be different, but instead he's practically the same character. So how is someone that holds himself in such a resigned manner be so outgoing? It just seems like the author set out to write one character and then got bored and changed him halfway.
Back to the powers - the whole reason James is there is to teach them. But... he doesn't. He's so "smart" at the start, but then claims to actually know nothing. He basically hands them books and they teach themselves. So why couldn't they have books earlier? Why did James have to teach them himself? And for people so "out of control" they learnt to control themselves within a few pages and be perfectly fine and managing powers they didn't even know they had.
To be fair, the ending was amazing and I really want to read the sequel. I feel like this series will get better and better and I'm excited for that!
emhamill's review against another edition
5.0
I had so much fun with J.P. Jackson's first book, Daimonion, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book.
Jackson delivers another horribly good time with Magic or Die. I felt guilty watching all the terrible things James Martin and his students were going through and enjoying every second of it!
James is blackmailed/recruited by CMRD, with whom he has a traumatic past, to teach a group of exceptional and dangerously gifted magic users how to control their powers. He quickly discovers that not only are the lives of the students in danger, but his as well, and the dark intentions of the CMRD go far beyond their deepest fears.
This is more along the lines of The Magicians rather than Harry Potter- the students are all in their early to mid twenties, and a good thing, since James has a reciprocated fascination with Isaiah, one of the people he is teaching. It gives him a more personal reason to try to get all of them out alive. Every one of the characters has a distinct personality (Ning is my favorite) and they are a blast to read about.
Jackson has definitely grown in his craft. This story flows much more seamlessly and the pacing is excellent. It's a quick, fun read with dark magic, a bitchy villain, and some characters that you can't quite decide whether they are friends or enemies. Pick this one up, and you won't regret it.
Jackson delivers another horribly good time with Magic or Die. I felt guilty watching all the terrible things James Martin and his students were going through and enjoying every second of it!
James is blackmailed/recruited by CMRD, with whom he has a traumatic past, to teach a group of exceptional and dangerously gifted magic users how to control their powers. He quickly discovers that not only are the lives of the students in danger, but his as well, and the dark intentions of the CMRD go far beyond their deepest fears.
This is more along the lines of The Magicians rather than Harry Potter- the students are all in their early to mid twenties, and a good thing, since James has a reciprocated fascination with Isaiah, one of the people he is teaching. It gives him a more personal reason to try to get all of them out alive. Every one of the characters has a distinct personality (Ning is my favorite) and they are a blast to read about.
Jackson has definitely grown in his craft. This story flows much more seamlessly and the pacing is excellent. It's a quick, fun read with dark magic, a bitchy villain, and some characters that you can't quite decide whether they are friends or enemies. Pick this one up, and you won't regret it.
cadiva's review against another edition
4.0
Full review to come.
This was a new author to me and I was extremely impressed with the level of world building and detailing which went into this quite unusual paranormal.
There is an element of a romance, but it's not the driving force of the story, it's more about friendship and beating the odds and fighting for the right to live your own life. Someone else's review has mentioned it has an X-Men vibe to it and I think that's true to an extent.
But it's not so much about the power these young adults have as it is about how they learn to not only control their abilities but how to open up and make friendships and work as a team towards a single goal - escaping from the centre they're being kept in.
James isn't a "hero" as such, he's a deeply flawed character, prone to making mistakes, but fundamentally honest and with good intentions. The romance here is tied into the wider narrative, it's fade to black and pretty much all of it happens off page. This usually irritates me immensely - I like to see the emotional connections two people make when they become sexually active - but it actually fits into the story.
The characters are wonderfully sketched out, each has a unique voice which brings them to life and I found myself rooting for them all against the captivity and also breaking my heart at the traumas they go through.
There's also a damn cliffhanger at the end which, as anyone who follows my reviews knows, drives me insane and will lose a star off any rating because I firmly believe every book, irrespective of if it's part of a series or not, should wrap the majority of its story with the pages UNLESS the reader is forewarned that it won't conclude all plot elements.
So this could have been a 5* read and I will definitely read the next book to find out what happens to this little gang of misfits.
#ARC kindly provided by the author in return for an honest and unbiased review
This was a new author to me and I was extremely impressed with the level of world building and detailing which went into this quite unusual paranormal.
There is an element of a romance, but it's not the driving force of the story, it's more about friendship and beating the odds and fighting for the right to live your own life. Someone else's review has mentioned it has an X-Men vibe to it and I think that's true to an extent.
But it's not so much about the power these young adults have as it is about how they learn to not only control their abilities but how to open up and make friendships and work as a team towards a single goal - escaping from the centre they're being kept in.
James isn't a "hero" as such, he's a deeply flawed character, prone to making mistakes, but fundamentally honest and with good intentions. The romance here is tied into the wider narrative, it's fade to black and pretty much all of it happens off page. This usually irritates me immensely - I like to see the emotional connections two people make when they become sexually active - but it actually fits into the story.
The characters are wonderfully sketched out, each has a unique voice which brings them to life and I found myself rooting for them all against the captivity and also breaking my heart at the traumas they go through.
There's also a damn cliffhanger at the end which, as anyone who follows my reviews knows, drives me insane and will lose a star off any rating because I firmly believe every book, irrespective of if it's part of a series or not, should wrap the majority of its story with the pages UNLESS the reader is forewarned that it won't conclude all plot elements.
So this could have been a 5* read and I will definitely read the next book to find out what happens to this little gang of misfits.
#ARC kindly provided by the author in return for an honest and unbiased review
cpeel's review
4.0
I finished this book yesterday. Think Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters but for adults (including sexy gay characters) with magical & arcane abilities. Except instead of being run by benevolent Professor-X it's run by an evil bitch who wants the students trained into magic or be killed. In particular I enjoyed how arcane powers were portrayed and used vs what is conventionally considered magic.
I think the book should have been ~50% longer with more lead up to some of the relationships and plot points. None of the story transitions felt rushed but a bit more connective tissue in-between would have helped make the story feel more tangible and real.
I think the book should have been ~50% longer with more lead up to some of the relationships and plot points. None of the story transitions felt rushed but a bit more connective tissue in-between would have helped make the story feel more tangible and real.
bookshelfsos's review
2.0
There are probably people out there who would love this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t quite right for me.
The only expectations I went in to Magic or Die with came from the summary that I read here on Goodreads, and it really made it sound like it sound like the kind of story I would be into: characters with traumatic pasts and emotional depth, high stakes involving the commodification and trafficking of magically gifted people, and a queer romance subplot. All things that I love and look for in my stories. However, Magic or Die didn’t really deliver on much of that. The seriousness and the drama of the situation were watered down by weak world-building, hackneyed villains (at one point there was a non-ironic use of the word henchmen), and a very awkward romance between the main character and one of his students.
Maybe I should start by saying what’s good about the book. I think conceptually it’s a cool idea. Even though they’re not perfectly explained, the three magic systems in the story are interesting and creative. I like the idea that some people have inborn magical talent and some get it through demon possession. And I will admit that some of the trope-y aspects of the book were fun: the Suicide Squad-style character introduction scene, the misfits coming together as a team, the found family, and the unique and strong personalities of each of the students. The writing itself was strong for the most part, and I found the first half of the book to really fly by as I waited with anticipation for the action to kick in. Although I ultimately didn't love where the plot went, I can still commend the author for a very clear and readable prose style.
If a younger version of me had been reading this I probably would have been less critical and more willing to give the benefit of the doubt when it came to the issues with world-building. But as it was, I found myself confused by and skeptical of the situation that we’re presented with: our main character James is brought back to the CMRD, the very institution where he was trained and taught for several years, and yet he narrates all of this as if he’s experiencing it for the first time. Despite our direct line into his thoughts via first-person narration, James appears to have almost no actual memories of anyone or anything at CMRD. He tells us he was there, but then never thinks to himself, “Oh, I remember that time I hung out with my friends in this courtyard” or “I remember my own weird, plexiglass-walled cell” or anything like that.
Which brings me to another strange bit of world-building: all the students in the story are being held captive in cells, which initially sounds cruel and scary, but then we keep hearing about all the stuff that they have in their cells: beds with comforters, fluffy pillows, stereos, televisions, teddy bears. Every emotional punch in the story seemed to follow the same pattern: set up something that sounds dramatic and compelling, but then pull it back and the last minute and smooth it over so that it isn’t so bad after all. The biggest culprit of this was with James’s backstory. The backstory of a man watching his student and lover euthanized before his eyes was the probably the most stirring aspect of this entire story, but James hardly seems to care about Cody aside from his own guilt over what happened. Do we get any memories of what their relationship was like before Cody died? No; Cody's character is reduced entirely to emotional baggage for James to lug around. So we’re just left with what *could* have been an amazing backstory, but it’s entirely weakened by James’s apathy and our own ignorance as readers without context.
You'll notice I'm calling the characters students, even though they are actually more like captives, because that is honestly how they are treated and referred to throughout the book. The CMRD is holding them hostage against their wills and under threat of death, but that is hardly ever dwelt upon or questioned. Also, James constantly refers to the students as kids within the narration, but is always reminding them and the authority figures at the CMRD that they are adults. It almost seemed like the author was trying to remind himself that he had aged them up, while simultaneously having them act like immature teenagers. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why, but the whole student vs prisoner and kids vs adults situation seemed very weird and muddled to me.
I hate to go too hard on Magic or Die, because I know there are people out there who enjoy more light-hearted, fun stories about plucky groups of friends coming together to defeat an ambiguously evil organization. That’s just not what I like to read. I wanted the author to lean further into the dark stuff, the uncomfortable moral dilemmas, and the tragedy. He didn’t do that, and it left me personally disappointed.
NB: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The only expectations I went in to Magic or Die with came from the summary that I read here on Goodreads, and it really made it sound like it sound like the kind of story I would be into: characters with traumatic pasts and emotional depth, high stakes involving the commodification and trafficking of magically gifted people, and a queer romance subplot. All things that I love and look for in my stories. However, Magic or Die didn’t really deliver on much of that. The seriousness and the drama of the situation were watered down by weak world-building, hackneyed villains (at one point there was a non-ironic use of the word henchmen), and a very awkward romance between the main character and one of his students.
Maybe I should start by saying what’s good about the book. I think conceptually it’s a cool idea. Even though they’re not perfectly explained, the three magic systems in the story are interesting and creative. I like the idea that some people have inborn magical talent and some get it through demon possession. And I will admit that some of the trope-y aspects of the book were fun: the Suicide Squad-style character introduction scene, the misfits coming together as a team, the found family, and the unique and strong personalities of each of the students. The writing itself was strong for the most part, and I found the first half of the book to really fly by as I waited with anticipation for the action to kick in. Although I ultimately didn't love where the plot went, I can still commend the author for a very clear and readable prose style.
If a younger version of me had been reading this I probably would have been less critical and more willing to give the benefit of the doubt when it came to the issues with world-building. But as it was, I found myself confused by and skeptical of the situation that we’re presented with: our main character James is brought back to the CMRD, the very institution where he was trained and taught for several years, and yet he narrates all of this as if he’s experiencing it for the first time. Despite our direct line into his thoughts via first-person narration, James appears to have almost no actual memories of anyone or anything at CMRD. He tells us he was there, but then never thinks to himself, “Oh, I remember that time I hung out with my friends in this courtyard” or “I remember my own weird, plexiglass-walled cell” or anything like that.
Which brings me to another strange bit of world-building: all the students in the story are being held captive in cells, which initially sounds cruel and scary, but then we keep hearing about all the stuff that they have in their cells: beds with comforters, fluffy pillows, stereos, televisions, teddy bears. Every emotional punch in the story seemed to follow the same pattern: set up something that sounds dramatic and compelling, but then pull it back and the last minute and smooth it over so that it isn’t so bad after all. The biggest culprit of this was with James’s backstory. The backstory of a man watching his student and lover euthanized before his eyes was the probably the most stirring aspect of this entire story, but James hardly seems to care about Cody aside from his own guilt over what happened. Do we get any memories of what their relationship was like before Cody died? No; Cody's character is reduced entirely to emotional baggage for James to lug around. So we’re just left with what *could* have been an amazing backstory, but it’s entirely weakened by James’s apathy and our own ignorance as readers without context.
You'll notice I'm calling the characters students, even though they are actually more like captives, because that is honestly how they are treated and referred to throughout the book. The CMRD is holding them hostage against their wills and under threat of death, but that is hardly ever dwelt upon or questioned. Also, James constantly refers to the students as kids within the narration, but is always reminding them and the authority figures at the CMRD that they are adults. It almost seemed like the author was trying to remind himself that he had aged them up, while simultaneously having them act like immature teenagers. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why, but the whole student vs prisoner and kids vs adults situation seemed very weird and muddled to me.
I hate to go too hard on Magic or Die, because I know there are people out there who enjoy more light-hearted, fun stories about plucky groups of friends coming together to defeat an ambiguously evil organization. That’s just not what I like to read. I wanted the author to lean further into the dark stuff, the uncomfortable moral dilemmas, and the tragedy. He didn’t do that, and it left me personally disappointed.
NB: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
pagesandprozac's review
4.0
This was way better than I was expecting, because the beginning was a bit faltering and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. But boy, I did!
Basically, the premise is that there's this facility where powerful, out-of-control magic-users learn to use their gifts properly, and the protagonist is a teacher there who is forced to return after a year's absence to fulfill his contract and is assigned a class of six adult students. It kind of reminded me of the X-Men if the mutants were more paranormal than sci-fi (although I guess there's a bunch of overlap there anyways).
I really liked the plot and the way everything unfolded; one criticism I had was that some of the characters - especially the cookie-cutter villain - were a little flat, and one-dimensional at times, but there was some definite character development in some of them that I liked. Stereotypical villains are one of my pet peeves though, which is why this is a four star rather than a five, although there's an introduction to a more interesting antagonist towards the end of the book that promises great things from the second volume...
Basically, the premise is that there's this facility where powerful, out-of-control magic-users learn to use their gifts properly, and the protagonist is a teacher there who is forced to return after a year's absence to fulfill his contract and is assigned a class of six adult students. It kind of reminded me of the X-Men if the mutants were more paranormal than sci-fi (although I guess there's a bunch of overlap there anyways).
I really liked the plot and the way everything unfolded; one criticism I had was that some of the characters - especially the cookie-cutter villain - were a little flat, and one-dimensional at times, but there was some definite character development in some of them that I liked. Stereotypical villains are one of my pet peeves though, which is why this is a four star rather than a five, although there's an introduction to a more interesting antagonist towards the end of the book that promises great things from the second volume...
cadiva's review
4.0
Full review to come.
This was a new author to me and I was extremely impressed with the level of world building and detailing which went into this quite unusual paranormal.
There is an element of a romance, but it's not the driving force of the story, it's more about friendship and beating the odds and fighting for the right to live your own life. Someone else's review has mentioned it has an X-Men vibe to it and I think that's true to an extent.
But it's not so much about the power these young adults have as it is about how they learn to not only control their abilities but how to open up and make friendships and work as a team towards a single goal - escaping from the centre they're being kept in.
James isn't a "hero" as such, he's a deeply flawed character, prone to making mistakes, but fundamentally honest and with good intentions. The romance here is tied into the wider narrative, it's fade to black and pretty much all of it happens off page. This usually irritates me immensely - I like to see the emotional connections two people make when they become sexually active - but it actually fits into the story.
The characters are wonderfully sketched out, each has a unique voice which brings them to life and I found myself rooting for them all against the captivity and also breaking my heart at the traumas they go through.
There's also a damn cliffhanger at the end which, as anyone who follows my reviews knows, drives me insane and will lose a star off any rating because I firmly believe every book, irrespective of if it's part of a series or not, should wrap the majority of its story with the pages UNLESS the reader is forewarned that it won't conclude all plot elements.
So this could have been a 5* read and I will definitely read the next book to find out what happens to this little gang of misfits.
#ARC kindly provided by the author in return for an honest and unbiased review
This was a new author to me and I was extremely impressed with the level of world building and detailing which went into this quite unusual paranormal.
There is an element of a romance, but it's not the driving force of the story, it's more about friendship and beating the odds and fighting for the right to live your own life. Someone else's review has mentioned it has an X-Men vibe to it and I think that's true to an extent.
But it's not so much about the power these young adults have as it is about how they learn to not only control their abilities but how to open up and make friendships and work as a team towards a single goal - escaping from the centre they're being kept in.
James isn't a "hero" as such, he's a deeply flawed character, prone to making mistakes, but fundamentally honest and with good intentions. The romance here is tied into the wider narrative, it's fade to black and pretty much all of it happens off page. This usually irritates me immensely - I like to see the emotional connections two people make when they become sexually active - but it actually fits into the story.
The characters are wonderfully sketched out, each has a unique voice which brings them to life and I found myself rooting for them all against the captivity and also breaking my heart at the traumas they go through.
There's also a damn cliffhanger at the end which, as anyone who follows my reviews knows, drives me insane and will lose a star off any rating because I firmly believe every book, irrespective of if it's part of a series or not, should wrap the majority of its story with the pages UNLESS the reader is forewarned that it won't conclude all plot elements.
So this could have been a 5* read and I will definitely read the next book to find out what happens to this little gang of misfits.
#ARC kindly provided by the author in return for an honest and unbiased review
jpjackson's review
2018-19 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention in Gay Alternate Reality
M/M Romance 2018 Member's Choice Awards Nominee for Best Paranormal
I'm not going to rate my own book - that'd be silly! But I will say this...I had such a good time writing this story. I think I'm slightly more in love with this book than my first. I know, we shouldn't choose which of our children are our favorites, and yet...
Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the adventure of James, Isaiah, Ning, Chris, Annabelle, and Camila.
M/M Romance 2018 Member's Choice Awards Nominee for Best Paranormal
I'm not going to rate my own book - that'd be silly! But I will say this...I had such a good time writing this story. I think I'm slightly more in love with this book than my first. I know, we shouldn't choose which of our children are our favorites, and yet...
Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the adventure of James, Isaiah, Ning, Chris, Annabelle, and Camila.
booksthatburn's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
Running out of time, Magic or Die is fun and terrifying in turns. With strong characterization and an instantly hateable bureaucratic villain, this fantasy is no one's daydream, and the demons may fill your nightmares.
I loved reading this, I read it in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes I was just laughing while reading, I had such a good time. It's also very dark and deals with a lot of stressful topics (refer to the CWs below), but handles them in a way that has so much care for the reader that it was cathartic rather than stressful. The way it handled the characters was superb, really understanding what they'd be going through emotionally in this awful situation, and that made it feel good to read too, even when it was dark. The MC has this grittiness that reminds me of the best bits of a film-noir setting without actually being in that genre, especially at the start. He's stressed and trying to hold it together for the people under his care even when he doesn't actually know a whole lot more than they do, and that was such a relatable feeling.
The balance between focusing on each secondary character and keeping the plot moving was handled well, the more introductory portion of the book was staggered in a way that felt natural and made it easier to track these very different people. I'm someone who usually has trouble tracking a lot of character names at once and I didn't have problem here, at least partly because of the pace at which they were established. The magic system could have felt like a giant infodump, and instead I find myself at the end of book one, feeling like I could actually explain this system to someone. I could at least describe the different types of magic and how the users might be affected.
There is a student/teacher romance, but everyone involved is fully an adult and nothing about this setting was a typical academic environment. This portrayal definitely fits under "power differentials are sexy"; it's not exploitative within the story (and the potential for it to be exploitative or inappropriate is discussed by the parties involved).
The villain was fantastically hateable. Early on I was unsure and I thought the MC just didn't like her because she's an abrasive person, but by halfway through I completely got it and unreservedly hated her too. She has a great balance between having an understandable motivation for being evil and being so thoroughly terrible that understanding her didn't make me hate her any less.
Running out of time, Magic or Die is fun and terrifying in turns. With strong characterization and an instantly hateable bureaucratic villain, this fantasy is no one's daydream, and the demons may fill your nightmares.
I loved reading this, I read it in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. Sometimes I was just laughing while reading, I had such a good time. It's also very dark and deals with a lot of stressful topics (refer to the CWs below), but handles them in a way that has so much care for the reader that it was cathartic rather than stressful. The way it handled the characters was superb, really understanding what they'd be going through emotionally in this awful situation, and that made it feel good to read too, even when it was dark. The MC has this grittiness that reminds me of the best bits of a film-noir setting without actually being in that genre, especially at the start. He's stressed and trying to hold it together for the people under his care even when he doesn't actually know a whole lot more than they do, and that was such a relatable feeling.
The balance between focusing on each secondary character and keeping the plot moving was handled well, the more introductory portion of the book was staggered in a way that felt natural and made it easier to track these very different people. I'm someone who usually has trouble tracking a lot of character names at once and I didn't have problem here, at least partly because of the pace at which they were established. The magic system could have felt like a giant infodump, and instead I find myself at the end of book one, feeling like I could actually explain this system to someone. I could at least describe the different types of magic and how the users might be affected.
There is a student/teacher romance, but everyone involved is fully an adult and nothing about this setting was a typical academic environment. This portrayal definitely fits under "power differentials are sexy"; it's not exploitative within the story (and the potential for it to be exploitative or inappropriate is discussed by the parties involved).
The villain was fantastically hateable. Early on I was unsure and I thought the MC just didn't like her because she's an abrasive person, but by halfway through I completely got it and unreservedly hated her too. She has a great balance between having an understandable motivation for being evil and being so thoroughly terrible that understanding her didn't make me hate her any less.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Kidnapping, and Mental illness
Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
CW for smoking, alcoholism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, kidnapping, child abuse (not depicted), suicide (not depicted), body shaming (internalized), mental illness, student/teacher romance (adults), coercion, addiction, withdrawal, gore, body horror, possession, major character death, death.