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effiereads's review against another edition
2.0
this was pretty much the same plot as their other space book and that one also bored me to tears.
zoepagereader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Classism
ceena's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars
I'm a sucker for heist novels -- just line'em up for me and I'll read them all. This one is magic + heist with queer characters (including a nonbinary character) thrown in and it ended up being such a fun book! The banter, the sass, the "ask me to stay" , JUST .... *sigh* man this book is great.
Here is the thing though: read it for the characters. The characters are the best part and yeah, Diz can be sooooo annoying about how she doesn't want to leave Kyrkarta, but as she's a teen I could see where her emotions might be coming from. Whenever the characters were interacting is when I was usually enjoying the book the most. The heists, the magic, the adventure -- all interesting, but I don't like the ending/I don't like where it lead, which brought the rating from 4 to 3.5 stars.
That being said, I'm still going to recommend the hell out of this book.
side note about the narrator: not my favorite and I thought many of the voices were reeeeally similar.
I'm a sucker for heist novels -- just line'em up for me and I'll read them all. This one is magic + heist with queer characters (including a nonbinary character) thrown in and it ended up being such a fun book! The banter, the sass, the "ask me to stay" , JUST .... *sigh* man this book is great.
Here is the thing though: read it for the characters. The characters are the best part and yeah, Diz can be sooooo annoying about how she doesn't want to leave Kyrkarta, but as she's a teen I could see where her emotions might be coming from. Whenever the characters were interacting is when I was usually enjoying the book the most. The heists, the magic, the adventure -- all interesting, but I don't like the ending/I don't like where it lead, which brought the rating from 4 to 3.5 stars.
That being said, I'm still going to recommend the hell out of this book.
side note about the narrator: not my favorite and I thought many of the voices were reeeeally similar.
worldsunlikeourown's review against another edition
4.0
Find this review and more on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperTeen, and Edelweiss for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Magic, known as maz, was freely available in Kyrkarta before an earthquake contaminated it with a plague, killing thousands, and a corporation stepped in and commercialized it. Years later, Diz and her friends are running their last job illegally siphoning maz when they accidentally siphon something they weren’t supposed to find. Now they have said corporation, the MMC, wanting to kill them so that they don’t expose the secret of what turns out to be the secret, fifteenth strain of maz. But the friends have stumbled onto something far more dangerous than just a new strain of maz – they’ve accidentally unearthed a conspiracy that will have massive repercussions and possibly destroy the world if the MMC is not stopped.
Magic as a tangible thing is definitely a concept that I’m seeing for the first time, and a fascinating one. The world-building for this book was very interesting with its combination of science and magic, with all the gadgets that can be used to manipulate maz. I’ll admit that I saw ‘heist’ and immediately thought of Six of Crows, but this turned out to be very different. By and by large, the plot twists were rather predictable, but still interesting and makes for quite a delightful adventure.
The main thing I didn’t enjoy about this book was the narrator Diz. Diz, for atleast half the book is an insufferable character and incredibly immature. It is understandable that she has issues talking about her feelings, but it’s ridiculous to get angry because people are doing something she doesn’t want them to do when she never makes it clear what she wanted in the first place. This aspect of her is perhaps overdone and went on long enough to be irksome even though she grows up a little throughout the course of this book. In fact, I didn’t find myself connecting with any of the characters – but still thoroughly enjoyed the story, which was quite a strange experience. I did appreciate the diversity in this book, mostly for how it’s taken as a part of their identity so naturally and not as the point of the story. Apart from that, the world building, while good, takes its time getting to things, which, for me atleast, left a lot to assumption until the story did get around to explaining it.
I’m not sure how to feel about the ending in general because it leaves a lot to the imagination. The immediate threat is dealt with, but the MMC isn’t really gone, and they’re still pretty powerful. Overall, this was a fast paced and intriguing read with an engaging writing style and I would definitely recommend it.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperTeen, and Edelweiss for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Magic, known as maz, was freely available in Kyrkarta before an earthquake contaminated it with a plague, killing thousands, and a corporation stepped in and commercialized it. Years later, Diz and her friends are running their last job illegally siphoning maz when they accidentally siphon something they weren’t supposed to find. Now they have said corporation, the MMC, wanting to kill them so that they don’t expose the secret of what turns out to be the secret, fifteenth strain of maz. But the friends have stumbled onto something far more dangerous than just a new strain of maz – they’ve accidentally unearthed a conspiracy that will have massive repercussions and possibly destroy the world if the MMC is not stopped.
Magic as a tangible thing is definitely a concept that I’m seeing for the first time, and a fascinating one. The world-building for this book was very interesting with its combination of science and magic, with all the gadgets that can be used to manipulate maz. I’ll admit that I saw ‘heist’ and immediately thought of Six of Crows, but this turned out to be very different. By and by large, the plot twists were rather predictable, but still interesting and makes for quite a delightful adventure.
The main thing I didn’t enjoy about this book was the narrator Diz. Diz, for atleast half the book is an insufferable character and incredibly immature. It is understandable that she has issues talking about her feelings, but it’s ridiculous to get angry because people are doing something she doesn’t want them to do when she never makes it clear what she wanted in the first place. This aspect of her is perhaps overdone and went on long enough to be irksome even though she grows up a little throughout the course of this book. In fact, I didn’t find myself connecting with any of the characters – but still thoroughly enjoyed the story, which was quite a strange experience. I did appreciate the diversity in this book, mostly for how it’s taken as a part of their identity so naturally and not as the point of the story. Apart from that, the world building, while good, takes its time getting to things, which, for me atleast, left a lot to assumption until the story did get around to explaining it.
I’m not sure how to feel about the ending in general because it leaves a lot to the imagination. The immediate threat is dealt with, but the MMC isn’t really gone, and they’re still pretty powerful. Overall, this was a fast paced and intriguing read with an engaging writing style and I would definitely recommend it.
blondieechic's review against another edition
It never hooked me and I just couldn’t do it anymore
thebookberrie's review against another edition
Think about this: you're singing along to a song you don't know all the words to so you mumble through half of it just to shout out the words you do know. This book is exactly like that. It feels like the author had one idea and then shouted that idea and just bullshitted through the rest of the story. This was all just so badly done.
Spellhacker is about Diz who runs an illegal siphoning job on the side with her three best friends. Magic -otherwise known as maz- used to be freely available until an earthquake and a magical plague happened, killing thousands and letting a greedy corporation take over control of the resource. When their last job goes wrong, they stumble across a maz conspiracy and have to save the world.
The idea of this book is really cool and I loved how diverse and queer it is but that's all this book was?? Maybe it should have focused more on the romance instead whatever hell else was going on because damn. The entire plot and magic system just felt like spaghetti noodles.
The magic system felt barely explained and all around ??? It didn't make any sense and was such nonsense. Not everyone could use it and there were different levels for whatever reason and everyone was just like, that's fine?? The magic wasn't even impressive to me. It just felt like a super convenient way to make this book work. (lol it did not work.)
I love heist stories but this one was yikes. The execution was SO bad and nothing was unique at all. The entire plot happens because the MC, Diz is super selfish and then she spends the rest of the book just being lowkey awful. The romance with a non-binary character that has an illness was cute but their relationship felt so forced.
Besides Diz being selfish, she's so damn annoying and the book spends so much time saying how smart she is but I never actually felt that?? She has three best friends but I couldn't tell you their names or any other character names for shit because of how basic they all were. Did I tell you how ANNOYING AND WHINY Diz was yet? It had to be repeated.
The setting was just... another pot of spaghetti noodles. It was so vague and sci-fi, mentioning drones and all this other fun stuff but it did nothing for me. The heist was so bad oh my god. Of course this follows the same ~oh no the heist went bad~ plotline that all heist stories tend to do but this one felt extra unoriginal, even with the sci-fi set dressing and all the gays vibing.
Someone even betrays them in classic fashion and once you start reading you'll instantly know who so what was the point? The big bad was such a joke too and the entire thing felt so weak, like none of this even had to happen at all.
SPELLHACKER, sounds so fucking badass yeah? It wasn't badass at all and I'm mad about that and the wasted potential. This is the second book by this author I've hated and it sucks but I'm not going back for round three even if the cover is nice.
Spellhacker is about Diz who runs an illegal siphoning job on the side with her three best friends. Magic -otherwise known as maz- used to be freely available until an earthquake and a magical plague happened, killing thousands and letting a greedy corporation take over control of the resource. When their last job goes wrong, they stumble across a maz conspiracy and have to save the world.
The idea of this book is really cool and I loved how diverse and queer it is but that's all this book was?? Maybe it should have focused more on the romance instead whatever hell else was going on because damn. The entire plot and magic system just felt like spaghetti noodles.
The magic system felt barely explained and all around ??? It didn't make any sense and was such nonsense. Not everyone could use it and there were different levels for whatever reason and everyone was just like, that's fine?? The magic wasn't even impressive to me. It just felt like a super convenient way to make this book work. (lol it did not work.)
I love heist stories but this one was yikes. The execution was SO bad and nothing was unique at all. The entire plot happens because the MC, Diz is super selfish and then she spends the rest of the book just being lowkey awful. The romance with a non-binary character that has an illness was cute but their relationship felt so forced.
Besides Diz being selfish, she's so damn annoying and the book spends so much time saying how smart she is but I never actually felt that?? She has three best friends but I couldn't tell you their names or any other character names for shit because of how basic they all were. Did I tell you how ANNOYING AND WHINY Diz was yet? It had to be repeated.
The setting was just... another pot of spaghetti noodles. It was so vague and sci-fi, mentioning drones and all this other fun stuff but it did nothing for me. The heist was so bad oh my god. Of course this follows the same ~oh no the heist went bad~ plotline that all heist stories tend to do but this one felt extra unoriginal, even with the sci-fi set dressing and all the gays vibing.
Someone even betrays them in classic fashion and once you start reading you'll instantly know who so what was the point? The big bad was such a joke too and the entire thing felt so weak, like none of this even had to happen at all.
SPELLHACKER, sounds so fucking badass yeah? It wasn't badass at all and I'm mad about that and the wasted potential. This is the second book by this author I've hated and it sucks but I'm not going back for round three even if the cover is nice.
lesserjoke's review against another edition
3.0
I like this novel's conceit of magic as a tightly-controlled natural resource that criminals are hired to siphon off from the government pipeline, and I definitely appreciate author M. K. England's commitment to representing diversity of race and gender in this setting. Among other inclusive elements, it's refreshing to see that the heroine's love interest uses they/them pronouns (as does England themself). But I feel like the book promises clever heist action that it never really delivers on, and the worldbuilding and eventual villain motivations each come off as somewhat vaguely defined. It's great for helping to widen the scope of who gets to save the day in genre fiction, but the story itself sometimes seems a bit perfunctory.
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Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
anigirl524's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
unicorn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
books_and_mushrooms's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5