Scan barcode
A review by onlyoko
Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian
slow-paced
3.0
Ahhh, this had so much potential!
Let's start by saying that I was expecting a dark academia, enemy to lovers, urban magic setting... But it wasn't really there. The academia setting is dropped almost immediately. The enemy to lovers is there, but it was a bit insufferable - we know they're enemies, but I feel like there is not a good reason for them to be enemies - especially in the beginning, it was painful to go through pages and pages of banter, the protagonist just hates everyone except her best friend, and even the academic rivalry isn't fleshed out enough to make it make sense (plus, anything academic is dropped almost immediately...).
Finally, the urban magic setting is there but used a lot less than it could have been.
I fear that the focus on the romance took away from everything else, sadly. The magic plot in particular is infuriatingly underdeveloped - we get a big revelation about both main characters at some points, but it's not treated as a big thing nor do the characters treat it as such, and it doesn't have any real consequence even if the climax of the magic happens somewhere around 2/3rds of the book, instead of at the end. The remaining third is painfully focused on the romance only, leaving all the very interesting developments of the magic completely underdeveloped.
Unlike some readers, I don't mind thebittersweet ending at all; however, it felt flat as everything else outside of the romance got a lot less attention than it could have.
TL;dr? Started great the first pages, then took a dip, then things got really interesting with a good buildup... but everything was completely dropped. This makes me sad, because both the characters and the world had potential, and I really like the writing style.
Let's start by saying that I was expecting a dark academia, enemy to lovers, urban magic setting... But it wasn't really there. The academia setting is dropped almost immediately. The enemy to lovers is there, but it was a bit insufferable - we know they're enemies, but I feel like there is not a good reason for them to be enemies - especially in the beginning, it was painful to go through pages and pages of banter, the protagonist just hates everyone except her best friend, and even the academic rivalry isn't fleshed out enough to make it make sense (plus, anything academic is dropped almost immediately...).
Finally, the urban magic setting is there but used a lot less than it could have been.
I fear that the focus on the romance took away from everything else, sadly. The magic plot in particular is infuriatingly underdeveloped - we get a big revelation about both main characters at some points, but it's not treated as a big thing nor do the characters treat it as such, and it doesn't have any real consequence even if the climax of the magic happens somewhere around 2/3rds of the book, instead of at the end. The remaining third is painfully focused on the romance only, leaving all the very interesting developments of the magic completely underdeveloped.
Unlike some readers, I don't mind the
TL;dr? Started great the first pages, then took a dip, then things got really interesting with a good buildup... but everything was completely dropped. This makes me sad, because both the characters and the world had potential, and I really like the writing style.