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Mar 26, 2021OtteryStCatchpole rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
This book is a solid 3.5. I am reading this series out of order, accidentally. Try giant volume numbers on the cover or spine Scholastic, JUST SAYIN'. I have to say, Molly Ostertag has a keen eye when it comes to writing interesting characters. She understands the obvious divide between adults & adolescents that is so central to the main story. Parents simply don't understand their children, their desires & needs as often as they'd like. Children are equally cursed not to understand their parents worry born of tremendous love, & their inability sometimes to see that their children are growing, that they can handle more than they let them. Things readily apparent to other adults, but not necessarily parents about their own offspring. The story is about Aster, a boy who wants to be a witch, in a clan that separates magic by gender. Boys are shapeshifters, girls are witches & never does the magic ever mix or change. Witches' secrets are closely guarded so Aster has to learn surreptitiously, all the while wondering, now that he's an adolescent why the devil he can't find an animal spirit to teach him to shapeshift. An obvious metaphor for bigoted society, & gender norms. All that politicking aside, it is a very good story, & most realistic about it is the fact that by the end, Aster's mother is not simply alright with his wishes to become a witch & neither are her feelings all happily changed to loving whatever he is & does. Holly struggles in the story (in the series really) to understand what she believes is her son's choice. Something he knows is nothing he chose, but simply who he is. It isn't surprising adolescence is the period when most kids start to discover their sexuality, their gender, begin to question the things that society simply takes for granted, as it is a child's time of self discovery. Nor is it any more surprising parents find it hard to understand their adolescents, as they change & grow away from being needy, & from believing everything their parents tell them. The time honored age divide & cultural shifts come into play, & their reflected brilliantly if subtly in the battle of wills between Aster & the women in his family. Aster finds comfort outside of his family circle, the way many lgbtq+ individuals do, as its easier to have someone see him for who he is who isn't burdened with all the old ideas, & prejudices of family history, & their traditions. With Charlie's help he finds the courage to become who he is & to fight the story's monster, himself a victim of similar prejudices. You get a very entertaining story, which is brilliant if that's all your looking for. A story reflecting modern youth's struggles to come to terms with their own identity, freedoms, and future which are the age old struggles between the old & the young, parents & children. As well as an action adventure young adult graphic novel, with excitement & interesting loveable characters. Storywise nothing is lacking here. The reason I didn't give the book a perfect 4 (5's are reserved for life altering masterpieces), is because the art is a little rough. Perhaps I wouldn't have been so critical of it, had I not read book 3 & seen how much better Ostertag's art becomes. But having her future art to compare it to, & also those beautiful pieces of development art in the back, it is easy to see the artist/writer kind of rushed things at times. Doubtlessly in service to a deadline. The book lacks the polish of other collected editions of webcomics were artists aren't so rushed to crank out 200+ pages of a whole book in a few months. Does the story suffer for it? No. The art is still solid but given the cover, & the pieces in the back of the book you can tell the art could have been better. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes breathing. It's a good series, an ageless story with a more modern twist, full of enjoyable characters you get to know in the further books with good art that only only gets bet