Mystic, Remnant, Some Kind of Magic

Mystic: The Tenth Apprentice by G. Willow Wilson Published: Marvel on 2011, eBook, 96 pages
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novel
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TWO TEENAGED WIZARDS. ONE DESTINY.
Can their friendship survive their greatest test?
The Limpet Hall Orphanage for Girls in the impoverished slums of Hyperion is no place for two young girls to grow up. But Gisells and Genevieve have always taken care of each other, waiting for the day they will be released from the servitude of the orphanage--and secretly daring to study the Noble Arts, magical skills only available to the aristocracy. When they're caught after hours in the library of the tyrannous Mistress of Limpet Hall, they have no choice but to take to the streets and forge their own paths. With new, incredible powers gleaned from the magical technology once forbidden to them, one girl will take up the massive burden of saving the world, and the other will direct all her efforts to tearing it apart!

I read this because of Memory! Also G. Willow Wilson is writing Ms. Marvel now (which I very much enjoyed) and I wanted to try another of her books. This one’s about two friends: one destined to be a great magician and one who, well, isn’t. It is super short– maybe too short, as the story moves along at a breakneck pace and character development suffers as a result. With only 96 pages there isn’t a whole heap of room for anything but the main plot. The beginning was so strong that I had high expectation for the rest of the book. Unfortunately, the pacing was way too fast and by the end the excitement I’d had for the story had fizzled out.
I liked the art, though!
Read: May 13, 2015

A short crossover between Jordan L. Hawk’s Whyborne & Griffin series and K.J. Charles’ The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal! I always think it’s fun to see beloved characters from an outsider’s POV, as usually you learn something new about them. In Remnant, for example, Simon and Robert think Whyborne is an evil sorcerer and treat him accordingly for a good chunk of the story. Whyborne’s definitely not evil, but he HAS messed around with things that give off the taint of evil. S&R don’t know that, though, not having read three books while deep into Whyborne’s POV. So it’s a fun little thing to read about! Bonus points for Robert and Griffin going to an underground gay club and flirting with each other a lot.
Most of the emphasis is on the characters and how they interact with each other, so the mystery isn’t as big of a deal. But it IS still very spooky– and sad. Somebody’s using an ancient Egyptian love spell and it ends up killing a lot of people instead of making them, y’know, fall in love.
Read: July 12, 2015

This is fluffy as hell, but I’m a sucker for “I’m totally devoted to you but will never tell even though it’s totally obvious you’re into me, too” stories. Interesting (though light) world-building! There are werewolves and fairies and wizards, but no vampires. Everybody kinda mixes with each other, though there’s still a lot of stereotypes and misinformation about different paranormal species. Example: the protagonist completely misunderstanding his love interest because he never bothers to ask him anything, he just assumes stuff based on rumors.
Has a mystery subplot in which the murderer seems obvious in retrospect, but took me by surprise because I was paying more attention to the UST, I guess? Anyway, will definitely be reading the other books in this series because I enjoyed this one and want to see what other fun couples the author comes up with.
Read: August 12, 2015