Review: Spellcaster by Claudia Gray

Spell Caster by Claudia Gray

or: Dear God, Someone Pass The Bleach

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Synopsis: When Nadia’s family moves to Captive’s Sound, she instantly realizes there’s more to it than meets the eye. Descended from witches, Nadia senses a dark and powerful magic at work in her new town. Mateo has lived in Captive’s Sound his entire life, trying to dodge the local legend that his family is cursed – and that curse will cause him to believe he’s seeing the future … until it drives him mad. When the strange dreams Mateo has been having of rescuing a beautiful girl—Nadia—from a car accident come true, he knows he’s doomed. Despite the forces pulling them apart, Nadia and Mateo must work together to break the chains of his family’s terrible curse, and to prevent a disaster that threatens the lives of everyone around them. 

I don’t know what I expected of this book but it certainly wasn’t what I found

This book left a lot wanting and I am thoroughly disappointed on the wasted hours I spent reading it. In a way i’m kind of proud of myself that I read this to the end. I held some hope that the final chapters may miraculously get better but they didn’t. They certainly did not.

I’ve never been this wholly let down by a book since the Great Gatsby in High School.

I’ve heard great things about Claudia Gray’s writing for years and always meant to try her work. Quite a few months ago, I was looking for new books to read and picked this one up on a sale and then promptly forgot about it until earlier this week. I decided to give it ago and really wish I hadn’t.

The promise the story held was far outweighed by poor execution, dreary narration and such lackluster characters that it doesn’t seem like Gray put in any effort at all when writing this. This whole story seems forced.

I wish Gray just scrapped the whole thing and started again. New characters, new style of narration, everything but the basic, basic plot. Because that basic plot is why I picked up the book; I wanted to know about a town cursed by an evil magic that was destroying it from the inside. THAT is why I gritted my teeth so tightly I heard my jaw creak, and read through to the miserable end.

There were multiple times during this book where I was tempted to just throw it away. I guess I just wanted to prove to myself that I had a high pain threshold. I feel the need to go cleanse my mind with Jane Austen now to recover.

The sole character who had a stomach in this story was Cole, the main characters little brother. In fact, the story told from Cole’s point of view would have been infinitely better. But alas.

If anyone reads this review? please dear god tread carefully and reconsider this book.