Andrew Eliopulos

A magic-infused YA novel about friendship, first love, and feeling out of place that will bewitch fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater. Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia--and their time together in their school's magic club--to see him through to graduation. But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs. With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart--and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.

The Fascinators

so so good! so glad the ending didn’t just skip to james and sam dating, it would have been such a waste. loved it <3

Mijs Franssen

Hmmm.. I have to say I am underwhelmed. I was going into this book expecting a LGBTQ romance filled fantasy book but I ended up with a magic system that doesn’t make much sense to me and almost no romantic action…

I missed a bit of character development and world building and I wished there was more from the perspective of Liv who whe now barely get to know and I would have loved James’ perspective instead of just Sam’s.

The things I did like were for instance the story building. I think that it had a lot of potentional, and if the world building and character development was a bit better, it would have been perfect. I also liked the way they ended delia’s character. (Won’t spoil it) this felt true to me.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but it will probably end as one of the most disappointing reads of the year…

So I give this book a 3 star review.

Maria Luiza

This book is SO good! I love the characters and their personality, I love the writing style, I love that although it's a young adult book it's not filled with slang. I love how the magic exists in the book, I feel like it was approached in a really smart way, specially with the doctors and prejudice. It all felt really realistic to me. I also love that by the end of the book (view spoiler)[everything was not completely ok and the bad guys were completely defeated. It showed people's choices having consequences and that was really nice. I also love that the MC didn't end up with his best friend. (hide spoiler)] Everything is just so well written, so devourable, that I wish there was another one, even tho it sits perfectly on its own.

Candyce Kirk

Emily

~ Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for providing me with an early copy for review! Release date: May 12 ~ 

I went into this with some pretty average expectations, and I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised. While I was expecting a light story of high school kids with a little magic, The Fascinators actually provided valuable commentary on prejudice in a way I've never seen done before. 

I'm not sure if this is an entirely original idea, but it is my first time reading a story that takes place in the modern world where magic is considered another attribute that one can be discriminated against for. While of course this book also discussed homophobia and how it effects people across the world, specifically in the U.S. South, the idea to use magic as a greater representation of this was very clever. It provided an additional layer to the already compelling story.

I was also very surprised, yet pleased by some of the directions that this story went in. Some choices made in creating this story really elevated it past where I was expecting it to be. (view spoiler)[ 1. Delia's betrayal was truly interesting. Initially, I was indifferent to it, given the fact that it was heavily foreshadowed. However, her ending was truly not what I was expecting. In most books like this the original friend group suffers some sort of falling out, realizing they've changed, but they always end up back together, even if it's with a different sort of dynamic. That is not what happened here, and Delia ends up facing the consequences for her actions, completely alone and on a new path. I really appreciated that bold decision by the author. 2. Sam and Denver ending up together was exactly what I thought should have happened, but was 100% not what I expected to. Again, in books like this, the OG love interest, the one with the complicated history, is always endgame. Hell, that's even why Greta Gerwig changed the order of introduction of love interests in her take on Little Women. Yet, Andrew Eliopulos really pulled the rug out from under us with this one. But, we still regained our balance. Honestly, I was shocked by how great this decision was! Literally no books I've read make it! I give him so much credit for this.  (hide spoiler)]

Regarding the writing, I have conflicting feelings. On one hand, the diction in here was genuinely quite advanced at times, and I found myself frequently looking up the insanely specific words used. Eliopulos does comment about this in the acknowledgements, which I appreciated lol. However, amidst all of the advanced vocabulary were some very juvenile passages. This isn't something I usually mind because I do mainly read YA, but I just wanted to note that there are evident tonal shifts in the writing style. Especially the prologue compared to the rest of the book. I was nervous after reading it because I did not like the voice it conveyed, but I was very happy to find that the writing style only improved throughout the novel. You could almost see the growth in the author. For that, I think the beginning could have used just a bit more editing. 

I'm very glad that I found this hidden gem, and I'm excited for others to get to read this soon! I will definitely be keeping tabs on Andrew Eliopulos' releases in the future!

Ariel Himboi

I can tell I viewed The Fascinators in a different light than a lot of other readers, but I think we can all agree on one thing: the writing style is beautiful, alluring and addicting. Props also to the narrator who read it on Scribd who, like the writing, was addicting and I couldn’t help enjoy listening to the story. 

I do have to agree that one thing that felt out of place in my experience was that the plot, while solid enough throughout, abruptly ended in a way that felt unfinished. Sam and Denver didn’t quite have the chemistry yet for me to feel like it wasn’t rushed or a WIP. And, the feelings and relationship between Sam and James was still incomplete, and while this would make sense as the nature of how they collide and blend romantically and platonically, it did not feel like we were done yet. To continue, Delia’s situation felt rushed too, and it made me believe this story wasn’t over yet, that this entire lead up to the end is just the beginning. However, there won’t be a second book? Am I... not to expect anything after? It felt like this novel was the beginning of a series that could be extremely polarizing and well loved and read. 

Unfortunately, I don’t agree that its over and I wish we had more. While the plot had its cliff hanger, likely for eternity, it didn’t overshadow the incredible feeling I had listening to this book. 

The magic was albeit a bit still mysterious by the end, I enjoyed the developments and relationships, which really did remind me of Rainbow Rowell’s found family trope in Carry On. The unresolved feelings, the trauma of being controlled by magic to be at will by evil, a corrupt leader? Not to mention the angtsy romance and confusing love square with characters you really can’t hate. 

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it for someone who wants a very, very, slow crawl story about three close knit friends meet the terror of a dangerous cult while trying to graduate and make something of themselves, with the addition of danger and a contemporary core that will make you question... hold on or move on? 

All in all despite the small flaws... a 5* read!

Jasmin

I thought it was a light and fun read that was well written and didn’t take too much brain energy to understand. If you want a break between heavy books this was really lovely :)

Ro Grayson

Mitz

Julia

Leonie

A magic-infused YA novel about friendship, first love, and feeling out of place that will bewitch fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater. Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia—and their time together in their school's magic club—to see him through to graduation. But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs. With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart—and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.

The Fascinators

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