Magonia #2
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: October 4th, 2016
Source: Edelweiss
Date Read: 10/12/16 to 10/16/16
320 pages
Rating: ✰✰✰1/2
Where is home when you were born in the stars?
Aza Ray is back on earth. Her boyfriend Jason is overjoyed. Her family is healed. She’s living a normal life, or as normal as it can be if you’ve spent the past year dying, waking up on a sky ship, and discovering that your song can change the world.
As in, not normal. Part of Aza still yearns for the clouds, no matter how much she loves the people on the ground.
When Jason’s paranoia over Aza’s safety causes him to make a terrible mistake, Aza finds herself a fugitive in Magonia, tasked with opposing her radical, bloodthirsty, recently-escaped mother, Zal Quel, and her singing partner Dai. She must travel to the edge of the world in search of a legendary weapon, The Flock, in a journey through fire and identity that will transform her forever.
In this stunning sequel to the critically acclaimed Magonia, one girl must make an impossible choice between two families, two homes—and two versions of herself.
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.
I’m not exactly sure how I should review this. I don’t know if my tastes have changed over the year, since I read Magonia. Looking over that review, it seemed like I really loved it, despite the lack in world building and the almost love triangle.
Beware, if you're interested in reading this series, there are potential spoilers for the first book in the review below!
Remember what I mentioned about the ending of Magonia? How it got us back to square one? Well because of that, I’m not surprised that Aza’s destructive mother, Zal, broke out of Magonian prison, seeking revenge and control over Aza. Again. This time, there’s a rush to find a secret weapon. One that will somehow make Zal even stronger than Aza. And of course Jason, Aza’s boyfriend is brought into the mix. Though he makes some really questionable events, in which he thinks he is protecting Aza, a fugitive Magonian. But in reality he is not.
Aerie reads the same way as Magonia, not surprisingly. The writing is strangely beautiful, written lyrically. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that the plot remained similar to the first book, though with the addition of the US government now coming into play.
I’m not sure what changed since a year ago. But here are some quick thoughts as to how I feel today.
- Why was a second book necessary? I actually thought the first ended well. Or at least had a closed ending.
- The first book had a lack of world building, and I thought the sequel would at least expand where the first didn’t.
- I dislike Jason a bit. I understand he feels as if he can’t do anything to protect Aza, hence going towards the government for help. But how could he NOT foresee that turning against him?
- I remember nothing about Heyward. Apparently, she is the real “human” Aza, the one who was kidnapped by Magonian’s as a baby in order to place Magonian Aza within a human family.
- There’s no fear of character death here. Even though I did not get as emotional as I did during Magonia, the death was well-placed.
Overall, I still enjoyed the novel, but my lack of a memory kept me from being fully immersed. I tried to look up some sort of recap, but I barely found anything. But asides from that, I felt that this didn’t bring anything new to the table. The plot varied slightly compared to the first novel, and because of that I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be. I still like bird people though, haha.
