Paper Magician

Title: Paper Magician

Author: Charlie Holmberg

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Rating:  2 out of 5 stars

Ceony is a young magician in training. She has been bonded to paper simply because there are not enough paper magicians. This is a decision she is not happy with but goes to meet with her new mentor Magician Thane. While living with him she learns the magic of paper magic and how useful it can be. One night while having dinner a blood magician enters the home and steals Thane's heart. In a desperate attempt to save him, Ceony grabs some paper, her paper dog and goes in search of Lira to defeat her and get the heart back.  But to do so she must go inside his heart and free him from himself before she can defeat the evil on the outside.  Will she succeed in time to save him?

The concept of the story is interesting enough. I even liked the idea of Ceony going INTO Thane's heart to help defeat Lira by learning about the connection between the two. What I didn't like was how the story dragged on, nor did I like how she defeated Lira. It felt anticlimactic. There is a slight romantic aspect to it with Ceony loving Thane and Thane's involvement with Lira, which part of me wonders if the story would have been more powerful if it wasn't about a lovers on opposite sides of magic (Light and dark). There is no sexual content, but the amount of graphic violence was alarming. Blood everywhere, which I guess makes sense with a blood mage.

The whole second half dragged on and I kept wishing it would get better, to pick up.  Ceony goes into the heart and walks through Thane's memories, interesting enough, but it felt more like Thane and Lira were the main characters not Ceony.  Ceony spends time in visions of Thane, but cannot interact with him or vise versa. It almost made no sense what was the point other than to show how there came to be animosity between the two characters. I didn't find myself caring about the characters because there wasn't enough development to make me care about them. The only part that made me go "Awe" was when Thane makes Ceony a paper dog to replace hers.  A dog she brings with her into battle which seemed a little odd.  I found Emery more interesting than Ceony and actually wanted more from his character than what we actually see.

There is a lot of potential with the book, a lot that could be really good with the story, but it just....it just fell flat. I almost gave up a little less than half way through but wanted to at least finish it, hoping it would get better. It did not.  I wish there was more paper magic, more paper folding.  More explanation on the power that paper folding could have had, or more of a demonstration other than within the last few chapters.


Some of the marketing I have seen for this book have compared the novel to the likes of Harry Potter.  This is FAR from what we see in the Potter universe.  It doesn't delve into mythos or legends, nor does it have a in-depth, complex character or world.  I don't even really see a strong theme of loyalty, friendship and trust.  You do find a cute young woman growing to love her magic, learning something new and stepping outside of her comfort zone. 

I have debated on whether or not I would recommend this novel to others, but just because I didn't like a story doesn't mean someone else wouldn't.  Check out the book if you like magic, young adult, a little romance.  Maybe try it from the library before buying it though.  I haven't decided if I want to venture into the second novel in the series, maybe from the library rather than buying it myself.  The rating is again a 2 out of 5 stars because it just fell flat and the strong desire to just give up on the book.


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