On Starships and Dragonwings

I have to say that I adored the beginning of Red Madrassa, even if it took me a little bit to get all the characters straight in my head, and while I was a bit disappointed at the sudden ending, I think Harry Potter fans might like this magical school adventure :).

 Goodreads | Amazon
Title: Red Madrassa
Author: Terah Edun
Length: 244 pages
Genre-ish: YA fantasy
Rating: ★★★☆☆- awesome start, slipped at the end

A magical accident threw them together. But when Fate holds all the cards, it can be impossible to tell the difference between pure chance and Destiny… 

The Madrassa, a magical school for mage practitioners, is the stuff of legend. With selective entrance exams and quotas for only the most advanced of mage children, it’s almost impossible to attend.

When Allorna, a guardian trainee for the royal family, ends up on the doorstep of the citadel on the eve of the final day of a recruitment ceremony, she decides it must be fate.

She was sure she knew the path her life would take before she enrolled. But sometimes life has a way of throwing in magical curveballs and strange friends, just to see if you’ll trip up.

Oh, and one of those friends is a mage accused of murder, another is a slightly psychotic dragon, the third a healer facing an existential crisis, and the last is a female storm-caller with more hidden secrets than a thief lord.

Do they all belong at the new school they call home? – Goodreads

Strengths:

•  Red Madrassa has a full cast of interesting characters with a wide range of backgrounds included various races and sexual orientations, yey diversity in fantasy for once!
• The writing was so readable and compelling! No matter what was happening in the plot, I still found Red Madrassa fun to read, which is saying something since sometimes the kids were just taking classes, haha.
• There were some nice editions to the typical schools of magic, including an unknown/innate type which was pretty cool to learn about :D.

Weaknesses:

• There was a mystery that was introduced in the beginning of Red Madrassa, but the characters didn’t really do much to try to solve it and didn’t have a hand in resolving the plot tension. It just sort of resolves itself….
• No real action happens in the last half of Red Madrassa until the veeerrrry end, since the kids were mostly just going to class. Don’t get me wrong, classes are great, but I really wanted the book to continue for another hundred pages at least to give me a nice epic conclusion.
• There were several times where the pronouns really confused me and may not have been grammatically correct. Especially when there are so many characters, it probably would be better to use more specific identifiers than “he” and “she” given that there are multiple of those in a room pretty much all the time ;-).

Summary:

Red Madrassa had a great start as a magical school adventure, but it felt like it needed to be a bit longer in order to capture that young kids saving the day adventure that we all love. It’s no fun when the adults step in to do all the adventuring! Nonetheless, if you go in knowing what to expect and are looking for a light and diverse school-based fantasy, Red Madrassa is for you. I look forward to seeing what the next book holds, now that we’ve gotten the basics of the school out the way!