Holly Black and Cassandra Clare - Magisterium The Iron Trial

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare - Magisterium The Iron Trial.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars.

Hey Everyone! It has been a long time. I miss talking to you all and being a total nerd. It’s been a very long time but so much has happened in that time for me and I am so happy. I couldn’t think of a better time to start posting again. So thank you all for sticking around, and I hope you enjoy everything I have to share.

The first book I would like to review is the first in the Magisterium series by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. As I have said many times, I love these two authors and I’d read their shopping lists if I could so the fact I loved this book is no surprise to me. It is everything I could have wished for. It has all the magic and the angst that anyone could ever need. It is brilliant and I loved it. Here is why.

Synopsis:

Call has no idea what he’ll come up against in THE IRON TRIAL but he knows that if he passes the test, he’ll become a student of magic at the Magisterium.

Only, all his life, Call’s been warned to stay away from magic, so he tries his best to do his worst – but fails at failing.

Now he must enter the Magisterium, and it’s even more sensational and sinister than he could have ever imagined…

A Little About The Author:

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare first met over ten years ago at Holly’s first-ever book signing. They have since become good friends, bonding over (among other things) their shared love of fantasy – from the sweeping vistas of The Lord of the rings to the gritty tales of Batman in Gotham City to the classic sword-and-sorcery epics to Star Wars. With Magisterium, they decided to team up to write their own story about heroes and villains, good and evil, and being chosen for greatness, whether you like it or not.

Holly is the bestselling author and co-creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles series and won a Newbery Honor for her novel Doll Bones. Cassie is the author of bestselling YA series, including The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. They both live in Western Massachusetts, about ten minutes away from each other. This is their first collaboration and marks the start of a five-book series.

A Little About The Story:

This story followed Call and his journey discovering his magic. He had grown up with his father warning him of how bad magic was and how bad the people at the Magisterium were. So when it came to his test to get into the school he tried his best to tank it and fail it. Somehow he was still chosen as one of the students at the school. During his time at the school Call meets two new friends while learning how to control his magic. We get to watch as he grows and starts to accept who he is and this new life he has found himself in whilst also navigating a difficult situation with The Enemy of Death.

The main characters in this story were Call, Aaron and Tamara. All three are first year students at the Magisterium studying under Master Rufus (also a key character). The Enemy of Death was also a big factor in this story though wasn’t actually directly present in it. Call, Aaron, and Tamara are all in the same position with magic and learning to control it. We see them live together and grow together through this book.

The main characters in this story are at the Magisterium, a school for magic. They are learning how to control their magic in a safe environment in small groups each of which has a master to teach them. They live at the school, so we see them react in an entirely foreign environment to what they are used to and see how this effects them. We get to watch them come into their own not only with magic but as people.

Call has a physical disability. This isn’t something that you see a lot of in books like this. One’s with magical powers and enemies to fight and the world to conquer. This made the book a million times better. Call is awkward and not particularly skilled at magic and he has quite a different upbringing to a lot of the other students. By the end of the book we see him at an equal level to everyone else. His disability didn’t stop him from trying, he adapted and learnt how to do things in a different way. He didn’t become less awkward or himself as the book went on. His personality pretty much stayed exactly the same. It sends out such a great message about being enough exactly how you are. I applaud this and wish I read things like this more often.

Arguably the whole book was an adventure. Before now these children had little to no magical training. So it is an adventure in a sense that they are learning life changing skills. It is also an adventure as they are no longer living with their parents. They are becoming more independent and growing up a little bit more.

The characters in this book are so well written that you could probably find similarities between yourself and pretty much every single character – even the villains. I loved that the characters weren’t written as perfect heroes. They all have backstories, they all have their flaws and things they need to work on yet despite this they were still able to succeed.

I loved this book. I would truly read absolutely anything that Cassandra Clare and/or Holly Black publish. I love them as authors. So this book was perfect for me. You could see which parts were more Clare and which parts were more Black and it was a brilliant mesh of the two. I never really got into Harry Potter like most people did. It was just one of those things I didn’t like. This series gave me every bit of magic I feel like I missed out on when I was younger. It was amazing.

My favourite part of the book was Call trying to fail the trial to get into the school. That part had me giggling so much. It was very funny and relatable. I also loved reading about the relationship developing with Call, Aaron, and Tamara. Further to this I loved that the focus of the book wasn’t on romantic relationships. Friendship took the front seat and that was lovely to see.

I would recommend this book to people like myself who love and adore everything by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. This is a perfect mesh of both of their worlds and it clicks together beautifully. I would also recommend this book to anyone looking for a little more magic.

So there we have it. My review for the first book in the Magisterium series. I hope you liked what I wrote and I would love to hear more about your thoughts on the book if you have any.

Stay Curious! J x