The Fascinators

by Andrew Eliopulos

[lessthelonely]

OK... The fact that I was more invested in Sam and James than in Sam and Denver...? Speaks a lot about the "romance" in this book.

I liked the magic system of this book. It made sense, though it also, at times, left me kind of confused. To be fair, I believe it was for the sake of plot: it felt like spells were harder when the plot needed to drag for a bit, and easier when it was needed. Felt a little off, most of the time.

My biggest gripe with this book is its plot: it's mostly non-existant. Like... Holy shit. I don't know how I didn't DNF this - not to be mean! I'm glad I didn't. But most of the supposedly "OH SNAP" moments didn't have any snap... just a lot of "OH". Like... Oh! Okay! That's what's happening now.

It goes from betrayal to life-threaning spells to saving the character that seemed like was going to die 100%... The whole book also hinges on something that happened between James and Sam. You can guess what it is as soon as it is mentioned. The fact that it's only "revealed" in the final pages was unnerving.

This book definitely put the plot before the characters: no character in this book ends the same as you first know them. You might think that's 100% to be expected, since... character development. But all that happens is a complete 180 that comes out of nowhere, so the plot has turns to twist on:
- a first very likeable character becomes awful and betrays the main character for no apparent reason other than "power"... only to in the last few pages go back to before because after the plot's established that MC and character aren't friends anymore, it's time for redemption, folks!
- a character the MC doesn't like goes from annoying (I must say: the author did a good job making me dislike said character) to actually likeable, because character is going to be needed to provide closure on MC and his straight crush!


The writing, however, was very much above average. My gripes have to be the constant referring of the character's MC as an "empath"... It didn't feel natural the first time. That never changed.


I, however, do not regret buying this book: I wanted magic and gayness. I still got it! I just didn't get a very good story.