School of X (Marvel Xavier's Institute)

[Quirky Cat]

School of X is one of the latest Marvel/Aconyte novels, and as you might have guessed, it is focused entirely on Xavier's Institute. Better yet, this is an anthology, which means it is full of short stories revolving around beloved X-Men characters.

This School of X anthology includes seven short stories; Fifteen Minutes by Jaleigh Johnson, Call of the Dark by Robbie MacNiven, Uncatchable by Cath Lauria, Eye of the Storm by Amanda Bridgeman, Of Dirt and Bones by Pat Shand, Kid Omega Faces the Music by Neil Kleid, and Depowered by Carrie Harris. Read below to get individual reviews on each!

Fifteen Minutes by Jaleigh Johnson
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Recently I was doing a Marvel novel binge (can you tell by my reading history?), and I was lucky enough to nab Triptych. I'm bringing that up here because Jaleigh Johnson wrote both, and I have come to find that I really like her writing style!
Fifteen Minutes is largely centered around Celeste and Fabio Medina, and it was kind of refreshing to see such a sweet moment of friendship in a world that is so commonly portrayed as being nothing but chaos and pain.

Call of the Dark by Robbie MacNiven
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For those that wanted to learn a little bit more about the Weapon X program, Call of the Dark will make an interesting read. In this short we see Jonas (Greymalkin) exploring an old Weapon X facility. It's eerie and just the right amount of creepy, while still being quite informative. Making it one of my two favorites.

Uncatchable by Cath Lauria
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
To me, Uncatchable read as a very classic X-Men story – and I don't mean that as a a bad thing. We have Hijack and Cipher doing their thing, which ultimately involves them being amazing superheroes and saving the day. Like I said, classic X-Men story. It made for a fun and quick read.

Eye of the Storm by Amanda Bridgeman
Rating: ★ ★ ★
I'm not going to lie, when I saw the list of short stories, I totally assumed that Eye of the Storm would be a Storm heavy novel. While there is a storm involved,it does not end up going down quite like I expected. However, I appreciate the surprise, so I'm not going to complain.

Of Dirt and Bones by Pat Shand
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Of Dirt and Bones makes for the second short story in this anthology with a focus on one (or more) of the Cuckoos. I'm not going to complain, again because the whole point of this anthology is to appreciate individual characters and smaller moments around them. This time the focus is on Phoebe, though her sisters are present as well. This one does an amazing job of portraying how difficult their training was, and ultimately the sheer level of trauma they went through.

Kid Omega Faces the Music by Neil Kleid
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Next up we have Kid Omega Faces the Music, which follows the one and only Quintin. I'm not going to lie, I like the guy more thanks to his appearance in West Coast Avengers (it is difficult to dislike anyone who loves Gwenpool). So it was kind of nice to see him here. This is a fairly introspective story, especially for Quintin. I liked it.

Depowered by Carrie Harris
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Last, but certainly not least, we have Depowered. This is the longest short in the anthology, which makes sense, being the anchor short and all. This one felt like it had multiple threads running throughout each other, which means it is more complex than the rest. That felt very on-point for the comics, where there are dozens of threads going at any one time.
This short features Magneto, Eva Bell, Polaris, and Dani Moonstar, and was an interesting blend of emotion and action that I really appreciated.

Thanks to Aconyte and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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About Marvel Entertainment

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