I don’t often pick up middle grade books, so I always struggle a bit with reviewing them. What if I’m misjudging something because I’m not the target audience and don’t have the correct baseline? But anyway, I definitely had a lot of fun with this one. The titular school is such a fun, whimsical place that gave off a tiny bit of The House in the Cerulean Sea vibe (but from the kids’ perspective) with perhaps a whiff of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children for good measure. I loved the portrayal of magic as something both beautiful and dangerous, and how a kid’s mental health situation may affect their control, and how the school encourages everyone to grow and experiment and heal if needed. This whole approach is something that really resonates with me and was a joy to read.

However, while I loved how all the themes around magic were handled here and for the most part enjoyed the magic system, I think the way the system itself was laid out turned out a bit confusing. It took me longer than comfortable to remember all of the branches and the differences between them and to start correctly attributing all the same-ish names in my head. It’s not impossible that my attention span’s just not spanning very well these days, but I’m still left with the impression that these parts of the worldbuilding were a bit too convoluted.

Another strong theme in the book is the importance of friendship, and I really liked watching Vin actually make friends. The bond she forges with Gilly, Araminta, and Theo is beautiful, and the way this friendship slowly takes shape and grows is so realistic, with Vin’s abandonment issues, social awkwardness, and anxiety complicating things but never turning into insurmountable obstacles. I felt all the kids were so vividly written and realistic, and it was interesting to see the subtle differences in how they communicated with each other and with the adult characters, or how they dealt with experiences such as anxiety in ways slightly different from how an adult would tackle those but still very recognizable.

I can’t quite decide whether the mystery at the center of the plot is as predictable as I found it, or if it’s just the “not the target audience” case. Regardless, I remained hooked by all the friendship and magic, and overall this has been a heartwarming, exciting read that I would definitely recommend to MG fantasy readers. Especially to kids dealing with anxiety, because I’d sure love to have something like this back when I was one myself!