> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Stevermer-Le-college-de-magie/146517

I quite enjoyed this. It has something quiet and dreamily descriptive at times, but without losing track of the story. And I liked Faris a lot, with her loyalty and her occasional unapologetic honesty. ( )

I had no idea that Caroline Stevermer had written adult fantasies, so I was excited to encounter this vintage title in a used bookstore.

A College of Magics is an alt-history gaslight fantasy, part school story and part Ruritanian romance. In blending genres, Stevermer takes structural risks that almost made me put down the book. The first several chapters are largely narration, and the story develops very organically and episodically.

I kept reading for Faris. The young duchess of Galazon, gawky, headstrong, and equal parts self-assured and self-conscious, she is a splendid, unforgettable character. The other highlight here is Stevermer's confidence with her source material—she has an incredible command of the language and culture of early twentieth-century Europe, with just a subtle twist of magic and whimsy for flavoring.

Despite the slow start, the tension ratchets up as the book progresses, and the last third is exciting and well-plotted (and features one of the funniest examples of a Chekhov's gun that I've encountered in fiction). It's a pleasure to encounter a novel that delivers on all its narrative promises.

Definitely a quirky book, but some serious talent behind it - on the whole, a pretty excellent light fantasy read.

ETA: Apparently when they reprinted this, they marketed it as YA and as a "better than Harry Potter" magical school story. OH NOES. Older teens would enjoy this book, but stylistically it is really not YA at all. ( )

Took me a while to get through this one. I bought it during the spring and finished it in November. It's a bit of a slow, dry read, but the characters and premise are interesting enough to keep you going. The plot soon takes a turn and picks up speed... but ultimately I felt the story left more questions than answers. The whole theme seems to be the nature of magic, but magic in this world is never really explained. Perhaps because there's a second book? We shall see. ( )

10/21/2023 I read this book some 15 years ago, per my records, but I was surprised that I remembered barely anything about it (that's unusual for me). This time, I "got" the story. I liked it much better. It made more sense to me somehow. I suspect it will stick.

It isn't a difficult story -- more or less ordinary girl finds out she isn't as ordinary as she thought, that her life and her future aren't what she thought they would be, people around her are more than she thought, and so forth. It turned a lot of tropes over on their sides, which was good, but used them as tropes. It's clever, it's fun, it's thoughtful. and it's a good read. ( )