Alex Webber thought he was hallucinating. But when he sees the mysterious man following Natalie multiple times, he can no longer disbelieve his eyes. Alex sees her walking with him down a road in his neighborhood he’s never seen before – and can’t help but follow where he finds himself standing before a decrepit old mansion named Spellshadow Manor. What if you found yourself recruited to an institute of magic, only to discover you really couldn’t do magic? If you were at Spellshadow, you’d keep it a secret. Because Spellshadow’s elusive Head is hiding a secret of his own, one that Alex soon realizes he and Natalie must uncover at all costs if either of them wishes to leave the Manor alive… and before it’s too late.
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The Secret of Spellshadow Manor
Bella Forrest
I saw an ad claiming that The Secret of Spellshadow Manor was ‘The next Harry Potter’ so of course I ignored it. But then I kept seeing the same ad over and over again. I was intrigued because surely a bunch of money has been put behind it to advertise. So when I saw that it was on kindle unlimited I gave it a shot for this month. I really should have listened to my initial gut reaction.
The descriptions were frequently annoyingly written. Natalie is described by Alex, our main character. He then guesses her exact height as 5ft8. I don’t know about you, but in my head I don’t really think ‘oh yeah she’s definitely 5ft8’ when I meet someone. Also there are so many better ways to describe a character than to get a different character to do for you. This was lazy writing, and it was a pre-cursor the shit storm of awful descriptions to come.
Another problem with the descriptions was that too many similes were used. I remember being taught at school about similes and metaphors and them being good for creative writing. But this author isn’t 7 anymore and her writing should have expanded and developed so much more. And after a couple chapters I began to notice this, and then as soon as I noticed it just kept happening.
One of the descriptions that really stood for me was when the MC claims the manor isn’t quite old fashioned because ‘Old fashioned was a blue mustang blaring The Beatles, not an eerie, chilly, haunted tomb of a place’. So I have a couple of queries. 1. How old is this author? because ‘eerie, chilly, haunted tomb of a place’ is quite literally old fashioned when talking about a manor house. And mustangs and the Beatles are not that old. 2. Why is there so many adjectives? Again, this is not high level writing, this reads like what primary school kids are writing in their English classes.
Moving on from the descriptions because I could go all day about them. The main character, Alex, is not likeable at all. He turns up at school and describes a girl as self absorbed and then follows with ‘nothing out of the ordinary for a girl her age’. I first though, maybe this character is meant to be a judgmental asshole? but then later in the book we’re told that he’s such a good guy. I mean we all know an Alex, he’s that guy who claims all girls go for dicks when he’s single, alone but just a ‘nice guy’.
The actual plot was not explained properly. We’re in manor that isn’t actually on earth – but we’re not told how that works or why it’s not on earth or how people can get to and from this place. The ‘Finder’ has a backstory, but I still don’t understand why he’s stealing kids away to put into this magic school. The teachers at the school are all ex-students who at least 2 of them we know wanted to escape when they were brought to the manor. This means that theoretically every single person apart from the headmaster doesn’t want to be there? So why don’t they all just band together? You are literally up against one guy.
Overall this book just irritated me, and I only read it all so I could write a fully informed review. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to read this book, and the fact that it’s marketed towards people who enjoyed Harry Potter was a really bad idea. Because it’s nothing like Harry Potter, and most people who enjoyed Harry Potter enjoy a well-described, two-dimensional characters, worlds and interesting plots.
POSITIVES
+
NEGATIVES
– Descriptions were awful
– MC is not likeable at all
– Poor plot
View Comments (4)
Ah but the cover is so pretty! I hate it when you have books with gorgeous covers and then the book itself is a let down. Loved the review though :)
The amount of books I've bought for the cover is ridiculous! Glad you liked the review! 🙂
I've read this and didn't really like it either. I've read a lot of Bella Forrest books and the Gender Game series is probably the best. I like her stuff apart for The Spellshadow series. But I like her in a "these books are fun to read to help me recover from a book that left me with a ton of feels" kind of way and not a "she's an amazing author and her stories hit me in the feels" way, if that makes sense. But you should try The Gender Games it's a bit better.
I actually have the Gender Games on my kindle so I will probably try it at some point... but it's not top of my list right now 😂 Thank you for letting me know it's much better though! That will make it a lot easier for me to go into it.