Author: Akshaya Raman
Publisher: Clarion Books
Published Date: January 4, 2022
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★☆☆
REVIEW
This was about a group of siblings, all who had been separated by various circumstances, who must come together to fulfill their late fathers dream. That dream was to find 'The Ivory Key' which has the capabilities of finding a new kind of magic after the stores that their country currently uses runs out.
This book had one of the slowest starts I've read in a long time. The first chapter was actually really good, and made it seem like there would be a fast paced story ahead. There was a murder and a kidnapping in the first few pages and it sure seemed like this book was going to be right up my alley. But then it became a long drawn out family drama where nothing actually happened until around 60% of the way through. It was a lot of talking about finding the key, lying about the clues, each sibling talking about their individual motives. The actual quest to find the key took way too long to start, and by that time, I hate to say it but I had started to lose interest in the actual characters. There was way too much family drama and not enough plot. Once the adventure happened it actually began to be compelling with all the scheming and twists, but it was, in my opinion, just a little late on the jump.
With four different main points of view, it almost felt as if there wasn't enough time spent with each of them to really get to understand them. I think that's why it felt like more drama and not forward propulsion of the story. The chapters were quite short and by the time something starts to happen with one character, it felt like a sharp shift towards another character.
Now, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding. Raman was able to write in a way that really portrayed how the magic was used in this world and why it was such a big deal that it was running out. I do wish we got to learn more about the Kamala Society. The magic system was also fairly interesting. It almost seemed like as long as it was mined correctly, it could be used to make pretty much anything.
Overall, I am not sure if I will read the second book once it comes out next year. While the ending was far better than the rest of the book, I don't know if it was good enough for me to want to continue the story. Especially since the book is not published yet.
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