Mystic City by Theo Lawrence
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Author: Theo Lawrence
Genre: Supernatural YA/Dystopian YA
Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House)
Year of Publication: 2012
Main Character: Aria (2/5)—Aria is an otherwise likeable character who remains at the mercy of her own ignorance for the entire novel.
Secondary Characters: Aria’s “family” and “friends” are ridiculously vapid and one-dimensional. However, they create great foil characters for the Mystics, who are the only people worth anything in this book, no matter how frustratingly little we see of them.
Pacing: The pacing skipped around a lot with this one. There were parts that would drag and others that moved so quickly that skipping a sentence would leave you lost.
Accuracy of Publisher’s Synopsis: Completely accurate.
Resolution: While there was nothing expressly wrong about the ending, I wasn’t satisfied with it.
The Good: The world within this book is an entirely unique (and not terribly farfetched) take on the future, complete with all the workings of a classic dystopian novel. But this time, the perspective given is of someone at the top. In another break from tradition, the group with magical powers is the group being oppressed. Though the truth remains frustratingly obvious from the start, I will give Lawrence this: by the end, he was answering questions I hadn’t known to ask. There were several surprises in the form of character loyalties that caught me off guard (in both good and bad ways). The world he created was intriguing and complex. He also addressed common issues like peer pressure or the war between following the path set for you and forging your own.
The Not So Good: By the third page, you’ve figured out the who, what, when, where, and why. The only thing missing is the how, and that gets filled in toward the end. In all honesty, I was fed up with Aria and her obliviousness by the time the story really picked up. She can clearly see that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, but can’t manage to put two and two together. I kind of took that as an insult to my intelligence by Lawrence. And I can’t believe that Aria let her family treat her so poorly. For someone with grand ideas of justice and passion for improving the world, she sure lacks that conviction in her personal life. She just wasn’t a very believable character for me.
Overall Impression: This book had good bones. The premise was interesting, the villains were perfectly evil, and the world was well thought out. Portions of it were quite enjoyable, but the inconsistency in pace and Aria’s complete paralysis in the face of her family’s betrayal transformed the book into a mockery of itself.
Would I recommend it? I’m more likely to recommend it than I am to convince someone not to read it.
The Word Snob 