Trigger warnings: Talk of death, grief, drowning
Synopsis: Amelia Jones always dreamed of attending the Mystwick School of Musicraft, where the world’s most promising musicians learn to create magic. So when Amelia botches her audition, she thinks her dream has met an abrupt and humiliating end—until the school agrees to give her a trial period. Amelia is determined to prove herself, vowing to do whatever it takes to become the perfect musician. Even if it means pretending to be someone she isn’t. Meanwhile, a mysterious storm is brewing that no one, not even the maestros at Mystwick, is prepared to contain. Can Amelia find the courage to be true to herself in time to save her beloved school from certain destruction?
Review: The Mystwick School of Musicraft is a pure delight. Amelia Jones is not a great musician, but she manages to get into a prestigious boarding school for budding magical musicians. The physical edition of this book comes out next January, but the audiobook is on Audible and that is definitely the way to go. An orchestra accompanies the narration, and it was so nice to her Amelia describe a scene with music flowing in the background. The music varied from simple tunes like The Itsy Bitsy Spider to complex classical music.
I liked Amelia a lot because she did fumble and fail many times throughout the book. We also see her deal with feeling alone for a lot of reasons. At the start of the book, her mom has died and her dad is gone She was raised by her grandmother, but her grandmother hates musicraft, so Amelia thinks she's eternally mad for going to Mystwick. Then she gets to school and she only really has one friend while she's there. Wanting to prove herself, but also feeling lonely, is such a common thing for kids and I loved how it manifested in Amelia.
The story had some predictable moments, but it was still super fun. I loved seeing how music turned into magic. I don't know if Jessica Khoury has a background in music, but she took care in showcasing the difference between instruments and musical tones. We also get to see how composers and conductors are shown in this story too. I will say that I wish we had more scenes with Amelia and her roommate. From the start, they have a complicated relationship and grief could have been a connection with them, but it wasn't. That's the thing that would have made this book perfect for me. Otherwise, this was still a great book. The story felt concluded, but I wouldn't be mad if more books came from this story.
Wonderful book with incredible musical references. Highly recommend the audiobook.
4 howls
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