About hunters who mainly ate pizza – a review of the book “Midnight Chronicles. The Power of the Amulet “

Reaching for youth books that promise to be urban fantasy, I expect exciting action scenes, interesting paranormal plots, investigations and (what should I have started with) well-written characters. Unfortunately, not all of them – including the novelty by Bianka Iosivoni and Laura Kneidl – meet these quite specific requirements …

The main problem with this new novel about hunters is that the authors have created something that I believe already exists. The first volume of Midnight Chronicles reminded me many times of the series The Gifts of an Angel by Cassandra Clare, only in a less thoughtful execution. I am not saying that the mentioned series is a fantastic reference point in youth literature (because it is not), but it has elements in common with the novelty of Jaguar, which are much more thoughtful and have a stronger impact on the emotions of the reader.

Good morning my name is… 

So we have Roxy, a free (unaffiliated – as far as I understand the explanation) magic hunter (21) with an unbelievable, difficult mission to capture a few hundred randomly released damned souls. In addition, the girl is trying to find her missing brother, and at the same time she has been endowed with an additional, extremely rare skill that she hides from others. In her actions, the heroine has a faithful helper in the form of Grimm Hunter Finn (it’s hard to say what their relationship is, because in my opinion it is written very generally, let’s say, however, that it is such a work acquaintance), whom she can always count on – just like on his supervisor, over seventy-year-old hunter Maxwell.

In general, the life of the characters in the book The Power of the Amulet is about living in a shared quarters and hunting paranormal creatures. During one of the missions, however, Roxy saves the man who, despite expelling the ghost from him, does not fully return to himself, because he completely loses his memory. This is something new for the hunter community, so they feel compelled to take care of the delinquent. A mysterious stranger who takes the name Shaw is quickly confronted with a reality full of monsters, after which he decides … to train as a hunter as well.

Hero No. 234, Hero No. 235 …

The first thing I didn’t like about this book is the character creations. Roxy as the main persona has a well-defined character and behavior, but it’s hard to sympathize with her. Either she is irritated and shows her partner the third finger, or she reminds us over and over of her hard and impossible mission, and at the same time is simply boring (her favorite activity is eating junk food). The girl’s partner, who was supposed to be a slightly malicious friend, in effect appears as a reliable packer, appearing in every fight, but adding little to this novel. Only Shaw, the man who has lost his memory, has funny inserts, pleasantly human behavior (asking questions based on knowledge gained from series such as The Vampire Diaries) or reactions, so his character is the best among the three. There are other hunters in the background as well, but they don’t get involved in history enough that it makes sense to write anything more about them. Even mentioning the main antagonist, he does not appear until halfway through the book and neither frightens nor surprises. His motivations are explained quite succinctly, which makes him look pale and boring (he is angry because he is angry). Seemingly, a few of the lines he says open up new threads, but they are just a sneak peek, insufficiently developed to arouse curiosity in the reader.

Pizza and walking around the city

Kolejny minus za dość monotonną fabułę. Po zakończonej lekturze próbowałam sobie podsumować, co tak właściwie się w tej historii dzieje i doszłam do wniosku, że bohaterowie albo włóczą się po mieście szukając potencjalnych potworów do zlikwidowania, albo siedzą w kwaterze i jedzą (ewentualnie trenują). Z jednej strony rozumiem, że nie powinnam oczekiwać cudów, z drugiej – skoro fabuła sprowadza się wyłącznie do takich czynności, mogłaby nadrobić przykładowo super opisanym światem lub całym wątkiem paranormalnym. W przypadku tej książki, niestety, nieważne, o jakim elemencie historii myślę, każdy był zwyczajnie nudny. Nawet rozwijający się między Roxy i Shawem romans nie ma w sobie absolutnie żadnej chemii, więc zapomnijcie o wypiekach na twarzy w trakcie czytania.

Więc chodź pomaluj mój świat – na nudno i nieciekawie

The action scenes were also described very neglectfully; the authors did not use the opportunities of either London or Paris at all. Although the reader knows what is happening and where, the attempts to draw the next locations in his head do not stimulate the imagination. The same applies to the plot, which tells us its direction from the very first pages (the mission to catch souls and find brother Roxy) and on the way it does not surprise us with a single event. Even the fight against the main opponent in this volume is terribly pale and does not fulfill the function of a climax in the book at all. The whole novel lacks emotion and a meaningful and concrete rationale for the role of hunters.

The worst part, however, is the ending, which leaves absolutely all threads open, and additionally throws a few random names of new characters that will probably be included in the next volume.

This amulet doesn’t work a bit

Unfortunately, despite my best wishes, I didn’t like anything in this novel (well, maybe except for the character of Shaw). In addition, I found a few typos in personal forms during the dialogues, which confused who said the point. Even the cover of this book is graphically unattractive, so – unfortunately – I do not recommend it.