Audiobook Review – Sacred Scars (A Resurrection of Magic, Book 2) by Kathleen Duey (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 560 pages
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Release Date: August 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-0689840951
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Resurrection of Magic series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

I loved Skin Hunger and was very excited to read this book. It just about killed me though, I thought this was a duology and it ends up it is a trilogy…and the last book has had an undetermined release date for the last 3 years…ugh. This is an absolutely wonderful story, but it has absolutely no resolution at the end.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was very well done. I really enjoy the narrator and he does an excellent job distinguising different character voices and conveying emotion.

Sadima, Franklin, and Somiss, have been driven out of Limòri and are living in an abandoned cave. Somiss has kidnapped a variety of young street children that he is trying to teach to copy and/or use magic. Somiss remains violent and very secretive.

Meanwhile the other half of the story is about Hahp, who is struggling to survive the wizard’s increasingly dangerous tests. Hahp is making a lot of progress and he slowly is learning that his roommate, Gerrard, knows more about the wizard school than he is letting on. Hahp is desperately trying to form a pact between the students so that they can destroy this evil wizard school once and for all.

Okay I am still in shock a little bit over how the book ended (right in the middle of everything) and because the next book has an undetermined release date (and has for 3 years). I am going to take a deep breath now and try to calm down so I can write this review.

This is such an absolutely excellent and creative fantasy series. It is just a wonderful read and I have been completely engaged by this book and absolutely ensnared by this world.

The characters just pull you in completely. The story moves deliberately but builds a ton of suspense as well. You just know things aren’t going to end well for Sadima and you are constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then when it does, you are like…woah!…I totally didn’t see that coming. Same goes for Hahp, you are constantly waiting for the next crazy test he will have to survive or the next big mental leap he will make in using magic. It is just amazing how Duey keeps you so ensnared in the story.

This book gives you more hints about the time difference between the two storylines. In the first book you are uncertain about the time frame for Sadima’s story versus Hahp’s. In this book that is clearer, obviously Sadima’s story takes place a long, long time before Hahp is even born. Still it is very engaging to try to fit the puzzle pieces from each story together to form a complete timeline. As the story continues you begin to recognize more and more overlap and more and more names that match between the two stories.

The biggest negative to this book is that it ends absolutely in the middle of the story with nothing resolved. Seriously I thought I hadn’t downloaded the whole audiobook or something. We are right in the middle of a ton of things and the book is all like “the end”. I absolutely hate that when authors do that.

Overall this is an incredibly creative and well written fantasy novel. It is really like nothing I have ever read before. It has very compelling characters and the plot just grabs you and won’t let go. It is a really incredibly read and I recommend it to all fantasy lovers out there. Just be warned the story is not at all resolved and it…will…kill…you…to have to wait to know what is going to happen next. With the undetermined release date, I would recommend waiting until the third book at least has a release date before delving into this trilogy.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Audio Book Challenge
– TBR Pile Reading Challenge