DNF Early Review – Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Ace
Release Date: November 5, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1984805843
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.”

I got this book through NetGalley to review. It sounded right up my alley, however I struggled to even get through the first couple chapters. This book is incredibly dense, it is written more like a text book than a fantasy novel and I was not in the mood to read something like that. I may have to pick it up at a different time.

This book switches between Onna’s POV (a student at a magic school) and a young troll. That’s as far as I got into the story. It took me forever just to read the first chapter because of all the names, technical terminology, and world history that is thrown at the reader. It was incredibly dense and I found the writing style very difficult to read.

I struggled through the second chapter and then called it quites. This book was making me very grumpy and I was very frustrated with it. I will say that I may not have read enough of th ebook to give itt a decent evaluation and in general folks have been saying the story improves later in the book.

Overall this was not for me. It was a huge struggle to get through the first couple chapters, the writing is very dense and the book takes itself very seriously. This was just not something I am at all interested in, despite the fact that the synopsis sounded intriguing. I imagine that this book will get high ratings because of the sheer effort and detail the author put into writing it, however that doesn’t mean it’s an enjoyable read.