The Ghost in the Crystal by Matt Posner

Description

Your NEW favorite magic school is New York City's School of the Ages. Ghosts and evil spirits -- elementals -- magical duels -- teen romance -- time travel -- real places in New York City -- ultimate tragedy. I am a mixed-race teen from Queens who discovers magic is real, introducing me to a new world of adventure and loss. My struggle to rid myself of an ancient heretic who has possessed me will drive me and my friends to journey to ancient Alexandria -- and a terrible sacrifice. Kids and adults won't stop reading ... The Ghost in the Crystal. I am Simon Magus, and I approve this message.

My Review

The Ghost in the Crystal by Matt Posner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Simon Magus is a young magician at the School of the Ages in New York. But magic school is not what he was expecting. After being haunted by a spirit at the school, he must travel to Ancient Alexandria to help the spirit and himself.


If you enjoyed Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and other YA books based on reality and fantasy in the real world, then this book might interest you.


I will admit it. When I first started reading this book, I kept expecting HP to pop around the corner or Percy to come running through. I mean there were things about the book that were very HP-like and PJ- like. Thankfully, there were enough differences that it didn’t take long before I forgot to compare this to HP or PJ. The few things that do match up with HP and PJ is the realistic feel of the magic being used/seen through the novel, though I enjoyed how Mr. Posner changed how magic could happen. It isn’t just with a spell and a wand, many times it can happen so much more easily and unplanned. It is similar to PJ, in that most of the novel takes place in NY, but it isn’t so similar that I was really bothered by it.


This book does have a great storyline and a good flow to it, though there are occasional lagging parts that make you want to skip ahead without pushing through the writing. It is an overall easy read, though the occasional grammatical errors, punctuation issues, and wording of the novel can bog down the overly critical.


Some people might have a problem with this book and how religion plays a role in the book. Even the rivalry between Simon and Yakov seems based a bit on religion, and that can make some people uncomfortable. Some people just can’t imagine magic and God being in the same book, but just remember other great novels like the Chronicles of Narnia and the Dragon Keeper Chronicles include God and magic. So on that part, I do encourage readers to keep an open mind about that.


Overall, this is a good book, and I do recommend it for a magical read.




Happy Reading!


Cana