Wexton School [Book review]

Five out of five floating islands

Before we get into all the usual stuff I put in these reviews, I want to just take a little bit of page space to just talk about an aspect of reading that I personally value above pretty much everything else. That aspect is trust. Trusting the author, in my opinion, is the making or breaking of a story. I’m sure you know that feeling of coming to a point in a book where you’re like: really, but I thought it was the other way around. That feeling when something feels like the author is walking into a plothole or has forgotten some already established fact. The mark of a true storyteller is their ability to make the audience trust them on these occasions. If you do not trust the author by that time, you will be waiting for them to fail, waiting for them to prove they have wasted your time.

There are some really popular books that I have read and the author never quite managed to gain my trust because a character made a decision that was clearly a plot device and unnatural.

It has been way too long since an author has managed to win my trust, manage to make me assume they know what they are doing rather than waiting for them to walk right into that plothole. And I am talking about traditionally published, widely popular books that didn’t manage to make me believe the events would actually unfold as they did. Perhaps because the author took control instead of letting the characters make their own choices, maybe the characters did something that went against their nature in order to create a more interesting plot, or maybe the worldbuilding was based on convenience. I simply cannot stand that, and if I am going to give my time to a book then I need to trust that the author will make it worth my while and not take short cuts or think I won’t notice.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because Isadora Felix managed to gain my trust. There were several times throughout the book where something seemed contradictory on the surface, but we later learned a detail that brought sense to it all. She never failed to deliver on that “oh, that makes sense now” moment, but more than that she managed to convince me it would come and keep me reading until it did. And this is the main reason I am giving this book five stars, because being able to trust the author is more important than anything else to me. And, of course, gaining the trust of the reader requires authentic characters, good worldbuilding, and genuinely caring about the story over sales or whatnot. If this has not been enough to convince you to buy this book, then, by all means, keep reading and I will keep trying to convince you.

Would recommend if: you want an author you can trust, obviously. Otherwise, if you enjoy good and consistent worldbuilding, if you enjoy good plot twists, three-dimensional “villains” you will empathize so much with it will almost hurt to call them villains, and characters so individual and alive they will both surprise you, anger you, gain your sympathy, and make you want to hug them tell them it will all be alright. Also, just a side note: I am terrible with names and can rarely tell minor characters apart – and while I still have no idea what any of them look like (physical descriptions just don’t stick with me), each of the 9 boys in the class are distinct in my mind.

The negative side (because I don’t believe in the existence of perfection): This part pains me to write, because there are two things in this book that belong in this paragraph, but they are so easily fixed it’s a shame to have to mention them at all. One thing is the language. The book has a lot of grammar mistakes, sometimes pronouns are switched around by mistake, some sentences just read like they were written by a non-native English speaker – which, granted she is, and maybe I shouldn’t be the one to point it out since I’m also not a native English speaker, but some parts just looked like they were normal sayings in a foreign language that was translated rather than true English phrasings. Though, to be fair, after a while (a short while) this stopped bothering me and became kind of charming instead.

The other thing that bothered me about the book was the age of the boys. One part of that is that it took too long for the age to be specifically mentioned which left me guessing throughout more than half the book. When I finally found out how old the boys were I had painted a different picture in my head and had a hard time correlating their actual age with all the “clues” I had been gathering to try to guess. I don’t know if knowing their ages from the get-go would have made me believe it easier, of if their language would still have seemed odd and uncharacteristic for their age, but it is how it is now.

Plot: Lyon is a young Gaëth, and every young Gaëth must go to Wexton School to learn to control their auras, and with the aura, they can control the Sijits – which is vital to the continued survival of both earth and Maëy, earth’s twin world which is made up of floating islands. Ly’s father does everything he can to avoid having to send his son there since his experience with the school was brutal. Ly, his sister Sky, and their mother, all faced a year in jail years ago, and the experience has left Ly scared and an outcast. This trauma is one main reason for Ly’s father to want to send his son to a private school instead, but unfortunately, he doesn’t succeed and Ly has to go to Wexton. There he meets other boys of his own age, and together they have to learn to master the aura as well as complete missions on Maëy which can be dangerous. On top of that, there’s everything that comes with putting a bunch of teenage boys in a boarding school together: peer pressure, bullies, and pasts they do not want to talk about.

You will find characters here that you will love, characters that you will hate, then find charming, the hate more intensely, and then maybe kind of empathize with, as well as characters you want to protect, characters you will want to hit or shake some sense into, and characters that are well rounded even without having a lot of page time.

What makes this one stand out: Well, like I described at the beginning: trusting the author. That is the most important note, and I think it includes pretty much everything: the believable and detailed world-building, the believable and lifelike characters, the believable and surprising twists and turns along the way: basically just that it is believable and well written.

Personal note: This book has that feeling of not actually reading, but almost an “out of body experience” if you get what I mean? Like you aren’t noticing actually turning pages or your eyes moving, you are just in the story, watching it unfold. Basically, this book has the feel of reading that I recognize from my childhood book adventures, but haven’t experienced for so long. Too long. So I want to send a huge thank you to Isadora for this, it was truly an enjoyable ride.

Details: 

Title: Wexton School
Author: Isadora Felix
Year: 2019
Genre: Fantasy
Part of a Series: Yes, and I’m waiting eagerly for the next book.
Buy: here