Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

 

I was in the mood for an escape this month, so for my next read I decided to pick up A Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. I've had this young adult fantasy sitting on my shelf for ages now, so it was high time to finally give it a try. Ready to read about some magic and some teen angst, I dove in.

The novel is set in the world of Austermeer, a place where magic exists, but is feared by most of the population. Its use is restricted to designated sorcerer families and the rest of the population gives it a wide berth. Magical spells are recorded in grimoires, which are dangerous objects that must be handled with extreme care. Grimoires can spring to life in demon form if proper precautions are not taken. Some are powerful enough to lay waste to entire populations. To keep them contained, they are placed in special libraries and protected by wardens, a class of warrior-librarians that guard the books and monitor their usage carefully. 

The plot of the story follows a teenager named Elisabeth, a warden apprentice working at a library. Her greatest dream is to become a full fledged warden, and she takes her work extremely seriously. Everything she's worked for is thrown into chaos, however, when one of the grimoires in her library breaks out of its restraints and turns into a demon under suspicious circumstances. The demon murders the director of the library, and Elisabeth is accused of being responsible for it. In order to clear her name, she joins forces with a prominent sorcerer named Nathaniel, a partnership that challenges her preconceived notions about the danger of magic and leads her to uncover some deeply dangerous truths about the world she lives in.

Since I'm in the midst of my master's classes, I ended up taking it pretty slow with this book, just reading a chapter here and there over the course of several weeks. That ended up being a nice approach, because it allowed me time to really sink into the story and get lost in the rich, detailed world that Rogerson created. This was a well written novel, full of creative ideas and interesting plot elements. I loved the idea of warrior librarians and books that come to life. The story moved at a good pace and remained interesting throughout. I was engaged and enjoying myself the whole time I was reading, which is nice because I've found my interest in young adult fantasy waning somewhat over the years. I still read a lot of it, but it often doesn't hit me like it used to. This book reminded me of why I used to like it so much.

One element of the book that I thought was pretty unique was Nathaniel's sexuality. It's not a central focus of the story at all, but it does come up a few times that he is bisexual. He has a romance with Elisabeth, and it doesn't bother her at all. I don't often see that kind of diversity in medieval fantasy novels, so I appreciated its inclusion. It's not a big thing, but I thought it was pretty cool. 

Another element I really enjoyed were the overall themes of challenging prejudices and staying loyal to your friends. Throughout the story, Elisabeth has to adjust deeply ingrained beliefs she's held about magic for her whole life. She's been taught to distrust and stay away from sorcerers since she's been old enough to understand the words, but her interactions with Nathaniel and some other characters lead her to reevaluate her feelings and overcome them. She decides who to trust based on their individual actions rather than on broad generalizations. There are clear parallels to real social issues, but the story doesn't feel preachy. I thought Rogerson did a nice job conveying this message naturally through the plot.

Ultimately, I very much enjoyed Sorcery of Thorns. I was pleasantly surprised by the creativity of the story and I liked getting lost in the world Rogerson created. I can definitely see myself recommending this to young adult fantasy fans. Another point in this novel's favor is that it is a standalone, a thing that is very rare in this genre. I liked it being a one-and- done situation. As I don't have as much time to read as I used to, my reading time is precious. This novel was worth the time. 

2023 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 4/24

Clear the Shelves 2023: 2/24

Tooth and Claw: The Dinosaur Wars by Deborah Noyes

 

I got quite lucky this month in that the stars aligned and I was assigned to read a young adult novel for one of my master's classes. I decided to go with nonfiction for a change. I ordered a whole slew of middle grades nonfiction for my school earlier this year and was itching to try out some of the titles. Tooth and Claw: The Dinosaur Wars by Deborah Noyes was one of the books at the top of my list, so that was what I settled on.

The text is set in the second half of the nineteenth century and follows two scientists at the forefront of a new field called paleontology, the study of early life through bones and fossils. Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh quickly made names for themselves in this new science as they discovered and classified all sorts of prehistoric animal fossils from all over the United States, including dinosaurs. They became engaged in a fierce rivalry to lay claim to dig sites and bones in an effort to become the foremost experts in their field. Their constant clashes with each other came to be known as the "Dinosaur Wars" and they both engaged in lying, spying, stealing, destruction, and more than a little sloppy work in their pursuit of greatness. The novel follows their careers from beginning to end as they fight to be the ones to find more, to publish more, and to make a greater mark on science.

I thought this novel was great, and very readable for its intended audience of middle school students. The text itself was short, coming in at just 151 pages and the chapters within it were short as well, which kept the action moving at a good pace. Sprinkled throughout were lots of pictures, maps, and sidebars containing additional information to give background knowledge and context to the story. It kept my interest all the way through and Noyes' mildly funny and sarcastic writing style managed to get the historical information across while remaining entertaining. She did a nice job of portraying a time in the past where people were just finding out about the existence of prehistoric animals and copious amounts of fossils were laying right under the surface of the ground, waiting to be uncovered. It was a very well written exploration of a part of history that most people probably don't know much about.

One aspect of the story that I thought was very interesting was the emergence of a clear theme. You don't always see that with a nonfiction text, but in this case, there was a message to take away from the lives of Cope and Marsh. Over time, their rivalry become so fierce that it became more important than the science they were studying. Both became so eager to best the other that they rushed to classify specimens and publish papers. They acquired more fossils than they could study purely in an effort to prevent each other from obtaining them. They even took to destroying dig sites behind themselves as they moved to new areas, to stop each other from finding anything inadvertently left behind. Between these two men, hundreds of prehistoric animals were discovered, but people mostly remember them now for the Dinosaur Wars and how vicious they were to each other. As Noyes points out in the conclusion of the text, had these two worked together, science would have benefited much, much more. These two men caused several inaccuracies to be present in the fossil record, some of which took many years to sort out. Remember the confusion about Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus, and whether they were actually the same animal or not? That came about from these two. There is definitely a message here that readers can take away about the importance of teamwork and the damaging effects of ego. Noyes told the story of these men in a way that allowed this underlying idea to come through, which is a nice takeaway for younger readers to add to the historical information they will learn. 

Overall, I thought that Tooth and Claw: The Dinosaur Wars was a worthy read about a very interesting topic. Noyes delivers a lot of historical information in an engaging way and provides plenty of support throughout the text to help middle grades readers place the events she is describing into context. Anyone interested in science or dinosaurs would probably find a lot to like in this novel. I was happy to get a chance to pick it up.

2023 Reading Challenges Tally:

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 3/24

Clear the Shelves 2023: 1/24