4/5 stars on Goodreads
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| Saved by the Spell by Tanya Huff |
Saved by the Spell is cozy urban fantasy set in modern day Ontario, Canada. The country doesn’t really feature except in odd mention of ice hockey and a few words in French here and there, and neither do spells, despite the name. The magic in this world is inherent and springs from within and doesn’t require spellcasting.
The book description is a bit off too, the Goodreads one even more than others, as it gets even the name of the one character it names wrong. This isn’t a story from the point of view of the Hero, or the students. The main character and the first-person narrator is Abigail Bellman, the English teacher at the High School for Magical Arts. She’s also the homeroom teacher for 9th graders who have just started at the school after passing a rigorous test. Only forty is accepted to each High School for Magical Arts out of millions.
It’s the first day of school, and the teachers are in various states of excitement and dread. But things start going wrong from the introductory event onwards and every time something does, one student in Abby’s homeroom class stands out. By the end of the day, Abby can only come to one conclusion: the student is a Hero. Problem is, narrative requires that there’s also a Villain, and that spells disaster. Since the student is Abby’s responsibility, so is finding the Villain.
Abby sets out to discover who the Villain could be while handling her classes and trying to keep the students safe among increasingly bizarre incidents. It’s a bit haphazard investigation, not proper sleuthing. But she’s determined to protect the Hero. She’s hoping for an outsider, but she’s not that lucky. The Villain is someone from their school. But while she uncovers A Villain, has she found one for their particular Hero, or is there another Hero?
This was a nice and cozy book. It’s basically only two acts, with the discovery of the Villain and the final confrontation happening pretty much simultaneously while the investigation seems to be only getting started. It doesn’t really matter; unlike some books that skip the third act, this felt satisfying enough. I guessed the Villain from early on, but that didn’t matter either. It’s not without its triggers though. If you’re a teacher, this feels too much like reality of school life, with maybe slightly less angsty and nicer students than average school.
Abby is a good main character, resourceful and resilient, and a good teacher. She’s also a bit of a cardboard. For all that she’s the first-person narrator and we spend the entire book inside her head, we learn almost nothing about her beyond a few factoids. Even her age and looks are obscure, and she has no hopes, dreams or fears outside school and work. But she comes alive enough through her work and is easy to root for.
The students were a delightful bunch, and came across more human through Abby’s observations of them. There’s some representation (Abby’s bi, one student’s parent is trans), but it’s not forced; it’s simply how things are. And there’s no romance, despite the hunkiness of the principle [sic] being constantly brought up. The world turned out to have an interesting backstory, and the Hero’s job isn’t done yet. But that will not happen here.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
