Sorcery of Thorns

By Margaret Rogerson

4 Stars. Best enjoyed surrounded by books.

Sorcery of Thorns is a fantastic and surprising adventure from start to finish. So surprising and delightful, in fact, that I have struggled to come up with a synopsis that wouldn’t give away half the book! The world that Rogerson has built around this story is a beautiful and dangerous one, from the grimoires that quite literally live on the shelves to the wizards that roam the streets of the upper class neighborhoods. Magic is the lifeblood that pumps through every chapter and carries the reader on an intriguing journey between the stacks of the Great Libraries, the hearths of upper class homes, and even the doorstep of an asylum that holds more danger than the vaults of the libraries ever could.

Elisabeth has lived in the Great Library of Summershall for as long as she can remember–much longer than the rest of the orphans who find their way into an apprenticeship position within the dangerous and magical stacks of the Great Libraries. She has dreamt of attending the Collegium after her apprenticeship and becoming a warden, a caretaker of the dangerous magical grimoires that fill the library. 

It seems as if nothing can get in the way of her achieving her goals, until one faithful night when she is mysteriously woken from her sleep by…something she can’t recall. 

Upon investigation, Elisabeth finds the person she looks up to most dead by the hands of a Malefict, a monster which created from a dangerous magical grimoire that has set free from the vaults, which Elisabeth is then forced to defeat before it takes the lives of the inhabitants of the town nearby.

Elisabeth has a feeling that a sorcerer is involved in the attack on her home, and she has always been taught that sorcery is an evil practice and those who do such magic are dangerous to anyone they come across. However, because of a lack of evidence, Elisabeth herself is suspected of the slaying and is sent to the capital to stand trial. 

Terrified and unsure of who to trust, Elisabeth is escorted by Nathaniel Thorn, a sorcerer whose family is famous for their abilities with regards to necromancy, and his strange servant Silas, and soon after they arrive in the city, they find themselves thrust into a series of thickening plots that could spell disaster for their world. 

I was absolutely riveted. The characters were well rounded and believable and the world was well built. I found the entire story to be very intriguing, with the perfect balance of darkness and light. I also found the romance to be believable, it wasn’t insta-love by any means. 

This was a difficult review to write. Not because I didn’t enjoy the book—on the contrary, Sorcery of Thorns further solidifies Margaret Rogerson as a force to be reckoned with in YA Fantasy—but because there is so much going on throughout the book that it’s hard to tell the story without writing a Novella that would surely just confuse a person whose most basic reason for reading the review in the first place is to know if it’s good. Let me assure you, it’s good! Go read it!