Review: The Silver Mask by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

Goodreads Overview:

A generation ago, Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn't succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt. Now Call is one of the most feared and reviled students in the history of the Magisterium, thought to be responsible for a devastating death and an ever-present threat of war. As a result, Call has been imprisoned and interrogated. Everyone wants to know what Constantine was up to-and how he lives on. But Call has no idea. It is only when he's broken out of prison that the full potential of Constantine's plan is suddenly in his hands . . . and he must decide what to do with his power. In this spellbinding fourth book of Magisterium, bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare take us beyond the realm of the living and into the dangers of the dead. 

Review:

It had been a while since I read the previous book in the series, but I did not have any trouble picking up where things left off.  At the start of the book Callum is in a magical prison, not because of something he actually did, but because of the potential he has for wrong doing.  He has never intentionally done anything evil and even keeps a mental checklist of how his actions measure up on the "Evil Overlord" scale. He tries to do what is right, but without his counterweight, Aaron, he doesn't know if he will be able to control his Chaos magic.

When Master Joseph tells Call to bring Aaron back from the dead, he believes it is an impossible task.  He uses Constantine's notes and Jericho's journal to look for anything that might help him uncover what Constantine was missing, but will the benefits of bringing Aaron back really outweigh the risks? Master Joseph believes having the ability to bring people back from the dead will put him in a position of power not even the Assembly will be able to counter.  But will Aaron really be the same as he was before he died or will he become another Chaos ridden puppet that simply obeys his creator's commands?

This series is geared towards middle school children, so the books are relatively short....200 pages.  They are long enough to challenge young readers, but not so long they lose their attention or focus. There was plenty of action to hold my interest, but I sometimes found Call's inner dialogue to be a bit much.  As an adult reading the series, I felt like it slowed down the pace and didn't really propel the plot forward.  The ending, however, wasn't at all what I was expecting.  I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I hope Call and his friends will be able to achieve some level of normalcy in the next installment.  They didn't spend any time at the Magisterium, which is their school, and were fighting just about everyone to prove Call's innocence for the majority of this book. They have certainly earned some rest and relaxation, but I am certain that is not what Holly Black and Cassandra Clare have in mind for the conclusion of this series.