Review: The Golden Tower by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Goodreads Overview:

The final, thrilling installment in this extraordinary series from bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare.

A generation ago, powerful mage 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.

Facing up to what he is, Callum has battled chaos and evil across four years of magical training at the Magisterium, eventually defeating the armies of chaos in an epic battle.

It came at a cost.

Now, triumphant and heartbroken, Callum Hunt has just about had enough, and is ready to complete his training. But the evil Callum faced has not given up just yet...

Review:

The Golden Tower is the fifth and final book in the Magisterium series. This is a middle grade series with a lot of elemental magic that often reminded me of the Harry Potter series. The kids attend a magical school called the Magisterium and there is all sorts of drama with a character that turned evil. The major difference is this series stays in the middle grade range and doesn't delve into all of the death and darker elements that crept into the final books in the HP series. 

Overall, I enjoyed the Magisterium series, but I felt like it could have been condensed. Five books is a large commitment for younger readers.  On several occasions, the content tended to drag on longer than it needed to. In addition, Callum's inner dialog slowed down the pace of reading and would have caused my son to lose interest. When I first started reading the series, I thought it would be something I could get Preston to read, but there is no way he would commit to a fantasy series of this length. He is more of a non-fiction or contemporary reader and doesn't get into books with a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, etc. Mysteries, action, and adventure are more his thing as long as it fits into a real life scenario.

In retrospect, I don't think I would invest the time in reading this series if you are beyond middle school. I love some of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare's other books and series and really wanted to see how this collaboration would turn out. Perhaps younger readers will have a more favorable opinion of it, but it wasn't really for older YA readers in my opinion.