Dark Is Her Nature

Publisher's Summary

For hire: teachers for special school in the Virginia countryside. Must be able to handle teenagers with special abilities. Cannot be afraid to discipline werewolves, wizards, elves, and other assorted hormonal teens. Apply at the School of Necessary Magic. 

Alison is a young Drow princess whose power is just beginning to grow inside of her - too bad for the dark forces after her. They won’t see it coming. Even better...Alison’s making a few tween friends who can stand by her side. 

School’s in session - the world’s about to change. 

©2018 Judith Berens, Martha Carr, Michael Anderle (P)2018 LMBPN Publishing

Ok, but nothing new

It’s a nice YA/UpperYA level story of Alison’s first semester at her new magical school; along with another student and friend, Izzie. Having said that, there’s not a lot going on. It’s a pretty tame introduction to a new series.
The story had so many elements of the Potter books that I found it uncomfortable (magical ceiling in dining hall with food that magically appears; Horace the groundskeeper; magical plants; A&co sneaking into magical town that only upper level students can visit; etc).
I’m also not comfortable with the story device that Alison is “blind”, but there’s no good definition of her actual vision and why she isn’t tripping over inanimate objects or mixing up clothes that don’t match. Why does the story have her giving Horace her orange scarf; receiving a blue top or a red umbrella shirt, but she doesn’t know the kemana crystals are ruby? Everything is made up of molecules and atoms, even so-called inanimate objects. Those protons, neutrons and electrons are always moving around and giving off an energy signature. Different colors should also have a different energy signature. Can she read these? Can she actually just “see” the WHOLE world around her differently? I read a book about energy that said regular human vision can only see about two inches of a universe of rays (light rays, xrays, gamma rays, etc) if using the height of the Empire State Building as a reference point. And how can Alison hide address labels, notes & books in Braille? Very visually noticeable to the “sighted”!
As Archie Bell says “Why don’t you Tighten Up?”
I did find the author notes to be very interesting and entertaining.
Rudd does a decent job of narration.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Hard to follow and disjointed

This book was very hard to follow and the character development was nearly nonexistent. It jumped around with not a lot of explanation as to who was talking or what was going on. I got to the end of the book with an unclear picture as to who the main character was. I also reached the end with no real attachment to the characters or desire to know what happens to them. I didn’t think it was very well written at all.

Fine Story

This was a rather enjoyable story and highlights the trouble and pain our parents cause some of us in their misguided belief in what's best for us. They are simply human and make mistakes like the rest of us. Onwards to the next one.