Release Day ARC Review: The Copper Gauntlet - Holly Black & Cassandra Clare

The Copper Gauntlet
Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Series: Magisterium, #2
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy
Release Date:September 1st, 2015
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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I went through an embarrassingly large percentage of this book having confused "gauntlet" with "chalice" and with the mental image of someone planning to punch another person with a large, fancy cup. Luckily, it didn't detract from my reading experience and once I realized those illustrations of gloves next to the chapter numbers were related to the book, I got back on track.

I loved the book and I don't have any long-winded way of leading up to that.

I always have a thing for second books in series. I just feel like they have something going for them. The Copper Gauntlet was no exception. While it's predecessor focused on world-building, introducing the characters, exposition, only really bringing in conflict in further into the book (still worth it), The Copper Gauntlet provides us with a steady amount of pacing throughout. Black and Clare occasionally tone back the action to showcase some other scenes that might come into play later or they occasionally dial it up with fast-paced scene after scene but overall the whole book always has something happening or leading up to happening or the characters are investigating something that might happen eventually. Everything we see in this book is relevant to the story, rather than just information for the sake of information.

And oh, was it a great story. Holly Black and Cassandra Clare being friends is one of the most beautiful gifts the universe has given me.

Call as a protagonist is one of my favorite things I've read in any book, period. He isn't a hero or a villain or an antihero. No one is sure what he is, including him. The reader is viewing through the lens of Call so we know what we're told by him in a way that he tells it, which makes for an interesting reading experience. I loved the way he questioned his goodness every step of his journey (and by love I mean it made my heart break for him but it was good writing) and I thought his relationship with each character was excellently explored, like his uneasiness and annoyance with his friends and his relationship with his dad.

Also, can we just talk about his pet chaos wolf, Havoc? I love Havoc, he's my favorite character in the entire book and I want one.

The book was short, only 264 pages, but so much happened, and I appreciated all of it. It delved into chaos magic and Aaron's position as the Makar and Jasper came along on their spontaneous trip even though Call hates Jasper and someone was trying to steal a very important artifact and everything was so intense and full of drama.

I don't think I can survive any more books in this series, honestly.

- Noor

Do you think you could handle being a chaos mage?
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