Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic - The Thirteenth Rib

Well-written, interesting cast of characters not a 'normal' one among them; creepy, funny, quirky, and yet also strangely realistic. I suppose it feels realistic because the characters and the setting feel so real. My only complaint is that the episodes don't come fast enough. :-)

This story is very engaging & I would definately read another book by this author, but I won't buy another serial. Its to much like watching 10 minutes of ads while you wait for the rest of your favorite tv program. Especially ironic on Kindle since that is all about instant gratification. Excellent plot twists,

I really liked the story line and characters in this piece. However, it is really frustrating as a reader to get one little section of the book at a time with big gaps inbetween. I would much rather buy the completed book. Therefore, I feel it was a mistake to purchase it. Had I known this was the case, I would not have purchased it.

Stupid book. Stupid way to read one. The plot was so scattered and absurd that the two week gap between segments made it impossible to keep track of who was who and what was happening. Felt like it was written by an adolescent instead of for them.

I picked up this Kindle Serial because I had enjoyed another novel by this author (Superpowers). I was also curious about the kindle serial format. It's kind of cool to be reading the same stuff as all the other readers, and have the updates automatically pour into my kindle (makes you feel you're part of a community/event), but of course it also leaves you chomping at the bit for more (we're about 1/3 in, I think, as I write this).

Schwartz has a talent for propelling the reader through the story. It's fast paced and energetic. Where other writers leave you muddling through long paragraphs of description as they try to fabricate a world around the characters, Schwartz plunges headlong through all that and the world is just there already; the characters are already living and breathing in it. That's part of the charm at work here.

This is a novel where the world is much like our own, except that magic is common. It's taught in schools, and policed by government agencies. There are military applications (Special Forces, Conjuration Division), and of course there are subversive elements, criminals, and plenty of intrigue. The story tends to feel lighter in tone, and has some nice tongue-in-cheek comedy, yet the mystery is still engaging. There are sinister elements at work. Crimes that must be solved, and lives that hang in the balance. I'm looking forward to future installments!

It's interesting and enjoyable though it feels very very much influenced by Harry Potter. I wish it didnt take place at a school in fact. It'd be nice if there was a normal male female relationship in it as well.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. I was expecting a typical urban fantasy read but it was much better than that. It had an interesting concept and was entertaining. My only critique is that it got very technical about types of magic toward the end. I don't need this kind of detail about something imaginary and it got in the way of the story.

There was one thing that surprised me. The main character complains a lot about what a bad boss she has. I guess Mr. Schwartz has always been a writer because the boss was pretty tame.

If you like urban fantasy, you should enjoy this book. A word of warning however. If you are freaked out by any relationship that isn't one straight man/one straight woman, or can't stand even a mention of someone who isn't straight, this is not the book for you. Don't take this warning as meaning that there's a lot of sex in this book, there really isn't any. But non-straight people appear naturally, just like they do in real life.

Although I enjoyed the Harry Potter series immensely, this genre of ghosts, demons, magical spells and incantations, is NOT my favorite type of reading. David J.Schwartz, a science fiction author, in writing "Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic: The Thirteenth Rib" appears to use the Harry Potter format to create a similar book for adults. If readers enjoy such characters and storyline, this book might be appealing; one of my friends thoroughly enjoyed the book. However, I found the storyline difficult to follow, the characters lacking in depth and dimension, and the plot contrived. This book was simply not MY cup of tea, but others readers with different tastes and expectations for their reading material might view this work entirely differently, as my friend did. So, if magic, demons, ghosts, etc., etc. appeal to you: have at it! But give me mystery, suspense, an historical novel, or more general literary genres any day. Reading this felt like a total waste of time!

I've been enjoying this author's novels and stories for five years or so now, so was very curious about this new work. A little hesitant, too. As much as I like Schwartz's work, I found the book's title lengthy and cumbersome and thought it boded poorly for the novel. But I decided to give it a try, and signed up for the serial back in February -- only to find I had no interest in reading serialized. So I waited for the paperback instead. Finally read it over the weekend, and it was very much worth the wait. Fast, fun, well-written, full of memorable characters. I know some were thrown by the shifting tone and scope of the book, but I thought it worked -- we're introduced to the setting and the characters (and there are a lot of them), given a mystery to engage us, and then the storm breaks and the characters are all in over the heads and scrambling to figure it out, but it all seemed to me to progress naturally. I've also seen some objections to the ending, which confound me a bit: some seemed to think this book didn't have an ending, and I wonder if there are different versions of the book out there. The book ends; the central plot has been resolved and the mystery explored; the protagonist has grown and learned some things about herself and her world. Some threads were left dangling, but most of them were beginning-threads and not ending-threads: those characters were starting off on new adventures resulting from the events of this novel, not just dropping out of this story. And honestly I'd love to see those adventures further explored in other stories or novels set in this world. And I'll leave it at that: this book left me satisfied but also ready to come back for more, so I say well-done.

In Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic by David J. Schwartz, Joy Wilkins takes a job as teacher with more in mind than teaching magic. She’s been sent there to discover what has happened to the teacher who was originally scheduled to teach this class. Joy is also trying to find out if there is any link between Gooseberry Bluff C.C. and the strange attacks called Heartstoppers that have become the new terror threat. This world is presented in an interesting manner, the needed “info dump” is given as Joy gives the overview of the course she will be teaching and what she expects from the students.

I could tell after "Chapter" 3 that the author was attempting to make each published serial as a separate short story. By the time the author finally connected all the previous serial "Chapters" a reader either had stopped reading due to too many plots, or...... I chose to keep reading to try to flesh out all the characters and the reasoning of their actions. My advice to the author is get an editor and a team of readers, edit, put reasoning into your characters, introduce a prologue of Carla, Bertha and the Heartstoppers on our dimension. You might find a lot of 5 stars in the novel!!

Considering I'm from Wisconsin and the book takes place in a fictitious town in Minnesota (and occasionally in Wisconsin), I felt a kinship with the story. The story is interesting right from the start with layers and layers being added as you go. I'm actually reading it a second time and I am catching a lot more details that pertain to the ending which shows how well plotted the story is. The Audible narration is also very well done though a couple of times the voices for the characters were a bit too similar so it was a little difficult to follow who exactly was saying what.

I thought this book was very well written, with no typos or obvious grammatical errors (2 of my pet peeves). The characters were well explored & had depth & the plot was intricate without being overwhelming. The heroine was capable, but human enough to have some problems. I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys paranormal, magical, or alternate history suspense/mystery type stories.

Really good, love the magic the alternative world it is set in as well as the other worlds. With Magic users, shapeshifters and others.....
Wish he had more than one, I feel like the characters have SO much more to tell me.

Inventive and mature take on a magical college. I enjoyed the different types of magics portrayed and found the main character likable. This is what Harry Potter might have gone to if he could only afford community college.

Good premise, decent writing and a thousand wonderful directions these characters and their stories could have gone. They didn't. I was lost and confused and by the end, didn't care where the characters went, which was nowhere...

I really liked the shift in perspective of things. Obviously, writing about magic can go as far as the imagination, but there were limits and rules. There was a lot of story but it wasn't overly detailed so the story moved quickly.

The experience of a serial book was horrible !!! I will never do it again....First, the book just suddenly ended after practically DRAGGING along. Secondly, I had to go back and 're-read' at least a part of the previous section to remember the story line...and thirdly, 2 weeks + is FAR too long to wait between installments!!! I am one who devours a book and finishes one in about a day......so this was like torture FAR me !!! Will not do again.....besides...the book wasn't that impressive.......