Alchemist Academy: Book 1

This was a massively disappointing book. It took a potentially interesting idea and just never executed on it.

General, obvious SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:
It was like a dark one dimensional harry potter... outcast with crappy step family gets accepted to magic school with the Stanford prison experiment mixed in, with a lot of very very stupid characters. I cannot adequately emphasize how dumb nearly every single character is. We know bad alchemists try to get to potential alchemists first, but lets just walk away with the first guy who shows up because they say they are from the incredibly generically named "academy." This books lacks the detail and development both character and setting wise to really capture the imagination. It does however provide plenty of incredibly obvious "plot twists" and aggravating decisions by characters to capture your frustration and disappointment. It also has the most unsatisfying "ending" of any book I've read in the last year. I slogged through all that to be rewarded by nothing but a sample chapter from the next book? I was so aggravated I navigated to the review page and left my initial review via Kindle E-reader. Any kindle E-reader fans know what a pain that is. (I have since circled back and edited on a computer.)

I wasn't overly thrilled with this series. I read the first and second books...both are so dark and twisted and very disturbing to read. I wasn't interested enough to try to read any further. I'd say skip this series and try something else, like the Royal Institute of Magic, or the Companions Quartet series, both of which are WAY better written and WAY more fun to read.

As with his Preston Six series, this book immediately grabs you and pulls you into the story. I really enjoy Matt's writing and this book was no exception. The characters are well rounded and the plot twists are illuminated as you move forward into the story. The surprises (without detailing them) are really surprising but also make sense with the plot. I got lost in this book which is my 5 star rating requirement. I'm really looking forward to this series and going to start Book 2 soon.

The protagonists make amazingly silly decisions - probably to move the plot in the desired direction - and display the emotional maturity of six-year olds at best. I managed to get 44% into the book before the last vestiges of my credibility disappeared, and I gave up. By that stage I had come across half-a-dozen spelling/grammatical errors. Even the antagonists were very one-dimensional. The reason it gets 2 stars is that the premise behind the alchemy and how it works was brilliant.

The book had me riveted and wondering what was going to happen next if I needed to put it down. I was very interested in Allie and her budding talents as an alchemist. She lives with her step mother and step brother and is very unhappy. They restrict her every move and talk badly about her all the time. She is an outsider at school as well and doesn't know where she fits in.

A new neighbor moves in and introduces her to alchemy (and romance!), her hidden talent. A recruiter soon comes and takes her to the Alchemist Academy as well her new romantic interest, Mark. Drama and intrigue ensue which was very interesting.

This is a spoiler - but one weakness of the book is plot points are dropped....she promises a girl, Ira, that she would watch her pet after she is retired from the Academy. But we never hear about her going to get the pet and certainly she doesn't rescue the pet at all. Ira's fate really pains her but she doesn't care to keep her promise about the pet?!? Hmm.

It didn't stop me from wanting to read the book and finish it quickly. I bought the sequel and read that in 2 days (which is fast for me when I have a toddler).

Disturbing themes to say the least. Too dark for kids or young adults and too immature and poorly developed for adults. Author writes of dystopian world which is a mix of horrifying and cliche all in one where children are put in a school where they are treated as slaves and "forced" to fight, terrorize and sexually abuse their opposing schoolmates to harness the resulting anger to produce stupid stones that they do not even get to utilize. The main characters joins the school intentionally and with encouragement from one of their parents who already attended? Unimpressed with the lengths the author goes just to get a reaction from the reader, and HIGHLY do not recommend.

The depiction of hatred, sexual references, vulgar language and bullying in this book was not age appropriate. Also, the book contained spelling and grammatical errors that should have been corrected prior to publication. The sudden ending did not feel well-planned. I do not recommend this book and will not read the rest of the series.

I couldn't even come close to finishing this book, it was so terrible. There is a warped theme of hate and torment and taking revenge on bullies and tormentors and the MC having been bullied in her previous high school accepts and even justifies to her potential boyfriend why it's all okay. It's sick, and never ever how I would want someone to learn to deal with a bully or not fitting in at school. Violence and hatred and revenge are never the answer.

Really disappointed that by the time I got to chapter 11 there had been 3 very inappropriate "scenes". I was hoping this would be something that my young teen could read and get away from that. As a mature adult who devours science fiction and fantasy novels like their candy, frustrated because the book and story line would have been better with out it. Stopped reading at chapter 11 and the 3rd scene. Felt the book was missing some information and some realistic aspects that would have/could have added to the story.

This book is about a school in which students are required to hate, attack, and /or humiliate others in order to develop their ability to do magic. There's nothing to recommend it unless you enjoy spending time in a world with nothing whatsoever good in it.