Tuesday, July 5, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Charmed List by Julie Abe

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on July 5, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.


The Charmed List is a Young Adult Modern Fantasy Romance Novel by author Julie Abe.  The story advertises itself as essentially an enemies to lovers novel (or well, friends to enemies to lovers), featuring Asian-American characters in California in a world with secret little magics, and well a lot of that sounded real fun to me - making this an easy request on NetGalley.  

And The Charmed List is an incredibly cute young adult romance novel, even if certain aspects are very predictable.  Main character Ellie is adorable as an anxious someone introverted high school girl trying desperately to come out of her shell, who is forced by a series of coincidences onto a road trip not with her best friend as planned, but with the boy who used to be that for her until they became enemies.  Add in a touch of a magical world, and well you have a very enjoyable sweet romance - even if it's a very chaste one that only even has a kiss at the very end.  This will be an excellent romance for younger young adult (or even middle grade) readers.  
-------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
Ellie Kobata has spent her high school years in her own shell, with only her best friend Lia really seeing her for who she is - a fun loving artist who is a bit terrified to reveal her art by making her instagram public, who is a bit afraid to do things like get her first kiss or go on a roller coaster or get an second ear piercing...etc.  With Lia's help, she's made a list of thirteen things that she's going to do on their road trip down to southern California to finally break out and reveal herself to the world.  

There's one part of her life she can't show off to Lia - the fact that she's part of a secret magical community, one which Lia isn't allowed to know about.  But when a prank Ellie plays accidentally reveals the magical world to Lia, her whole summer plans go badly awry: Lia is badly hurt and not talking to her for keeping the secret, and Ellie's road trip plan gets a horrifying change: she'll now be going down with Jack Yasuda, the magic-knowing boy who was once her best friend until he gave her the cold shoulder and became her enemy.  

Yet as Ellie and Jack go down the California Coast and do errands for their families' rival magical shops, Ellie begins to realize she might actually achieve the goals on her list after all....and that the Jack she grew up with might have changed into a more interesting person than she realized...and one she might be falling for.  
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Let's be honest: The Charmed List is in many ways a book that is full of clichés.  You have an "enemies to lovers" plot that features a boy who used to be friends with the protagonist before he seemed to go cold for no reason - of course he has a reason she doesn't know about, and of course he has far more depth than she realized.  Of course Jack has a potential other girlfriend - or so Ellie thinks, and of course there's a misunderstanding there, and there will be one later in the book that will throw her growing attraction for him in a loop.  You even have one of the absolute classic romance tropes - "only one bed" - thrown in here as well (although this is such a chaste romance that that last one is kind of wasted). 

But Clichés exist for a reason: they can be pretty good when deployed effectively in a story, and The Charmed List deploys them effectively.  This is helped by Ellie being a very believable shy girl desperate to break out of her shell whose list of things to do to do that feels very believable and realistic, her growing feelings for Jack being done very well, and the other characters (like Ellie's and Jack's meddling best friend siblings) being very enjoyable.  There are also a few subversions here and there, particularly in how the two characters' family stores are setup as a rivalry of supposedly cold and impersonal vs personal and heartfelt that instead goes a different direction, and this also helps quite a bit.  

And then there's the magical setting to foreground the tropey plot, which is really well done.  Here magic is a thing that's hidden...but in large part because it isn't some super powerful force, but is instead best used to do small minor things, like provide extra joy or bravery in a food/drink item, or provide magical cottages that can turn a roof into the night sky, etc.  The magical community here isn't one that's better than the non-magical one, nor is it held secret because of some thought-about superiority - it's held in secret whenever possible because otherwise it'll lead to misunderstandings about what might be possible (as well as some minor but sometimes significant mayhem).  It's a nice and different touch from the usual hidden magical world, and it helps color the growing relationship between Jack and Ellie with, well, magic - and it makes everything about it very charming.  And Abe uses that magic in combination with modern ideas (There's one part with an Escape room in particular) to really create interesting ways for the characters' relationship to grow and grow until it finally culminates in the end.  

Really my biggest problem with The Charmed List is that not only is it a Chaste Romance, it basically saves that culmination for the end - like literally this book ends just on the kiss, which you'd expect might've happened earlier than that.  So if you're the type like me who sometimes yells "just kiss already!", well this might frustrate you a bunch!  But it's a short book, and this'll work well for the younger YA readers who aren't ready for a more mature romance, so this isn't really a complaint lol. 

So yeah, the Charmed List is a really delightful romance for younger young adult readers, even for middle grade readers (and for those looking for Asian American characters, this will be an additional plus).  I wanted a light and enjoyable book when I started this one, and I got it.  

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