Reviews for Tris's Book (Circle of Magic Series #2)

The average rating for Tris's Book (Circle of Magic Series #2) based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-22 00:00:00 Bradley Smith I'm getting fonder of this series as it goes on. I like the characters - I usually do when it comes to Tamora Pierce books. Not only that, but the writing is so smooth that it fades into the background. So many YA books these days have such awkward writing, with awkward sentence structure or poor word choices and it's downright distracting. I never have that problem with this author. Here's my favorite part of these books, though. Tamora Pierce can create a world where gender equality and racial diversity are THE NORM, and she can do it without drawing any attention to it - without going "ooooh, look what I did there." I am ashamed to say that I caught myself incorrectly assuming that background soldiers, etc., were male until a pronoun was used. I assumed for a little while that Frostpine was white and sort of Scandinavian-looking, mostly because that's what the name conjured up for me. I also caught myself imagining Gorse as a tall, ruddy-faced doughy man. And each time, I was wrong, and all because of my own assumptions and incorrect perceptions. I love you for this, Tamora Pierce. I hope that someday I will reach the point where I stop making these assumptions and assume racial diversity and gender equality instead. (I read Fire by Kristin Cashore right after this and could feel the contrast. Cashore also creates a world where there is greater gender equality in jobs like soldier or healer, etc., but it kind of seemed like there was more attention called to the fact. Admittedly that was partly because it was a surprise to the main character, from whose perspective the book is written.)

Review # 2 was written on 2013-05-03 00:00:00 Gary Eschbacher I always love this series. I'd hesitate to say more than the Tortall books, because they're so different, but there's something both beautiful and brutal about these books that both heals and hurts. Reading through this one with the Mark Reads community was especially hard at the moment, because of the family themes that it explores for Tris and the discussions that came up on one particular post about dysfunctional families. Still, the way the relationships that are formed in these books are so real and wonderful and that's why I love them.