The Copper Gauntlet Book Review

You may think you know monsters, but none at this scale. Especially not a monster who may be a good guy, who may also be an Evil Overlord. As the loyalties of friendship and accepted are tested, a world expands that includes a diversified conflict. Bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare write of an unforgettable quest for a group of four kids trying to save the world, while also learning to understand themselves and the world they're saving. Fans of magic and middle grade stories do not want to miss this series. 

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare first met over ten years ago at Holly's first-ever book signing. They have since become good friends, bonding over (among other things) their shared love of fantasy. With Magisterium, they decided to team up to write their own story about heroes and villains, good and evil, and being chosen for greatness, whether you like it or not. Holly is the bestselling author and co-creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles series and won a Newbery Honor for her novel Doll Bones. She recently finished The Folk of the Air series, and you can find my reviews of those here. Cassie is the author of bestselling YA series, including The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, and The Last Hours. They both live in Western Massachusetts, about ten minutes away from each other. This is their first collaboration, and marks the start of a five-book series. If you're interested in more of my reviews of Holly Black's work, you can find them all here. If you're interested in more of my reviews of Cassandra Clare's work, you can find them all here. 

Callum Hunt's summer break isn't like other kids'. His closest companion is a Chaos-ridden wolf, Havoc. His father suspects him of being secretly evil. And, of course, most kids aren't heading back to the magical world of the Magisterium in the fall. It's not easy for Call . . . and it gets even harder after he checks out his basement and discovers that his dad might be trying to destroy both him and Havoc. Call escapes to the Magisterium -- but things only intensify there. The Alkahest -- a copper gauntlet capable of separating certain magicians from their magic -- has been stolen. And in their search to discover the culprit, Call and his friends Aaron and Tamara awaken the attention of some very dangerous foes -- and get closer to an even more dangerous truth. 

The role of a sequel, especially in a series like Magisterium, is to deepen the main hero conflict, while also diversifying the inner and group conflicts, and deepen our understanding of the magical world. Of course, this is all to be achieved in an effortless sort of way, in which none of the information is overwhelming, but naturally moves the story along. Holly Black and Cassandra Clare excel at all these fields in The Copper Gauntlet.

There are two conflicts within the novel: the hero's conflict, and the inner conflict. These two things are usually not the same, though they overlap and play off of each other. I often think of the hero conflict as the one the characters "play into" -- the long game of the series. In The Copper Gauntlet, our heroes take off on a quest to save the magic world from the enemies they immediately recognize as enemies. Of course, that leads to some startling revelations and some horrifying confessions, until the actual hero conflict only seems truly clear by the end of the novel (as a segue into the third book of the series). The hero conflict is deepened, because readers get a better understanding of who their heroes are, their capabilities, and then those same things about the enemies. There are unlikely friends, secrets, and fight scenes that reinforce and expose the new information readers get. What's fun about the hero conflict in this novel is that the heroes and the enemies are never quite who they seem, because of deception and the powers of magic. It's not black-and-white, but this ever-changing status update because of the new information we keep getting. This keeps the read engaging, surprising, and all around fun -- we never know what to expect, or who to expect, when we turn the page. 

It's pretty easy to guess whose inner conflict is at stake here: Callum Hunt has just learned that he carries the soul of the Enemy of Death -- so does that actually make him the Enemy (or, an Evil Overlord, as he likes to say)? This is the heart of Call's inner conflict, along with having to reckon with all the lies he's been telling. This conflict is interesting, because it finally sets Magisterium apart as a series -- no other middle grade novel I know of has the "enemy" as our narrator -- but that fact doesn't make Call unreliable at all. In fact, it makes him more relatable and unlikeable. He's grappling with part of his identity he doesn't want to take on, one that might change the only good things about his life. But, in the world he now lives in, it's an identity that could get him killed (or worse). Call's grappling with this situation makes him relatable, because the path isn't always clear on these sorts of things. No one ever really knows when to tell their friends secrets, especially if you mean to protect them. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, especially when you're at the heart of it. While we might to fully understand Call's struggles, we can empathize pretty deeply because they're all inherently things and situations we struggle with. Call's inner conflict, for me, is more important than the outer conflict of this magic world, because it deals most with the themes Black and Clare are trying to address. And because the novel is in first person, the inner conflict is the conflict that feels closer to the surface, because we're always in Call's head, and can immediately see things from his point-of-view. Tracking Call's continued inner conflict for the rest of the series is certainly going to be fun, because we'll get to see how much he grows in his friendships, his identity, and his role in this universe while the external conflict also thickens. 

The dynamics between our trio-turned-quartet are almost boundary-breaking, when we break it down. Aaron is the "hero" -- the Makar. Call believes himself to be Aaron's enemy and friend, while he also believes himself to be the actual Enemy. And of course, Tamara, Aaron, and Jasper can never know. With so much dialogue and back-and-forth, the authors need to keep track of who believes what, while also building to inevitable yet shocking plot twists. One way the authors help keep everything straight is by embracing tropes to utilize them in surprising ways. Aaron is the foster kid turned hero, but he's best friends with his enemy. Jasper is the annoying rich kid, who somehow falls into cahoots with the hero trio and becomes a hero himself. Tamara is also rich, but the smart female who betrays the group at one point. And Call is the character no one can be expected to understand, while also being the most relatable. By rewriting the tropes to fit their purposes, the authors give readers a chance to empathize with the characters, and to understand how each character will take the truth-revealing (which is part of the plot twisting, of course). These tropes also give the group enough time to form in a believable way -- almost naturally, Aaron and Call will become best friends, and Tamara and Jasper will know each other, and Jasper and Call will be at each other's throats, and Tamara and Call will be the troublemakers. These complex dynamics support the ways in which each character's loyalty is tested, and how they will respond, thus affecting the suspense and the plot twists. 

We finally start to learn more about the magic world in The Copper Gauntlet, and the power structures behind magic. Readers get a history of the war, the enemies they're up against, and the tools they have in their arsenal to defeat them. Much of the book revolves around the Alkahest, a magical tool, and who possesses it. To understand much of this book, Clare and Black have to build on what readers know about the Magisterium from The Iron Trial. This includes those lectures we don't really understand at first, and Master Rufus's strange lessons. Black and Clare even build on the smallest of details, such as Warren the elemental's vague warnings and Alastair's scary actions from the Iron Trial. Every single part in this magical machine has a purpose, even the smallest of parts and details we don't understand yet. The ways in which Black and Clare decide to build, however, don't overwhelm readers in the face of the larger plots, outer and inner. Instead, the deepening of understanding of the magic world is necessary to understand the plot. The authors lay out all the details necessary, while harkening back to earlier scenes, as they create the need for the quintet's great quest. This sets up the novel, but also the stakes for the rest of the series. These details would have been overwhelming in the first book, and are necessary now after our introduction to the magical world. Without our new understanding of the Magisterium and the enemies of it, we cannot understand the motives of the group, Call, or anyone else in the series. 

Black and Clare also excel at leaving their novels at nail-biting cliffhangers. Master Rufus just confided in Call about a new threat to the Magisterium. Will Call, Aaron, Tamara and Jasper neutralize the new threat? Or will something happen to them, and the rest of the magical world? Find out in the third book of this five book series, The Bronze Key. Find my review here!

*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*