Publisher - Corgi Children's
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - 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 school in the magical world of the Magisterium . . . 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 awaken the attention of some very dangerous foes - and get closer to an even more dangerous truth. As the mysteries of the Magisterium deepen and widen, bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare take readers on an extraordinary journey through one boy’s conflict -and a whole world’s fate.
I'm going to start this review by saying there's not a huge lot I can actually talk about as it would be so completely spoiler-ridden so please forgive a crappy review for a decent book.
The Copper Gauntlet got off to a slow start for me. Those of you who have read the book probably highly disagree since such incredible revelations happen right at the beginning of the book - but I feel like after everything we discovered in the first book, there would be more of a wow-factor. However I loved that Havoc was still around and still as weird and loveable as we had come to know him.
The thing that I loved the most about The Copper Gauntlet is also what kind of annoyed me. I can already imagine my boyfriend's face when I write this as we've been joking about it. It was incredibly Percy Jackson-esque. Call and his loyal friends, off on a mission, risking their lives. Searching for an artifact without any real sense of direction but still ending up exactly where they need to be at the right time - with a hell of a lot of issues in between. Sounding familiar? Really though, I LOVE that! The first book in the series was set at school and though it was awesome, I did worry how they would make an entire series work, but changing the scene was great.
Another thing that carried on from the first book was the relationships between Call and his friends. This was really important to me as it's one of the major things I look for in books of this kind. The massive bombshell that was dropped in book 1 had been playing on my mind and the connections Call had made were at risk. Things like that worry me!
I had assumed that there would be a huge weight on Call's mind throughout this book, with all of the previous year hanging over him but I didn't really feel that. Call made a LOT of references to him being an 'evil overlord', but it was kind of more annoying than anything else. It seemed like it was every other page he was questioning himself or others. I can understand why of course, but it still didn't stop it from being irritating.
In terms of the actual story, and it pains me to admit it, I can't really remember the details. Although it has only been a couple of weeks since I read it, it's kind of floated out of my mind. Again, I want to urge that that has nothing to do with whether the book was enjoyable or not (it was), it just felt a lot more generic than the first one. The shock factor had worn off and now it's just a case of seeing where they go from here. There was a lot of action though and as with the last book, from here, anything could happen. I look forward to the next release to see how Call is going to face the future.
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