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 That was much better than I expected. It wasn't anything spectacular and fresh, either, but it was a fun story with good characters and pretty good writing - not great, as there are some awkward phrases and really shittastic dialogue. But still, I wasn't sure what to expect, not liking Clare (partially for moral reasons and partially because City of Bones was so boring) and never having read Black before. 
 So. I really enjoyed this. The fact that I read it in a day is probably a pretty good sign that I liked it, lol. 
 I liked the characters. I like that Callum (OMG I REFUSE TO CALL HIM CALL WTF WHO SHORTENS CALLUM TO CALL YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE LENGTH OF THE A AND IT'S JUST WEIRD, OKAY?!) is kind of a pain in the ass. And I love Aaron, omg he's too sweet. And Tamara is pretty much kick ass :D And Master Rufus is hilarious. I love him. 
 I liked the world. I like the Magisterium, super interesting and cool and pretty sounding. I like the magic system - obviously elemental magic isn't anything new, and neither is the soul as being part of it in some way, but I did like the way they did it. Though the didn't need to repeat the Cinquain ad naseum... 
 I think I got it when I read it on the back ;) 
 And I liked the twists. I didn't see either of them coming and I really liked them. I thought I had the last twist figured out, but it turned out I was only partially right and that was pretty cool :D 
 THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: 
 - Inconsistent writing quality. 
 - Cartoonish villain scenes. 
 - Harry Potter-ish things (most notably, a scene at the end where Callum is in the infirmiry and his teacher asks if he has anything else he wants to tell him and Callum thinks about what he should tell him and then decides not to...sound familiar? yeah, to me, too). 
 - Some things sort of just...happen. Conveniently. Which gets frustrating. I read too fast to really point any out, but if I ever do a reread (though I'm a little afraid to...) I'll go slower and take a closer look. 
 Anyway. Overall, super fun!