I had previously read this book, back in 2013, while still in high school, but I never did review it. I did rate it five stars. It must have really impressed me at the time; however, I don't remember exactly why. It was because of my previous rating, along with the still intriguing premise, that I decided to reread it now. 
 The first thing that took me aback was how short it felt, and it wasn't because of the vague feeling of having seen this all before. The pacing feels very quick. There aren't very many subplots (as in, those that distract from the main plot), and every event seemed to be a natural progression to the clearly stated goal of ridding the kingdom of a dark magic. Little time was spent on characters nonessential to the central fight, and truly, I felt there was a bit of a lack of depth in some of the essential characters. This book felt very streamlined, all frills and crooked edges trimmed neatly. I wouldn't call it positive or negative. Just different. 
 As far as the plot goes, I did enjoy it, but I did feel it lacked some twists and turns that "nonessential" material might have given it. It wasn't completely without twists, but I can't speak for those because my "gut feeling" knew what was going on already (but my gut feeling in this case is a dirty cheater because I'd read the book three years ago). Still, I really enjoyed it, so it's like a 3.75 for me (rounded to four stars, of course). Despite its more "bare bones" approach, all the necessary elements were there, and I still enjoyed the journey, however more "linear" it may seem.