This has a mix of academy genre and battle royale vibes that make for a very interesting book.

Personally the multiple perspectives slowed things down for me but it's still written beautifully.

This took way too long to get started and even when it did it wasn't very exciting or enough to keep me interested in reading it.

It needs help with the story and better editing.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This took so long to get going I gave up after eight chapters. There are glimmers of engaging ideas and characters, but the story needed an editor's guiding hand and a compelling conflict to launch it.

I received a copy of Shadow Talker thanks to the publisher through NetGalley.

Right off the bat this story really bothered me. Mostly in a ‘I want to strangle the conceited pricks’ kind of way, but also in a ‘seriously? People don’t act like that’ kind of way.

You know that scene in the first Harry Potter where Harry catches the golden snitch for the first time and everyone surrounds him cheering? Yeah. That’s this story for the first 11% (where I stopped reading).

There was great hope for this one. Magic detective? Sounds awesome. But the way the characters act bother me so much I could not finish reading.

I really found the premise to be quite interesting and original. However, I wasn't keen on the execution. The characters are somewhat monotonous and makes the story hard to get really absorbed into. I felt as though I kept waiting to be pulled into the story.

I figured the publisher would want me not be sharing feedback on this title on social media, so I will not. I only was able to get about 10% through this book (about where James the protagonist, has completed at least 1 Games test) The characters seemed undefined, raw, all over the place. The world building was rough, not smoothly transitioned into the story, I had no idea what was happening most of the time. I really wanted to give this book a go, but after several attempts at restarting it's a no go for me.

The description of the book was a bit misleading. It seemed that this would be a fantasy that I would enjoy. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

The style of writing was very simplistic. This should have been categorized as a young adult novel.

I didn't find the plot interesting or the characters relatable.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I apologize as I'm not going to review this book publicly.

I'm sure the book is fine but I got as far as the graduation celebration in the bar and was uncomfortable with the woman being provided as part of the celebration. She's described more as a thing rather than a person, existing to be an exotic beauty for the sex that follows.

She spends her entire time admiring him: "Even without knowing what profession I’d earned, she already assessed my good and bad qualities, and found me worthy." They haven't even talked at this point.

She is described as a Barbie doll "Her waist-length, fiery red hair gave off a sense of exotic beauty. Biane was around five-foot-five tall and she had an impressive figure; moderately athletic, but not too skinny". That is a guy assessing her for sex.

I'm not saying the book is bad. I'm not saying the author can't write this kind of book.

I'm saying that _for_ _me_, this kind of writing is uncomfortable and I'm noping out.

I'd normally review it as a "not for me", "did not finish".

I liked the concept of the story. It's about a magic detective school. The participants have to figure out how to get inside for their first test. This even makes sense – solve the mystery or you don't get accepted. Apparently, the door to get into the school spans different worlds.

It has some story potential, but there's really a lot wrong with the delivery.

In the first 11 chapters, we meet the new characters who will all be going to the school. I assume that they're from different worlds, otherwise, there would be no point to mention the properties of the door.

The story is told from a first-person perspective. It's not an active voice – just dialogue and expository.

Each of the characters gets a few chapters describing how they arrive at the door. There is no characterization, no way to distinguish the people by voice. They all may as well be the same person because everyone has the same tone and speaks in the same weird English.

I'll give an example of the language.

"Although I was the first one who took a seat at the table and didn't do absolutely anything to make the only two women sit next to me, all glances which were addressed to me expressed jealousy and a silent reproach without any exception."

In some places, it sounds like it's trying to be an old Sherlock Holmes story. I could get into that, but for as far as I read, I don't think it's what the author was going for.

Here's another quote.

"Great Shuura, what's the point of them sitting by my side? I already have Biane."

. . . "I turned to the left. It was the girl with the colorful hair. She gave me an innocent look, which clearly read: oh, he's cute!

"Oh, not in this world! I promised Biane that I won't be with other women, and I intend to keep my word. This wonder will be able to find someone else without a problem."

So a guy takes a seat. After that, there are only two seats left in the whole place, so two girls sit near him. It makes everyone else jealous?

And sitting next to the guy while having an innocent look means she's trying to vamp him? By the way, he barely even knows Biane – he met her two or three days before entering school and they both went off to different schools.

Sounds more like this character just has mental issues; maybe needs to realize that it's not all about him.

This was a difficult book to read. I only read about 25% of it, but feel that it was enough to make an assessment.

I think that anyone who puts together a novel and puts him or herself out there is already off to a good start. I know how hard it is. However, I would encourage the author to work with someone to make the story more active. They always say, "show, don't tell;" well, this story is all tell with unnatural dialogue. Some scenes are vague so it can be confusing to try to figure out what's going on.

I'd like to reiterate that this story does have potential. The synopsis grabbed my attention. Fix the issues, and this could be a winner.