Book Review: School for Psychics by K.C. Archer

This one was surprisingly uneven, and therefore only three stars despite some things I really liked… It started out strong, with some hysterical insights and one-liners. Teddy is a snarky cynic – two qualities I quite admire in protagonists. She’s also willful and self-deceptive and nowhere near as independent as she wants everyone (including herself) to think she is. Those characteristics often combine into complex and interesting main characters. But they can also combine into tropes fairly easily. Teddy dances the line between C&I and T a little too much for my taste – which is the cause for most of my “surprisingly uneven” comment…

There’s some really cool and fun stuff here. None of it is altogether original. A misfit finds out she’s more than anyone (again, including herself) thought. An orphan learns secrets about her birth parents. A loner discovers she needs people. The quiet unprepossessing types are the ones hiding the most. Kids have to save the world. It’s a lot of stuff that’s been done before. That isn’t to say that it isn’t a fun read – it was, for the most part, largely because of the snark and cynicism of Teddy. But there were parts that I skimmed because they felt all too “been there, done that” too…

My review copy was provided by NetGalley.