Review: The Rithmatist

The Rithmatist (Rithmatist #1)The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a bit challenging to review, because as much as I really enjoyed reading this book, the stuff that I didn't like (as minor as it was) bothered me quite a bit.

What I Like:
1. Magic Math! Magic Geometry! Magic Chalk! I really liked this concept, and I thought the drawings throughout the book really brought out the concept.

2. I really appreciated the fact that the adults were not idiots. Many times in YA books, the adults are ridiculous, so the children/teenagers/young adults are able to save the day. Brandon Sanderson was able to write a book were the young folks saved the day, but the adults were not stupid. I stood up and cheered when the principal rolled his eyes at Joel's stupid idea to fail a class and told Joel to speak to him next time instead of assuming that working with a Rithmatist was out of the question.

3. The plot was cute and fun. It was not the most difficult plot to figure out, but it kept my attention.

4. The writing was great. The writing really flowed.

What I Didn't Like
1. Although I liked the fact that the adults were super smart, I felt bad that Joel and Melody weren't able to discover some stuff on their own. I almost felt like this book was showing off how stupid kids can be some times (instead of adults). It almost seemed like the anti-YA book.

2. I enjoyed all the math and geometry magic fighting, but I wished that Brandon Sanderson had spent more time early on talking about other aspects of Rithmancy. I feel like I didn't get a good understanding of the magic system. Because of this lack of understanding, I feel that I didn't really appreciate the magic system as much as I could.

3. I don't want to get into too much detail about this final point, because I don't know completely how I feel about it just yet and it is completely subjective; however, I have mixed feelings about the religion and magic link. Maybe it is because Brandon Sanderson did not go into too much detail about it or because some of the writing pushed some buttons in me about my own personal views, but in any event...I have mixed feelings about this aspect of the book.

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