Sixteen-year-old Blythe is one of seven Guardians: magicians powerful enough to cause worldwide panic with a snap of their fingers. But Blythe spends her days pouring latte art at her family’s coffee shop, so why should she care about having apocalyptic abilities?
She’s given a reason when magician anarchists crash into said coffee shop and kidnap her family.
Heartbroken but determined, Blythe knows she can’t save them alone. A war is brewing between two magician governments and tensions are too high. So, she packs up her family’s bright yellow Volkswagen, puts on a playlist, and embarks on a road trip across the United States to enlist the help of six strangers whose abilities are unparalleled—the other Guardians.
The idea is good. The characters are wonderful – or could be wonderful, if the character building was more subtle. I think that’s what I missed the most in this book, subtlety. Characters were predictable, what happened was predictable – unless there was nothing hinting at it because it was there to surprise us, the one twist I hadn’t seen coming was an attempt at securing a second book but didn’t bring much outside of that. Some scenes were clearly written at the beginning, and sometimes it looked like the book was just an excuse to get these 5 or 6 super detailed scenes out there to the public.
I read through it, and I was bored. I think it was really the way it was written, more than the content itself, because during the entire read, I kept imagining really cool animation. I’d have watched a animation series based on the exact same story. The novel format unfortunately didn’t give it justice.