Circle of Magic: Tris's Book by Tamora Pierce

[meganbmoore]

As I expected, Tris and Daja grew on me when they stopped being prickly and unpleasant to everyone, though I still don’t like them quite as much as I do Sandry and Briar. Tris is also still a little too self-pitying for my tastes, though she seems to be getting over that. As I feared, though still an ensemble book, this is much more Tris’s story than Sandry’s was hers. It may just be my paranoia over common fantasy narrative tendencies speaking too loudly, but I can’t help but think Pierce is operating under the assumption that the traditionally feminine character who is nice instead of prickly is going to be less interesting than the other characters. I’d pass it off as my going “Wah! My favorite isn’t getting the most attention!” if it weren’t for the fact that her type of magic is also the least developed of the four.

I do like the books and the friendship between the characters, and I love their teachers, but the series isn’t getting to me as much as the other YA I’ve been reading lately have. Possibly, it just doesn’t cater to my inner 13-year-old as much as they do.