Magonia 2.5/5
Summary
Aza Ray has been sick since she was a baby and none of the doctors can figure out why. She wasn't even supposed to live long thanks to this mysterious lung disease with no medical explanation. She's been barely surviving with a cocktail of medications and life support. So when Aza Ray sees a flying ship, everyone tells her that it's just the side effects from the medicine. The only one who listens is her best friend, Jason, who sticks by her despite her illness.
Magonia is a book that I was drawn to buy the cover. I know they say don't judge a book by its cover, but I definitely do that. The cover to this was gorgeous so I read the synopsis and it sounded great! The line "Aza Ray is drowning in thin air" hooked me and then when I found out it was about bird-pirates who ride a flying boat in the sky? I was done. I decided to read it just from that. Unfortunately, my excitement for this book died before I reached the halfway point.
Aza Ray was, to me, both likable and unlikable. She is strong in that she doesn't let her illness dictate her life. For the most part, she has a very dry humor about it which I appreciate. What I didn't like about her is that she hardly grew as a character. Her character in the beginning was tolerable to me because I thought she would grow from there. Although I appreciate her fighter nature, I had a hard time reading her parts because she came off as selfish to me. I finished it was because I wanted to learn more about the kind of magic that was shown in this book. That was more interesting to me then most other parts of the book.
I realize that this is a pretty unpopular opinion. I actually took a look around and saw that many people do in fact enjoy this book so I would say give the book a shot. However, to me, this book was a disappointment. I loved the idea behind this book and I found their magic interesting, too. Everything else fell flat for me but that could just be a matter of personal preference.
