Name: The Sorceress
ISBN: 9780385735292

Michael Scott

While armies of the Shadowrealms gather and Machiavelli goes to Alcatraz to kill Perenelle Flamel, fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman accompany the Alchemist to England to continue their search for the Codex.

The Sorceress

Savindi Jinasena

** spoiler alert **
           I started to read this book at the beginning of the Winter Semester, then as soon as school work increased, the book was left to gather a small amount of dust till it would be opened again and that was just about a week ago.

As the title of the review says, this is the third book of The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott and this time the title refers to Perenelle Flamel. The symbols on the frontcover are significant in this book because they represent some of the characters and devices that appear within the story arc. I think it’s fair to say that the book is divided between Perenelle’s story and the Twins story as they try to master the elemental magic of water.

Like its predecessors, The Sorceress is a fast paced book, a lot happens in 488 pages, but it’s quite easy to keep up as the story progresses. Plot wise, I enjoyed this book a great deal more than the previous two books.Sometimes I find it annoying when authors jump back and forth between locations, however I didn’t haven’t a problem with that happening in The Sorceress. Perenelle Flamel is trapped on Alcatraz with The Morrigan, The Sphinx and a load of other mythological monsters while Nicholas and the twins are in England trying to escape from Dr. John Dee while fighting off The Wild Hunt. As always Scott’s book is rich in mythological and historical presence with characters such as Palamedes the Saracen Knight, William Shakespeare, Gilgamesh the King, Billy the Kid etc. Joan of Arc, Scatty and Saint-Germain also return briefly in this book and have another story line to themselves.

Primary Character wise I’m not sure of my feelings towards the Flamels. While Pernelle’s battles in Alcatraz were exciting I didn’t particularly like her character. I found her to be self-absorbed and cunning in her own right. I understand that she’s powerful, but I think Scott could have made her a bit more likable. As for Nicholas Flamel, I feel more or less the same about him. The Alchemyst has a shady past concerning other twins and what shocked me was the his coldness towards the matter. His beliefs for finding The Twins of Legend for the ‘greater good’ seems a bit misplaced considering that he took it upon himself to find the twins, as opposed to being entrusted with the responsibility. I don’t find him to be trustworthy and I’m interested to see how the story continues in The Necromancer. I was impressed at the development of Dr.John Dee in this book. I enjoyed reading his backstory and I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him, however that vanished soon enough as he continues his insane schemes of trying to unleash darkness in the world once again.

As for the twins, this story was much more about Josh than Sophie. Josh is my favourite twin, but in this book there were times I wanted him to stop being so unsure about himself. Of course it was great to see him taking charge in some of the battles that took place, but other times he could have been a bit more logical about things. That being said, I found it interesting that this book highlighted Josh’s weaknesses that are assets to Dee; specifically his thirst for power and glory. Sophie’s character isn’t that strongly portrayed in this book, but you see the older sister side of her step in quite a few times and when she is called to ‘battle’ you can see her strength as well. I enjoyed the sibling moments between the twins in this book. I feel like in the small moments they had together there was a certain maturity about them, despite both having different opinions about their powers.

As for Secondary Characters in this book I really liked Palamedes. I liked that he stood up to Nicholas Flamel and put him in his place. And I have to say that I found it cool how his Armour appeared on his body when he’d go into battle. Shakespeare was a great character as well and it was interesting to find out about his relationship with both Dee and Flamel. He and Gilgamesh were tragic characters in my opinion and I hope we see more of them in the series, especially Gilgamesh because he’s one immortal who wants to be human again. Machiavelli’s appearance was also great, even though there wasn’t much character development for him. Although there seems to be a budding Friendship between him and Billy. I liked how laid back Billy was. He was so unfazed by the Morrigan’s stiff attitude towards him that I couldn’t help but laugh and I’m looking forward to his development.

Aside from character development one of things that bothers me about this book and the series are the numerous amounts of chapters. In The Sorceress there are 70 chapters (not including the epilogue) and some of them are quite unnecessary. The plot lines could have been continued in the previous chapter, especially since some of the chapters were only 2 or 3 pages long.

Overall The Sorceress was an enjoyable read. It was fast paced, good dialogue, rich in historical and mythological elements and had interesting plot twists. Always my complaint with Scott’s books are lack of character development. Aside from all its faults my favourite aspect of course is the use of characters and the descriptions Scott provides makes you feel like you’re in the world of Sophie and Josh witnessing the events that are taking place. I’m looking forward to reading The Necromancer soon!

My Rating: 4.5/5

Would I recommend it? Definitely

Finally, I am SO happy Josh is getting less annoying. S/o to him for growing up in a matter of days! Wild it took power from Mars/Horus to get that done. Writing also feels like it's for a slightly older audience than the first two books!

(Bre)anne✨

TW to be added later

Finally, I am SO happy Josh is getting less annoying. S/o to him for growing up in a matter of days! Wild it took power from Mars/Horus to get that done. Writing also feels like it's for a slightly older audience than the first two books!

Dee B. 

Laura Kehoe

This series just keeps getting more and more fun! I can't wait for book four!

Kerry Gibbons

Pretty good. I call shenanigans on the plot point surrounding Joan and Scatty near the end of the book... seems like the whole storyline could be fixed with a bit of that well-applied... but.

I'll get to the fourth one when I've finished all the books I have checked out from the library.

sam worley

3.5⭐️
The history is my absolute favorite part about this series!!! 
I Love Perry!
Josh is super annoying
Niccolo is so interesting and i love learning about him
I hate how Nicholas is portrayed in this one ://