Item: Initiate
Rating: 3.5
Author: Anjali Kay

Book Review :: Initiate by Jenny Sandiford

Initiate by Jenny Sandiford
ISBN: 978-0-6454449-0-2
Series: The Shadow Atlas #1
Published by Velikor Publishing
on 10th May 2022
Genres: Fantasy, Magic, New Adult
Pages: 405
Format: eBook
Goodreads

Dark magic always comes with a price…

Desperate for a cure for her Shadow Magic that’s spiralling out of control, eighteen-year-old Azalea Sharp steps into the hidden forest deep within the English countryside.

What she finds is the opposite, a way to control magic, and from an unlikely source—her dead father. But she must be willing to pay the price and raise him from the dead.

With her father’s enemies on her doorstep, she is driven into hiding among a secret community of Mages in the Tower of London. There, Azalea quickly learns that not all magic is equal.

But with more than her own life at stake, will the help of a notorious Shadow Mage be enough?

Or will darkness unleash its brutal force on London, leaving no one safe?

Last updated on 13 February 2023

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What is Initiate by Jenny Sandiford about?

Initiate by Jenny Sandiford tells the story of Azalea. The story begins with Azalea as she encounters her dead father’s spirit in the forest one day. He tells her she can control her Shadow Magic, which is causing havoc and going a bit haywire… but in order to do so, she has to bring him back from the dead. She just needs to find the Shadow Atlas book.

Ready to pay the price, Azalea decides to follow her uncle’s suggestion and heads to a secret school of Mages in the Tower of London. There Azalea begins to learn about her magic, both her magic from her mother’s side … and her dark Shadow Magic. With the help of Torin, a mage a few years Azalea’s senior, Azalea is able to learn the basics she thinks she needs to bring her father back. But will it be enough?

My thoughts on Initiate by Jenny Sandiford

Initiate by Jenny Sandiford was a really fun read. It was a bit Harry Potter-esque, with the magical school, different Houses of Magic (in Initiate there are 8 houses or families of magic, each with their own affinity), and creepy creatures out to wreak havoc on London.

There’s quite a lot going on in this book. As well as Azalea coming to terms with just how powerful her magic really is, she can see spirits, not something that everyone can see. This brings in a whole other element to the story. She’s often dodging spirits around the Tower courtyards and avoiding them where she can. There’s also a Divergent-esque test to determine which house someone is in, there’s a vampire aspect to the story, and the fact that magic is hidden in the world and people without it aren’t supposed to know about it.

All of this and then the main storyline with the Shadow Atlas book and learning necromancy to bring her dad back made for a full story, and while it was good and was really fun, I did find that there were a few too many ideas happening at times. One of the reasons I bumped it down a bit in my rating of an otherwise great story.

Characters

Azalea meets lots of other students during her time at the Tower, and while some characters were instantly likeable (her roommate, Evangeline ‘Van’, for example), some you’d love nothing more than to hit in the face with their own magical textbooks.

I really enjoyed Torin as the quiet, brooding sort of mentor in the story, and Danni and Maiken (women who work in the Tower) are a lot of fun. I did find that Azalea’s character developed and then later on in the story I thought she did and said things that were a little out of character, but other than that, I enjoyed reading her as the main character. I would have loved to see more of Azalea’s non-magical friend, Isaac, so I hope he’s more in the next book.

“Magic can be draining, but can also make one paranoid … Especially surrounded by all this new information. You’re down the rabbit hole and don’t know quite what’s possible anymore.”

Setting

The world that Sandiford is created is vast in its magical creation – 8 main houses of magic are a lot of different types of magical elements to work with, but I think, from what we’ve seen so far, it really worked, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they play out more in future books.

Magical system

The magical system is different from what I’ve read before, with different dimensions that the mages need to cut into to draw through power. A wand-like or stele-like ‘elemer’ is used to do this, and it has two ends – one for cutting and the other for grabbing the magic.

It’s hard to re-think a wand and create something different from a very well-known and popular magical tool, but I think Sandiford does a good job of taking something that we’re already so familiar with and twisting it a little and creating something new. While it did seem a touch complicated and fiddly at times, I really liked the idea.

Monsters

No New Adult Urban Fantasy book set in London would be complete without a good monster, and the gallu demon was a really good monster. This spirit wraith, as they’re called, is a dark creature from the Shadow Dimension, and it feeds on human spirits. After waiting for someone to die, the gallu demon eats the spirit of the person as it tries to leave the body. The spirit wraith gets stronger with every spirit it eats up, until it can reach corporeal form and start killing people. Um, how creepy and cool is that?! Well done, Sandiford. 👏🏻

Overall thoughts on Initiate

Initiate by Jenny Sandiford was a fun magical read, set in one of my favourite cities. While there are always going to be parallels to other stories, I thought the blend of magic, creepy creatures, school (or more University-like schooling), and even a vampire element thrown in there was a good blend.

If you like books like Harry Potter, or stories like A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess, then you’ll definitely want to read Initiate. The prequel novella to Initiate, House of Ravens is set to come out in 2022, with the sequel to Initiate, Apprentice, hopefully coming out in 2023. You can follow Jenny on Instagram for future updates!

Will you be picking up Initiate? Let me know what you think when you’ve read it!

About Jenny Sandiford

Jenny Sandiford grew up in small-town New Zealand on a steady diet of fairytales and fantasy books. She lived in Mongolia for nine years with her husband where they spent the unfrozen months of the year living on the edge of the Gobi Desert mining gold. When she isn’t writing, Jenny enjoys hiking, and meeting new animals, and loves to curl up in a sunny corner with a cup of tea, a cat, and a book. She is currently in the United States with her husband and their two street cats from Mongolia.