A Study of Shattered Spells by Josiah DeGraaf
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve been excited about A Study of Shattered Spells for close to a year now. As soon as information about it started to drop, months before the Kickstarter campaign opened, I was captured by it. A dark academia novel featuring a magic school and a music-based magic system, told from a professor’s perspective and written from a Christian worldview? I can’t think of any description more specifically tailored to my interests and reading tastes.

The story opens to warfare, with battles being waged by musicians. Each instrument pairs with a different type of magic and is wielded in different ways. I was immediately fascinated. Magic and musical instruments could have been a cheesy pairing. But starting the story off in a place where the stakes were so high kept that from being the case.

Our main character is Kalina, a young but broken war commander. An explosion left her husband in a coma and her magic destroyed, but she was still standing in the aftermath. After a battle gone wrong, she is recruited to leave the battlefield behind and use her innovative mind to help train the prophesied savior of her nation during his last year at Chintor Academy, Rizade’s premier magical music academy. I really enjoyed having an adult perspective character in an academic setting. As someone who has taught in the past, I really connected with DeGraaf’s portrayals of Kalina’s classroom successes and failures. Including the triumph she felt over small wins.

“Good heroes don’t let other people bear their responsibilities.”

I really enjoyed the twist on the whole “chosen one” trope. DeGraaf displays new and thought-provoking facets in an archetype that has been utilized countless times through the millennia. Is someone above reproach and infallible simply because they’re chosen by prophesy? Of course not. But DeGraaf takes these questions a step further by turning the mirror back on those this child of prophecy is meant to save. Do we sometimes rest on prophecies? Do we see these ephemeral promises as an excuse to stop putting in real effort of our own? Another theme woven throughout the story is the necessity of repentance. No one is ever too far gone for forgiveness, even those guilty of great atrocities. But repentance is a necessary step that many refuse to take. Admitting your mistakes and making amends is far more difficult than leaning into the villainy others see in you.

“If grace was only for small mistakes, would it really be grace? What if grace is for the things we can’t make amends for?”

This novel goes into some dark territory, especially in regards to an act equivalent to mental rape, Compelling, that is done by one student to another repeatedly before the offending student is caught. The way cover-up ensued to shield the abuser—who is the star of the school—while sending the abused student away felt sadly true to life. That exact scenario has played out time and again in reality. Which made it all the more difficult to stomach, in spite of how well it was handled by DeGraaf. Kalina, because of family trauma in her past, has a desperate desire to protect others from abuse. And to train them to defend themselves against it. Her helpless rage in the face of the injustice of it all is something to which most everyone can (or should) relate.

On paper, this book was perfect for me, as if it had been written solely with me in mind. However, even though it was technically flawless in its pacing and word craft, it was missing an essential spark of life, in my opinion. This is an admittedly subjective issue, but I was never able to emotionally connect to the characters, the world, or the music. One of the points being driven home in this book was the importance of harmony, of working with others to create something bigger than yourself. Kalina was always pointing out to her students that music could be appreciated for its beauty, not just its power. But I never felt that from this story. Music was never more than a tool in the hands of its wielders, and the characters felt much the same way to me. They were expertly crafted on paper, but they never lived and breathed in my imagination.

A Study of Shattered Spells is a wonderful addition to many of my favorite subgenres. While I might not have developed an emotional connection to the world or those who populate it, I’m still very glad to have visited. I will definitely be reading any further installments DeGraaf shares with the world. Thankfully, this story in a way that was satisfying while still leaving me hungry to know what happens in the next book, which is coming in 2027.

You can purchase a copy here.

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