I had a really hard time reading this book. It just wasn't sucking me in. I might give the companion book a try (The Wizard Heir), but at the same time I might not.

Start date approximate.

3 1/2 STARS!!

I listened to the audio of this one. If I had read this before the Gray Wolf series it probably would have gotten a 4. It took a bit to get my attention but once it did I really enjoyed it. The narrator wasn't my favorite - he is a bit too precise with his speech, and takes too many pauses which for me disrupts the flow. I just couldn't give it a 4 when her other stuff is so much better!

I only had about a quarter of the book to go but couldn’t find the motivation to finish it. I felt like I didn’t know the characters at all, despite the fact that I was over 300 pages in. The plot was flimsy and confusing. Nothing too original about it. Pretty disappointed overall.

Chima has this magical way of taking a really interesting premise and completely, totally ruining it. She did it first in the Seven Realms series, and now here. First there was Hastings turned into a guy with what I call the “Dumbledore Syndrome”, aka using someone other than himself to fight for the greater good. And then, the hunches I had about both Leesha and Ellen turned out to be correct. There is also Jack, who we don’t really get to know very well despite him being the main character. He feels shallow and mercurial, ill defined as a character. Over all, it was just a disappointing and frustrating read and I’ve removed all the Chima books off my shelves because I just don’t care for her way of story building.

For her first book in this series it's not the best but she is an extremely talented author. The way most of her books are in my view, is that she writes mostly your story tension not extremely highly but at certain pints and then does something totally credible in the end. It's not in a dragged out boring way though, she really doesn't make it work with her style of writing.

Think of Percy Jackson and the Olympian books and any other series Rick Riordan has written. I was disappointed with his second series on the Romans the more I look back. He didn't go into enough detail at the highlight of the book part. Like when each demigod hero had to face a giant with the help of there godly parent. The patent showed up and helped is all the information you were given. If he went into detail with it, it would had have been one of the things that makes the book better but back on topic.

(I am so sorry for that)

What made me pick this book up was that when the description said underground people I thought it was going along the lines that a magical type of people lived underground beneath the earth, but it was meant like in the shadows of the world like a superhero with a secret identity.

If you look at this like Percy Jackson you will be disappointed because it's similar how the main character Jack is thrown into s magical world, but that's where the similarities end.

At the end you see a little hint of things that make the hunger games pop into your head, but note that's where the hunger games end and is never brought up again throughout the series.

I love the way Chima writes. She can really describe a character. You just fall in love with them all and the while aura of the book.

But later on while reading the series I find that it's like magical view point on politics and Racism.

Like the Wizards are the white people and every other magical family are the other races that have been victims of extreme prejudice.