Title: Aerie (Magonia #2)
Author: Maria Dahvana Headley
Rating: ★★

I enjoyed Magonia, but there was too much I didn’t like about this book to enjoy it as well. The world-building and imagination is so spectacular in this series. Unfortunately, there was too many other things that bothered me that made the book almost unbearable to get through.

First off, I don’t remember being as annoyed by the writing in the first one as I was in this one. I can’t stand the way the two main characters, Aza and Jason, talk. To me, they come off as pretentious teenagers. Also, Jason is the character I like the least, and since he narrates half of the book, it’s easy to see why I didn’t like it. Literally, all he did was whine about Aza for the entire duration of the book. I already though he was bland and boring but the whining on top just made him so damn annoying. The angst between him and Aza took up the entirety of the story to the point of overshadowing the actual plot. When I was reading Magonia, I really liked Dai. I found him interesting and I think the author could have done a lot more with his character in Aerie. He had such potential for character growth in the second book, but he barely makes an appearance until the 90% mark, and then all of a sudden he changes, which is what I was hoping for, but it was poorly executed. I was hoping to watch it happen gradually over the course of the story.

I really liked Magonia, and I think the world that Maria Dahvana Headley has created is amazing. Honestly though, I think I would have been okay if I hadn’t read Aerie, especially since there was not much that I liked about it.