Seventeen-year-old Rémy Dupree Rush is the last of his kind. He’s a Conjuror, a descendant of an ancient African bloodline that can change reality with music. Seventeen-year-old twins Matt and Em Calder are the most powerful of their kind. They are Animare, descendants of an ancient order of artists whose imaginations can bring art to life and travel through paintings. Malevolent forces that only a Conjuror can stop are rising in the world. Rémy must enlist the Calder twins’ help to battle them.
Rating: 4/5
In Three Words: Clever, fast, interesting.
Cover: I love the concept and colours of the cover but the image of the instrument in the middle just doesn’t seem to fit in with the minimal style of the rest of it. I think it would have looked better without any instrument and just more music.
If I hate a book it will take three months to read it as I cannot bear to put myself through terribleness for any longer than necessary. If I absolutely love a book I will also take three months to read it, trying very hard to pace myself in its beauty.
This one didn’t take very long to read — three days to be exact — which is proof that the conjuror was great, but not faultless.
One of Conjuror’s main strengths is its characters. The main character, Rémy, is a black teenage boy who discovers he is a descendant of a Conjuror — someone who can alter reality with music. I must admit when I first picked up the book I thought Rémy would be as clichéd as clichés could get. The authors definitely prove me wrong. Rémy is three dimensional, very relatable and most importantly his skin colour doesn’t feel like it’s just included to tick the ‘diverse characters box’.
Another notable mention is Caravaggio, who may only be a minor character but that didn’t stop the authors from developing him. He is like the Magnus Bane of the Barrowmans’ world with a hint of homage to John’s humorous and crazy role of Captain Jack from Doctor Who. I also really appreciate the other subtle references to the TV series like, ‘wibbly wobbly time’.
Similarly to Doctor Who, I love how well researched Conjuror feels in terms of history, especially the slave trade. The setting and voice dramatically changes throughout the different periods of time, which contribute to a better image of the different events and adds to this overall knowledgeable voice of the book. Despite being fantasy, the Barrowmans try very hard to make it as realistic as possible which I quite enjoyed.
Additionally, dialogue within fiction is not something all authors get right. The Barrowman siblings’ sparse use of dialect is just enough to create the historical or modern context, when needed and little enough to not get annoying unlike David Almond’s excessive use of ‘mebbe’.
Finally, the plot is great and it is only at the end that I realised how cleverly set and structured the plot is and how it joins together like a puzzle. Conjuror’s plot left me returning to the first few pages while reading the final few chapters to reflect the plot’s careful words and clever devices. It was rather like reading crime fiction and the overlapping of genres also works very well in this novel.
Conjuror also has its bad sides and at the start I couldn’t find how any puzzle pieces fit the plot. Nothing seems to make much sense and I was left with this overwhelming feeling that I must have (stupidly) missed something. It wasn’t my fault and I understand that now; the structure is meant to be like this to aid the plot. But John and Carole Barrowman could have made this clearer. They rely too much on the assumption that we, the reader, have nothing better to do but trawl through the jigsaw puzzle. There were random changes in points of view, sudden time travel and some awful pacing. I know some people would have left the novel as soon as it was apparent nothing makes sense a quarter way through.
Perhaps this flaw is the fault of another pair of very important characters, the Orion twins. Emma and Matt have the cutest relationship in the book, with a fair bit of hate (and love) on each part. These characters come from another book called Hollow Earth. I have nothing against the characters, but rather their existence in this book. After having featured elsewhere, these characters’ appearance means that to someone who hasn’t read Hollow Earth, their story gets confusing. It often feels as though the authors are relying on the reader having previously read Hollow Earth and don’t explain things involving Emma and Matt as well as they could have done. This and the fact that they play a huge part in the second half of the novel, contributes to Conjuror’s fault in structure and desire to confuse the reader.
Conjuror by John and Carole E. Barrowman may have its faults but overall this is overshadowed by the fact that by the end it was a very enjoyable read. As long as you don’t mind waiting to understand the story, I would recommend the novel to any young adults and adults in search of fantasy, with art and music influences, and for someone who is looking for a fast-paced everyday read.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
