Old Magic - Marianne Curley

"The moment the new guy walks into the room, Kate senses something strange and intense about him. Something supernatural. Her instincts are proven correct a few minutes later when, bullied by his classmates, Jarrod unknowingly conjures up a freak thunderstorm "inside" their classroom.

Jarrod doesn't believe in the paranormal. When Kate tries to convince him that he has extraordinary powers that need to be harnessed, he only puts up with her "hocus pocus" notions because he finds her captivating. However, the dangerous, uncontrolled strengthening of his gift finally convinces Jarrod that he must take Kate's theories seriously. Together, they embark on a remarkable journey -- one which will unravel the mystery that has haunted Jarrod's family for generations and pit the teens against immense forces in a battle to undo the past and reshape the future."

Okay so this reads like a very long creative writing project a teenage girl writes in High School. First of all I think I am way to old for the demographic this book was aimed at. Rather than an 18 year old I think this would go down better with 13 year olds. 

It seems to cram every possible YA trope possible into it. The boy with the obscenely powerful  magical abilities he has no idea about, the loner girl, the awful bully and characterless clique, the characterless villain that is about as scary as a grumpy emo. By which I mean he literally wears all black and lives in the creepy dark castle on the hill surrounded by swirling storm clouds. I am not exaggerating. He is just missing the moustache twirl.  

Kate, one of the two main characters, is "not like other girls" to the extreme, in the way that she's an outcast at her school and seems to put herself above other people. This book, like many others, seems to have an issue with typical femininity, and that shows through Kate's treatment of Tasha. There's also the later line of "These poor peasants don't have the skills to procure a curse" which is a whole problem in its own right. She keeps this attitude up until the middle to end of the book, at which point she starts getting attacked, harassed, and kidnapped at every turn and loses all her own agency in favour of Jarrod's own development. She is also so bloody dumb. Kate and Jarrod are always spouting how smart and clever she is when I had to sit there and read her be like “there’s no way the evil villain won’t keep his promise to Jarrod that’s ImPoSsIbLe” and then of course she was proven wrong two seconds later. 

LIKE KATE HE LIVES IN THE MOST STEREOTYPICAL EVIL CASTLE. BLACK CLOUDS, CREEPY BUILDING, CALLED BLACKLANDS, HAS CROWS EVERYWHERE.
HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE. And she was surprised and two seconds later she complains about not being able to beat Rhauk’s logic.

“Of course you do. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” His eyes narrow, assessing me. “But I will have to do something to stop you from interfering.”
“Noooo!” God, he’s one step ahead of me every time. How can anyone beat this logic?

By using your brain for a grand total of two seconds.Just so so unoriginal. There was also some random time travel thrown in there as well for a really flimsy reason and I really, really don't like time travel. There are way to many variable and people always do it so clumsily. There was no exception here. I kept of thinking, these people are Australian. They have Australian accents. The English noblemen they meet don't have any problem with this and never mention it?? 

Unfortunately the writing was also terribly subpar. Just childish, lacking any subtlety or nuance. We are always being told that Kate is being terribly bullied but the dude literally bullied her twice in the whole book and called her “Scary Face”. I mean come on. Seriously, they’re in high school. High schoolers can insult people way better than that. Give us some credit, okay? My biggest issue with this writing style is how much it just tells me or shoehorns stuff in. So much telling not showing. For an example of the former, Jarrod spends three weeks training and it starts like a page before the chapter ends and part of a two page chapter, and I get nothing except “I GOTTA TRAIN FOR KATE” and suddenly he becomes incredibly despite only being able to teach himself magic????

Characterisation just wasn't existent and nobody had any interesting or original motives. Jarrod's ancestors act like bloody idiots personally. For a family in an area know for religious fanaticism and witch hunting, they where awful chill with Jarrod's very obvious witch craft. Something that was also really weird was how much Kate was referred to as "exotic" by Jarrod. Like yes dude, she is half Asian no need to get a weird exotic fetishization complex on. 

Age Rating 13+. Just a terrible book. I don't think there was any redeeming features. Sorry.