The Culling Trials is the first book in the Shadowspell Academy series by K.F. Breene and Shannon Mayer. First published 2019 by Hijinks Ink Publishing. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Khristine Hvam. The book is a YA with Paranormal and fantasy elements, with vampires, shapeshifters, necromancers, mages and goblins.
The story is set in modern time, following the girl Wild in first person as her story unfold. Her older brother was summoned to a mysterious academy only to return dead, now its her younger brother’s time but Wild refuses to allow her family to lose another. With little other choice since they have threatened to kill the entire family if her younger brother, Billy, doesn’t show up. Wild dresses up as a boy and enters the trials for the magical academy where she must survive, or lie dead with her brother.
Wild is, in many cases, a Mary Sue. She is strong, being able to fight off four guys at once, only being taken down when she gave up so they would take her with them. She is also suddenly a shade who is a master of strategy, and a weapons master. All while being raised on a farm. I can believe she is fit, but fighting of people who had trained for years with magic and weapons. Yeah, I found her a bit overpowered. Not to mentioned her three useless friends that she has to babysit. They are there to make the story quirky, being three comical reliefs really. Along with throwing in the vampire at the end who really has no part in this story, but there were not enough characters in the story so let’s add a few more. That was irony. There are so much more characters, the guy who threatens her family, her childhood friend, several girl characters that I hardly remember, a rich elitist and so on. None of them leaves a great impact, at least not in this book.
That said, if you are fine with the overpowered main character then the story is intriguing. Throwing in a bit of everything. The survival competition similar to the Hunger Games, the paranormal stories that are popular right now along with several houses in the academy, and throw in some assassins with some mages on the side and we have a bit of every trope. Though it hasn’t anything new, it doesn’t focus too much on every trope to make it prominent so I wasn’t bothered. The story also lacks the romance that always seem to haunt paranormal books with a female lead, which I found nice. This was more of a fight for survival.
All that said, this book didn’t leave much of a impact on me. It throws a lot on the wall to see what sticks but doesn’t dig into any of it making the story a shallow action-adventure. If you like such a thing, that’s fine but I needed something more. It had potential, enough that the more I want might come in later books, but nothing in this book enticed me to continue reading. I don’t care enough about the characters to care if they live or die. I don’t care if everyone finds out that she is a girl. All this is not a good thing when you are reading series.
I am more lenient in my rating to the first book in a series, as the flaws might be corrected later on, so I won’t be too hard. But considering all the elements I don’t like, all the cliché’s, the overpowered main character and so on, but still a solid writing. Easy to read and not too long, I would give it a 6 out of 10. It is just above average and if you are looking for a paranormal, fantasy story with a strong female main character without the romance, then this is a book I would suggest trying. Maybe it is more to your liking than mine.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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