Thursday 8 January 2015

Review on 'Fraud at Snowfields'



Will Burns is an average child with a great love of Christmas. That is until he is whisked off to Snowfields, a special school to train children like Will in helping Father Christmas to make and deliver presents ready for people to discover on Christmas day. Will is excited to start his classes, especially learning to perform magic. However, Will discovers that all is not what it seems. Someone inside the school seems to be abusing their power by creating forged bank notes with magic. With the help of his new teachers, Will must find out who is behind the forgery and stop it once and for all.


I loved this story and it really helped me to get into the Christmassy mood. It reminded me of a more festive Hogwarts, as although the school is centered around making and delivering presents, magic is also involved. As Harry Potter is my all time favourite book series, this automatically meant that I would also love this book. However as Hogwarts was my first thought, I felt myself seeing similarities to the Harry Potter series throughout the book, such as the door guardians reminding me of the portrait guarding the Gryffindor common room and the table computer being similar to the marauders map. I also saw some similarities between some of the characters in this book and the characters from Harry Potter. However I thought Will and Annabel were original and interesting, and didn’t find myself comparing them to anyone.

I thought the imagery for the village of Snowfields was beautiful, and I had a clear picture of what it looked like in my head as I was reading. Everything is described beautifully, from what the buildings themselves look like to the Christmassy decorations. I loved that the names of the teachers were relevant to what subject they taught at the school, and I enjoyed reading about the different classes Will had to attend. I did however feel as if the main plot came in a little too late, as Will did not discover the forgery until about halfway through the book. I also felt that the person behind the forgery was a little too obvious, as after one clue I knew who it was. I enjoyed reading the battle scene near the end of the book as it was action packed and exciting. Although I loved Will fighting alongside his teachers and Lektrarissima, I felt that it would have been better if some of his school friends were also involved, especially Annabel. I loved the friendship between Will and Annabel and felt that they worked well together, so I would have enjoyed Annabel being involved with finding out who was behind the forgery.

The idea that delivering gifts could go wrong was interesting and I loved that Will and Annabel’s jobs were to put things right at each home using the magic they had learned at the school. Bluerin was also interesting, and I loved that the magic they used at Snowfields revolved around this substance. I also loved the idea behind the Bluerorcs, although the word “orc” instantly reminded me of Lord of the Rings, so those were the creatures that instantly came to mind when I read this word.


This is a great book for anyone who wants a fun, festive read and for anyone who loves the Harry Potter series.

You can purchase Fraud at Snowfields HERE



No comments:

Post a Comment