The Fascinators

Written by Andrew Eliopulos

Narrated by Michael Crouch

A magic-infused YA novel about friendship, first love, and feeling out of place that will bewitch fans of Rainbow Rowell and Maggie Stiefvater.

Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, Sam needs his friends James and Delia—and their time together in their school's magic club—to see him through to graduation.

But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James. Delia is growing more frustrated with their amateur magic club. And James reveals that he got mixed up with some sketchy magickers over the summer, putting a target on all their backs.

With so many fault lines threatening to derail his hopes for the year, Sam is forced to face the fact that the very love of magic that brought his group together is now tearing them apart—and there are some problems that no amount of magic can fix.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9780063012516

Andrew Eliopulos

Andrew Eliopulos is a children’s book writer and editor. Originally from Georgia, Andrew graduated from the University of Chicago and now lives with his husband in Brooklyn, New York. His debut novel, The Spider Ring, was a CBC Children’s Choices Reading List Pick and a Grand Canyon Reader Award nominee. Andrew may or may not believe in magic. www.andreweliopulos.com

Reviews for The Fascinators

[Alma ZM · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was so cute, so fast paced and easy to read. If you’re looking for a super complex fantasy with a lot of world building this is not it, but the characters are so charming and endearing, their backgrounds, dialogues, chemistry and motivations were super interesting. I would have liked more character development given that the book is so short their complexities are not focused on. It left me wanting more pages to read, the end was a little abrupt with a lot of loose ends but I really enjoyed reading.

[Florencia Di perna · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked it but the ending felt kind of abrupt.

[Melony Stokes · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really really liked this story. My only huge gripe was that the ending seemed very rushed. For the concepts it introduces, there wasn't closure for a lot of them. I don't know what kind of restraints wete put in place, but if this book was maybe 10 chapters longer (?) it would have ended better in my opinion. Sam is a lovable character and I really like the duality a lot of the characters have, but there wasn't any time to flesh out all of them how they SHOULD have been. I hope there's a sequel we get to read because the book itself is very well written!

[Jeimy Gonzalez · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to love this one, but the ending was so rushed, that I thought this was going to be the beginning of a series. The prologue was fantastic, as was the exposition and rising action. James's home situation was heartbreaking and Delia's new alliance was welcome, but the climax and ending were disappointing.

[Lucas Fogaça · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice reading. Love the characters and setting, but wish the plot was a little stronger. Will definitely read another Andrew Eliopulos book. Michael Crouch voice acting was perfect, as usual.

[Hannah-Theresia Hamill · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was a good story but the ending was so sudden. It didn’t feel finished, like it was only book 1 of a series.
Very much felt like the author was on a time crunch by his publishers and ran out of time.

[sabrine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was an easy and entertaining read but When it ended I was like "oh I didn't realise this is part of a series" only to realise with Huge disappointment that it's a standalone. We didn't get closure to any of the storyline... it was just open ended and I read somewhere that the author wanted to capture the essence of high-school relationships where ppl just drift appart but somehow I was rooting for the characters to be something bigger something special especially that this was a book about magic... instead I realise at the end of it that this was a story of random and unremarkable teenagers that just happened to have some magical habilities like a lot of other ppl in that world.. nothing less and nothing more. In a way that makes them pretty relatable yet uninteresting at the same time.

[yuzu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

i really enjoy this book, but the ending is kinda rushing, i wish it would be a bit more.

[Noah K · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There were a lot of good individual elements to this book. A lot of interesting plot threads I was eager to follow. But as the book continued, confusingly, it became very rushed, the character development fell by the wayside, the threads went nowhere or in a direction that made no sense to me given the rest of the book. The ending felt like we got no emotional closure with any of the characters, and the final romance felt like it came out of nowhere, with very little actual chemistry between them. I feel like this book had potential it just didn't quite live up to, and ultimately left me very unsatisfied with the result.

[Magdaléna Blažková · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really like the voice of interpret, the story throught didn’t stand to the premise

[Alejandro Gouin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Finally a realistic and down to earth book with lgbt content that is treated like a part of life as mundane as having waffles at IHOP.

I never expected this book to be such a breath of fresh air even if the twists and turns of the plot would leave you gasping.

[alphacarrotein · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed, but would not read again. Great premise, cute characters, realistic exchanges, but lacked something I can't put my finger on. Worth a read, but perhaps not a re-read.