"The Memory Thieves" by Dhonielle Clayton

The Memory Thieves (Sept. 26, 2023) by Dhonielle Clayton.

<This is the second novel in a series.>

Welcome back to the Arcanum Training Institute for Marvelous and Uncanny Endeavors (ATI). This year, the great sky school is hovering above the Norwegian Sea. Please pack your wardrobe accordingly for the wintry elements.

Ella Durand, Brigit Ebsen and Jason Eugene are now Level Twos at ATI’s Lower School. This is the year they can wield stapiers (“a universal channellor to channel light”) and try out for the Marvel Combat teams. Since putting a stop to Gia Trivelino’s (the Ace of Anarchy) master scheming last school year, Ella’s found some celebrity. Unfortunately, not everyone back home in her New Orleans Conjure community supports her choice to return to the ATI. In their eyes, Ella and Aunt Sera Baptiste (who’s teaching at the Arcanum) are giving away Conjure secrets to the Marvellers. Ella and her friends want Conjurors and Marvellers alike to understand and accept the role of Conjurors in the creation of the school. She discovers the involvement of a Conjuror architect who also happens to be a many-greats grandfather. The blueprints would be a piece of history that’d prove to everyone that Conjurors have always belonged. The architect’s memory-cask would help, too, if anyone could find it. Digging deeper is put on hold when a mysterious, magical illness sweeps through the Arcanum, causing nosebleeds and fuzzy marvels. Is Gia somehow behind this illness? Why does new Level Two student Noémie Lavigne behave the way she does?

The return to the fantasy adventure world in the Conjureverse series is wonderfully, culturally diverse. This is a captivating sequel novel that enriches all who read it. In addition to a diverse cast, the story itself is immersive, inclusive, clever and thoughtful with dashes of mystery and plenty of magic. I absolutely want to live in this world! My sweet tooth does, too. Let me try Marveller-bars and caramel Paragon coins, cinnamon starbread and tornado tea with hiccupping honey. A word of advice that you eat the halo-halo within 20 minutes, otherwise your dessert will attack you! Good marvelling to you all!

            Book One: The Marvellers