The Blood Within The Stone by T.R. Thompson

Given the ending (which I won’t spoil) I imagine that future books will be a bit different but for this book, Wilt wasn’t as interesting as I would have liked him to be. Higgs is in the background, doing all the heavy lifting, while Wilt just seems to be along for the ride. Despite his incredible power, Wilt didn’t really seem to have much in the way of either personality or agency. I guess that’s probably also a downside about this book: I liked a lot of the other characters more than I liked Wilt. Higgs’ enthusiasm and expertise was a breath of fresh air in a book that is otherwise very serious. Higgs is an excellent character and I found myself actually rushing through the parts about Wilt so that I could find out more about Higgs and what he was doing. I also absolutely adored the character of Higgs. Magic is a difficult thing to get right in fantasy, and Thompson has clearly put in a lot of thought into his system, the things it can be used for and the dangers it poses to those who can wield its power. Thompson’s magic system is very sophisticated and throughout the book Wilt discovers and learns to control his affinity with welds: the connections that are formed between all living beings and which allow him to perform an increasing number of extraordinary feats. I think there were two particular highlights for me in this book: the magic and Higgs. He keeps that tone consistently throughout the book and it definitely felt much darker than most YA I read. Thompson conjures a bleak world, where the only way to survive is at the expense of someone else. All the students appear to be under some kind of spell and the mysterious Nine Sisters of Redmonis seem to be behind it. When they arrive, the situation is even more grim than the town they left behind. However, Wilt’s plans to eke a living that way are thrown by the wayside when he and Higgs are taken against their will by a Prefect from a Redmonis, a revered institute of education. Will’s ability to seemingly guess what people will do next gets him and Higgs an invitation into the Grey Guild, the prestigious guild of thieves.

The story is about two young boys, Wilt and Higgs, who live on the streets of a grim town called Greystone. Thompson is a fantasy young adult novel, the first in the “Wraith Cycle” series. I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author.

The Blood Within The Stone by T.R. Thompson