This is a monster of a book, packed and over packed with information and ideas... It's gonna take a while to digest this Thanksgiving dinner.
(I listened to the audio version and, through no discernable fault of the narrator, had difficulty staying focused. For some reason her voice kept turning into a white noise, relaxing but void of meeting.)
Sometimes, a miserable story can be a worthwhile slog. I want this to be one of those but...
At the beginning, Ivy promises she's a liar who's going to tell the truth. This, in combination with her subtle ability to see magic could have made for some very interesting situations. Unfortunately, the only outcome of it is that Ivy gets herself into a very gross dating situation by “pretending” she went to magic school with her twin.
Speaking of her twin, what a waste. Why be twins, something really cool and uncommon, but it doesn't matter in any way?
60% of the story is miserable misery pointlessly PIing, followed by a quick explosion of WHOA THAT'S COOL, and rounded out by a conclusion of more maudlin mope-ery.