Review: Magonia

Title: Magonia (Magonia #1)
Author: Maria Dahvana Headley
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year published: 2015
How I got this book: Bookdepository (Affiliate link)
My rating: 5 stars

Goodreads synopsis:
Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.

Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak - to live.

So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn't think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.

Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who's always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world - and found, by another. Magonia.

Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power - and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of reckoning. And in Aza's hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity - including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalites lie?

My thoughts:
First of all, how beautiful is this cover? This is the main reason I bought it, to be honest. I did not expect to like it as much as I did, but I'm so glad that I read it.

I was really unsure about the premise before starting this, and even as I read it I was a bit unsure. I got into this book really fast, and I forgot that Aza comes to another world, so I was really shocked when she did. 

It took me some time to understand Magonia, especially they people in it, if you can call them that. I didn't understand how everything worked for a long time, but when I finally did understand it, it all made sense. 

My favourite thing about this book though, is the fact that they are going to Spitsbergen in Svalbard in Norway. I won't spoil why they're going there, but I thought it was really cool. You don't really hear much about Norway in English books, so the fact that they actually went there in this book really gave it a big star in my book. Obviously, this would have gotten a 5 star rating either way, but it's something that makes the book more enjoyable for me.

The characters in this book are great, and I really liked most of them. I thought Aza was a wellwritten character, and I felt like I could connect with her, even though our experiences in life so far are a bit different. She seems like the type of person I would get along with, and I always like reading about them. 

I was scared I wouldn't like Jason, but I actually did. Throughout the book we get a couple of chapters from his perspective, and while I did enjoy Aza's chapters more, I still really liked them. I didn't have to skim through them to get to Aza's chapters again, because I actually wanted to read them.

I don't know what else to say about this, except that you should read it. I do understand why some didn't like it, and I totally get what they're saying about this, but the book worked for me. I don't excpect everyone to like it, but if you think it sounds interesting or enjoyable, you should definitely give it a try. If you find out that it's not really your cup of tea, you can always just put it down and read something else.

Want to buy it?
Bookdepository (Worldwide, affiliate link)
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Adlibris (Norway)