The Marvellers

Dhonielle Clayton

May 2022 · The Conjureverse Book 1 · Sold by Henry Holt and Company (BYR)

About this eBook

Dhonielle Clayton makes her middle-grade debut with a fantasy adventure set in a global magic school in the sky —an instant New York Times and #1 Indie Bestseller!

"The Marvellers deserves the highest compliment I can give a book: I want to live in this world." —Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times bestselling–author

Eleven-year-old Ella Durand is the first Conjuror to attend the Arcanum Training Institute, a magic school in the clouds where Marvellers from around the world practice their cultural arts, like brewing Indian spice elixirs and bartering with pesky Irish pixies.

Despite her excitement, Ella discovers that being the first isn’t easy—some Marvellers mistrust her magic, which they deem “bad and unnatural.” But eventually, she finds friends in elixirs teacher, Masterji Thakur, and fellow misfits Brigit, a girl who hates magic, and Jason, a boy with a fondness for magical creatures.

When a dangerous criminal known as the Ace of Anarchy escapes prison, supposedly with a Conjuror’s aid, tensions grow in the Marvellian world and Ella becomes the target of suspicion. Worse, Masterji Thakur mysteriously disappears while away on a research trip. With the help of her friends and her own growing powers, Ella must find a way to clear her family’s name and track down her mentor before it’s too late.

"A marvelous gift of a novel! With fantastical twists at every turn, Clayton has created a world that readers won't want to leave.” —Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Hate U Give and Concrete Rose

Ratings and reviews

I liked this book a lot, but I wanted to love it. Especially because I felt so strongly that just because it had a magical school with different houses - DIDN'T mean it would be a Harry Potter Clone. In the end, I feel like it was indeed not a clone - but not even in the same league as HP. Which is deeply disappointing, as this was really diverse in it's cast of characters. The level of worldbuilding is so disheartening, it adds so many cool ideas and words and creatures that it mentions.

From the cover alone, I couldn't wait to read this book. I really enjoyed Ella and her family--I want to be part of this supportive, loving multigenerational family. The secondary characters, however, mostly seemed two dimensional and therefore stereotypical. I liked the diversity included, but questioned the use of actual author names for some of the teachers. The worldbuilding felt superficial and lacked the depth and development that would have made me suspend my belief and become invested

It has a lot of similarities to Harry Potter, but it is missing the charm that came with Harry Potter. Harry Potter is such a classic, that it is hard for anything to compare to it, which is probably why I didn't care for this book. It didn't have that classic charm that HP has. Now, this book wasn't all bad. I thought it was actually an okay story. It just didn't keep my attention. I was bored throughout most of it, so much so that I just kind of skimmed over a lot of it.

About the author

Dhonielle Clayton spent most of her childhood under her grandmother's table with a stack of books. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Belles series, Shattered Midnight, co-author of Blackout, and the co-author of The Rumor Game and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is Board Chair of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and President of Cake Creative, an IP story kitchen dedicated to diverse books for all ages. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief. The Marvellers is her middle-grade fantasy debut.