Sara Bergmark Elfgren

Only a few weeks have passed since the final events of ”Eld”, and the remaining witches of the Circle are still staggering to cope with losses, death and the desperate upholding of illusion. Engelsfors is now not only a rather drab little town, but, a place where the frequency of tragedy is getting harder and harder to ignore, even for regular people. Something is just not right, everybody is starting to feel it. And the Chosen Ones get no time to rest – signs start to show that the show more apocalypse is coming fast, the Council are now not only red-taping them down but actively and aggressively working against them, the Demons’ Blessed escapes from her prison. And fairly soon Minoo is forced to make an impossible choice, straining loyalty to the maximum. Watching from the mists of the borderlands however, are forces trying to make contact. But will they get through in time? Does it even matter?

Also, while the occult events move towards a shattering climax, the “normal side” of teenage life of the girls is also at an all time low. A parent dies. Linnea is going to trial for the assault she was the victim of and is forced to realize that almost all her school is on the side of the culprits. Vanessa sees her involvement in the Circle pulling her further and further way from her friends. A love story is killed by cowardice and old ghosts. An alcoholic falls off the wagon. As before, one of the real talents of Elfgren and Strandmark is making these parts as engaging, nailbiting and horrific as the magic battles. This is a dark book at times, and even more often a very sad one.

Tying all knots together in this epic battle for world control, spanning the universe and thousands of years, is a tall order. But, despite sometimes having to resort to the “sit down and I will tell you the whole story from the beginning” trope a few times, they succeed admirably. And even manage to make the very conclusion of this trilogy feel worthy where it could so easily have fallen flat.

Four days and 817 pages later, I feel reluctant to say goodbye to this group of flawed, struggling, hard-working teenage witches. They feel like real people to me, and I wish them all the best. I can’t wait to put them into the hands of my kids when they grow older. show less

The Circle is a Swedish YA Fantasy by Mats Strandberg and Sara Elfgren that is the first in their Engelsfors Trilogy about a group of witches. A handful of diverse teens find that they are witches and in the near future they will be engaging in battle with a terrible evil. In the time before the battle they need to identify their strengths, practise their magic and, the most difficult task, bond together in trust. Of course they are not left alone to develop their skills, someone or show more something is hunting them and kills two of them before they realize that they must also hunt this evil down.

Even with a fair amount of teen angst about the opposite sex, family issues, fitting in and being popular, I still was completely swept up in this story. At almost 600 pages, it is quite detailed, and by the end of the first book they have only scratched the surface of whatever evil is about to emerge. What I found most engaging were the characters, each of the five remaining girls have a distinct personality and a distinct magical skill. Based on the elements of water, metal, earth etc., they are individually strong but when they join together, almost invincible.

I will certainly be continuing on with this trilogy as not only was I captivated by the darker fantasy elements, I also enjoyed the author’s handling of the teen issues like body image, suicide, grief, bullying and friendship that are explored. show less

OMG, så bra. Det var ett tag sen jag slukade en tegelsten på tre dagar, men den här gick ju inte att lägga ifrån sig. Jag veet, jag är fett late to the party, men vafan, bättre sent än aldrig??

Det fanns massa grejer jag gillade med den här. De två huvudpersonerna var bra och intressanta karaktärer och jag tyckte det var en skitbra balans mellan dem i narrativet, att även när man fick se samma scen ur bådas ögon så kändes det inte repetitivt, och det var aldrig som att man show more saknade den ena när perspektivet byttes eller tröttnade på nån av dem.

Dessutom är ju storyn i sig fett spännande och lite läskig till och med, vilket jag inte riktigt räknat med.

Och så känner jag igen mig i den, speciellt i Tamar. Inte bara för att hon är en nörd och alla mina vänner är nördar osv, men första året på gymnasiet läste jag en kreativ linje (författarprogram istället för teater) och den hade riksintag (jag flyttade iofs ingenstans för att gå där, men skolan låg i Täby och av tjugo elever var vi typ två Täbybor i klassen) och ... det var en sån jävla besvikelse. Jag blev inte vän med nån, kände mig helt utanför och alla andra var fett tighta. It was the wooorst och jag bytte linje till tråkigt sam-kultur i tvåan (och hade en jätterolig gymnasietid och startade en guerillaskoltidning som ett alternativ till den som mina före detta klasskompisar officiellt gav ut så allt hade ett lyckligt slut) och det här kanske var lite väl personligt (men det var tio år sen så det är lugnt), men det fick mig iaf att VERKLIGEN relatera till Tamar och jag tycker verkligen Saras skildring av hur pretto små sextonåringar som ska lära sig något kreativt kan vara är spot on. Boken känns extremt verklig för mig av den anledningen.

Plus att man märker att det ligger ett gediget researcharbete bakom boken utan att det blir för mkt "hej kolla vad mycket research jag gjort!" och det är också nice. show less

After dismissing these books as being "over hyped" for years, I was shocked to find I enjoyed the shit out of this one. The only reason I didn't finish it in one sitting was because real life kept interupting me with stuff. Afterwards I ran to the library (literally, I jogged there) to get part 2 and 3.

One of the things I really love about it is that it has six female protagonists. I've read so many (good) YA novels that stars the one girl, and that's pretty much it, the rest of the show more supporting cast is male. Not this time though, we have six very different but all very real female protagonists to relate to.

These six girls have to impossibly balance school, magical powers, annoying boyfriends, friends who don't understand and evil demons who are out to get them, all while trying to get along as a very reluctant group. While I didn't do all of that when I was in high schol (although I do think we all encounter those demons in locker number 643), I think most people will be able to relate to their struggles. show less