circle of magic series, by tamora pierce

fantasy, young adult | t | 4.5 stars

tamora pierce has written more than thirty books. i’ve read almost all of them, and while changing standards for ya books has meant that many of her more recent books are longer and more detailed (including the sequel series to this one), this unassuming little series continues to be one of her strongest pieces of work.

the four books - sandry's book, tris's book, daja's book, and briar's book - revolve around four children who each find themselves in need of a new home following some truly heartbreaking tragedies. one is abandoned by her family and exiled from other temples because she's suspected of being possessed by a demon; another is exiled from her insular society after being the lone survivor of a shipwreck that kills her entire family. a mage finds each of them and brings them to winding circle temple, where they ultimately discover that they have magic, too.

at its core, the circle of magic quartet is a refreshingly humanizing set of books. there aren’t really any larger than life villains; there are certainly people who the children and their teachers clash with or who even put them in danger, but none of them (with one possible exception) are really portrayed as evil at their core. they’re immature, selfish, judgmental, reckless - but not evil. that doesn’t excuse their faults, and pierce generally doesn’t go out of her way to redeem them, but she keeps the tenor of the series rooted strongly in the complicated, messy thing that is humanity.

that makes the characters some of the most absorbing that she's written. while the ages of the children’s teachers aren’t all explicitly stated, i don’t think that more than one or two of the central characters are within a decade of how old i am right now, but i see myself and my own struggles in them as clearly as i did when i first picked these books up. there's someone for everyone to relate to - the characters are incredibly diverse by virtually every measure. there's a noble girl related to monarchs in two different countries, and a boy who spent most of his life homeless and in a gang. there's a girl who's physically attacked on multiple occasions for her race and cultural background, and a girl who's bullied over her weight. some of the characters are prickly and defensive, where others are conciliatory and kind. there's someone for everyone, and while pierce doesn't belabor the point, but she doesn't brush over these differences, either. many have a direct impact in how the characters interact with the world and how the world interacts with them - sometimes in obvious ways, and sometimes in ways that are more subtle.

also, there's a huge epidemic in the last book, which the mph in me loves.

my biggest complaint about these books doesn’t really have anything to do with them at all; it has to do with the sequels, which didn’t always quite live up to the wonderful groundwork pierce laid here and which were part of why i dinged the rating a bit. if we’re just looking at this series, i can’t recommend them highly enough.