"Happy World Book Day! Today we'll be writing reviews and offering book recommendations to our fellow SWCers in the comments!" Books! You can't truly be a writer without reading at least one book. Because this daily is all about book reviews, how about I recommend a book called "The Spirit Glass" by Roshani Chokshi? I ran across this on the school-managed ebook site, and I loved it! I have no idea what to put here, so let's start. First, the premise. The book is based on Filipino culture, and I love when I get to see parts of different cultures in media! The book stars Corazon, a young babaylan-in-training. A babaylan is a mystical healer and spirit guide. Her aunt, Tina, is a REALLY powerful babaylan, and her mom was even more powerful. However, her mom and her dad is dead. But not to worry, for she has her soul key! This allows Corazon to speak to her ghost parents at Saturday dinners. However, when Corazon and Tina walking through a magical dimension they usually walk through, Corazon wanders off and encounters a suspicious spirit. Later, that spirit comes to Corazon's house and steals her soul key. Then Tina reveals that the only way for Corazon to awaken her magic is to make a new soul key and lay the ghost to rest. First up, characters, starting with Corazon. I don't remember much about her, but I remember her being pretty interesting, with her plans to bring her parents from the dead and her love for Aunt Tina and especially her mother. Next, Saso, Corazon's magical lizard companion! Saso's supposed to be the silly and wannabe powerful mascot companion, but most out his lines end up being cheesy. I did remember this line that goes along the lines of: "Raaa! Come to us and face the power of capitalism!" and I thought that was funny. Aunt Tina is nice, with a bit of mystery and fun aunt-to-daughter relationship with Corazon. Now for other stuff. As mentioned before, this book is heavily inspired by Filipino culture. We can definitely see a lot of it, but sometimes it feels forced, and a lot of times I had to look up what different mythological creatures are. Also, I'd want a bit of breather moments, since we don't get enough time between action scenes. Then there's the parts where the mirrors speak to us, which come out of nowhere during the second half of the book, and they kinda break the immersion. I'll give credit for them being cool. Anyways, 7.91/10. Flawed at points, but a fun read exciting read!
