Cover Image: The Chrysalis Key

The Chrysalis Key

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Five teenagers are joined together and learn they have magical gifts and attend a magical school. The description of Breakfast Club meets Harry Potter is very fitting for this story! It moved a little slow for me but the world building was interesting as were the magical elements and the story overall. I’m interested to see what the next book in the series offers as well! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!

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The Chrysalis Key was a pretty fun read! I enjoyed the late 1990s setting as it was nostalgic for me and a little different from many more recent YA releases that are more contemporary. I enjoyed the multiple POV chapters, although it did take some time to connect to every character/keep them straight in my mind. I also liked the Breakfast Club-esque start to the story that turned fantastical. It did read more like a true YA than a lot of recent releases aimed at a more new adult/adults reading YA audience so I'm very comfortable recommending this widely to its intended audience.

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Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

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The Chrysalis Key is the first book in The Travellers series. The tagline is The Breakfast Club meets Harry Potter, but darker. Well that is certainly true. The 5 main characters certainly fit The Breakfast Club model. A brain, a jock, a misfit, a geek and a Princess use a key to enter a portal to another world where they find a magical school and in one way or another unlock or discover a gift they didn’t know they had. I’ll pick up book 2 when it gets released and see how this all turns out.

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# The Chrysalis Key is by author # E. P. Ball. The year is 1999 and in the town of Breakfast Creek. Five teenager's come up against a demonic General of Darkness. Chrysalis school has slept for 50 years. Now she's ready to awaken.
The elements of this story are just wonderful!! 💜🐾🐾
Thank you for the advance copy # Netgalley

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Although I can definitely see the appeal that this novel will and does have for other readers, unfortunately it just wasn't for me. The fantasy world was well thought-out and very thoroughly developed, but I personally found it difficult to connect with the characters as they didn't feel like "real" teenagers to me. Asides from that, however, I enjoyed reading this novel and would definitely recommend it to older children and younger teens!

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Thank you netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Yeah, i don't know about this one. It wasn't bad... but I didn't really enjoy it either.

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"If Henry Jolt knew of the secret memory his grandfather kept hidden in the wardrobe of his room at the rickety Breakfast Creek nursing home, everything would have turned out differently. He would probably, in fact, be dead."
-E.P. Bali, The Chrysalis Key

2🌟/5

I received this e-book from NetGalley.

The Chrysalis Key is the first book of a seven-book series.

Henry, Hugh, Aiden, Melanie and Julia are the characters of this story, which (I didn't seem to care for any of them) will live an unforgettable(?) adventure as they escape from the villain of the story Red General (and his other minions), who is in search of the Chrysalis Key.

This is a story about a curse, magical schools and powers (or the Power). It will make you go back and forth, as you consider whether some plots are kind of interesting until comes a time (actually, many of them) where you'll just tell yourself: "I'm sure this could be trimmed" and surely the most vital one: "when is this chapter going to end?".

It just was not for me!

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Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

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This book kept me hooked the whole read! It reminded me so much of the books that I read when I was younger and I loved it for it! The magic system is well-developed as well as the world-building and the characters complement each other very well! I recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun and magical read, you won´t regret it! Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

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The plot and story was creative and imaginative, with a great cast of characters throughout. It was great swapping between all the different characters perspectives, it really gave each character a chance to shine and develop.

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The chrysalis key by E.P. Bell.
Book 1 of The Travellers.
In the summer of 1999 in the unassuming Brisbane town of Breakfast Creek, five teenagers find themselves up against a demonic General of Darkness.
Henry, Melanie, Julia, Hugh and Aiden never expected their detention to result in the execution of their school principal.
All of a sudden they are on the run from a demonic General with a penchant for collecting children.
Chrysalis school has slept for 50 years. But now she’s ready to awaken.
The course of their lives is going to change forever.
Five teenagers. Three magical schools. A secret family curse. A tale of epic proportions that you’ll never forget.
An ok read. It was slow but readable. 3*.

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dnf on page 154

trigger warning
<spoiler> grief, child neglect, gore </spoiler>

A group of students joins together for detention. Their job: manage the tech stuff for the last assembly of the year, as the AV club has fallen ill. Not what they would like to do, but nobody expects things to go as horribly wrong as they do.

Let's get the comparisons out of the way: The similiarity to HP is the magical school, the one to the Breakfast Club the coming together of different people for detention. Oh, and the town they're from is called Breakfast Creek.
They do not feature the same style or atmosphere as the blurp claims. Just ignore that.

The plot boils down to there being this school that is now in a special dimension that's closed off, and to get to it, you need the Key and the one to wield it. This is important because the inhabitants of the school now are on the run, and have landed in a world where the ability to do magic is an instant ticket to the gallows.

Our main group of characters is thrown into the story, and I can't really tell you anything about them. They don't feel real, they're flat. I can't even tell you how many there are, maybe four or five. It doesn't really matter. They have had roles assigned to them, like the goth, the big brother, the diva.
This is kinda ironic if you consider that the pace of the start of the book was sacrificed for the introduction of the people we're following.

Every now and again, the author tries to make things mysterious and thrilling, but it ends up being ridiculous. Example: One character can't sleep, wanders around in the night, and happens to overhear a conversation he's not supposed to listen to. As the conversation ends, he goes back to bed. No extra thoughts, he was just a vehicle to get the info. It felt like the character looked into his script and followed what it said there instead of having behaviour that feels natural either for the person or the situation.

At the beginning of the story, the part on Earth, we're in the 1990-ies but as a 90-ies kid, the references felt forced. Like it was an afterthought. "Hey vintage stuff is trendy, so let them mention stuff!"

It's just... there was nothing I liked about this, and there are still 350 pages to go. From other reviews I gathered that there are supposedly six other novels planned in this series. This was bad writing, but bad in the way of someone who has just started out doing their thing, who adds stuff without managing to make it fit together. Maybe in the future the author will find their feet and I'll enjoy their works, I can't say.
But this?
Yeah no. I quit.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

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In the summer of 1999 in the unassuming Brisbane town of Breakfast Creek, five teenagers find themselves up against a demonic General of Darkness.

Henry, Melanie, Julia, Hugh and Aiden never expected their detention to result in the execution of their school principal.

All of a sudden they are on the run from a demonic General with a penchant for collecting children.

Chrysalis school has slept for 50 years. But now she’s ready to awaken.

The course of their lives is going to change forever.

An eye catching cover that immediately caught my attention. Wow what a book. I am still sat thinking about this book even though I finished it a few days ago.

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As an older reader who loves YA Fantasy, this didn’t hit the spot for me. I could see that it would be much better suited to a younger reader, perhaps falling into the middle grade genre rather than YA.

At first, the setting and the little details describing the familiar Aussie world were fun to read. It just felt like home, a flashback to my teenage years. But soon this wasn’t enough to hold my interest as the story moved into a magical stage.

Details are vague in the writing, in an attempt to add to the scary nature of these strange people looking for the key, but instead it just made me lose interest in the story. I craved a faster pace in the world building where I could really sink into this new world and get lost in the story.

As the teenage characters run to save themselves, little is shared about them leaving me immune to their plight. I hadn’t gotten to know them well enough to be invested in their escape.

As we started following the journey of these teenagers I found that many of the solutions to problems that arise seemed too convenient. Although, there was much intrigue in the interesting world that began to take shape as the story progressed.

When the author introduced multiple points of view I found it hard to keep track of who I was reading as they were written similarly. I would have liked this to have been an opportunity to really get to know each character more deeply.

I can definitely see how this would be a great book for young teenagers, it is a unique and interesting concept delivered in a way that is accessible for a younger audience.

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The Chrysalis Key is a fantastic YA story about a group of teens who after finding a key, go through a door to another world. There they find the Chrysalis school. While I found the first quarter of the book kind of slow, I think that was because it focused a lot on the character Henry who I did not really get into. Once we start spending time with Hugh, Mel, Aiden, and Julia, things really pick up. The Chrysalis school and the teachers and people around it are really great. Each character brought something special and different to the plot. I especially enjoyed Mel and Hugh who have to really work and train their powers. I think Aiden and his fascination with the dark school is going to be a big storyline and I can't wait to spend more time at that place. This has so much potential. I can't wait for book 2.

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Thanks Netgalley and Publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

It's the first book from a series (pretty long one as far as I could find out) that's why it moves rather slow. There is a lot of world building and character introduction to happen before we move to the real plot.

It's daring for the author to handle few main characters at once, but for now I think there's a ballance in their introduction and starting development in the overall narrative.

I find the main cast very diverse and the characters very relatable. You will root for them and you will not agree with the decisions they choose to take, but they are also not flawless, which makes room for further development.

I am intrigued to find out what happens next!

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The Chrysalis Key is the first in a new 7 book series (yeah 7!!, from what the author stated). This is definitely the intro book and there are a lot of players to introduce and the author did a great job of setting up the magic and the world building. The book starts off pretty slow and you really have no idea what is happening or going to happen but you keep reading to stay on the ride and find out. I was not happy with a few of the choices some of the characters made towards the end but I guess the books have to go somewhere.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for an honest review.

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The Chrysalis Key: Book 1 of The Travellers is about 5 students at Breakfast Creek High who end up at morning detention together. When suddenly Henry, Julia, Hugh, Melanie and Aiden are swept away into an eerie world of strange fantasy creatures and a magical school.
World building and character introduction are definitely ne of the main focus points in the book. But it also includes friendship building, family history and a curse are featured.
Each chapter starts with a beautiful illustration that shows something mentioned within that part of the story.
After that ending, I’m defiantly interested in where the story will lead to next.

Thank you Netgalley, BooksGoSocial and the author E.P. Bali for the opportunity to read this book as an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

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A wonderful nostalgic and magical read. Finally a fantasy story taking place in Australia!

This is labelled as Harry Potter meets The Breakfast Club, and it sure delivers what it's promised. This is an Australian fantasy set in 90's on the contemporary side of things with a touch of mystery, that mixes magic and reality together in a fictitious town of Breakfast Creek.

This has 90's academia vibes (did I just make up a new genre?). Fascinating plot and lovable characters who are emotive, unique, and flawed, creating a dynamic cast. The writing is simple and clear, but not short of imaginative storytelling. I hope we get to delve more into Chrysalis and the world-building in the next book..

It does start slow and I found it took a while for the magical school to make an appearance, which was what I was waiting for. Certain areas it does tend to drag.

A solid start to a new series.

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