Book Review #45: Freckles: The Dark Wizard by Jerry Hardwood

Hello Dear Reader!

Welcome to an indie book review! I’m actually switching up the order of the “type” of book I’ll be reading. Instead of switching between indie books and traditionally published ones, I’ll be reading two indie books and then one traditionally published one. Just wanted to give a heads up, because I have a lot of self-published books to get through in my TBR, and it’s about time I give them some love!

Anyway, this review is on Freckles: The Dark Wizard. It’s a charming middle grade fantasy novel that takes place in a magical version of Earth. Everyone’s got magic, and they’re not afraid to show it! There’s a specific type of magic called imagecasting that I absolutely love, but before I get into that, here is the synopsis: (from Goodreads)

At Flame Rock Middle School, you show off your big biceps, post your dimples on InstaWitch, grow a cheetah tail, or use your fairy wings to fly down the hall. For Simon, wearing his peers' opinions can be a literal event. Especially since Simon has the visible mark of a weak wizard... freckles. What will happen when Simon learns he has dark magic and can conjure a dragon? Will he become one of the bullies he hated or choose a different path? 

End synopsis! Review time!

The main character of this charming book is Simon, who’s described to be a shy and quiet nice kid in the seventh grade who’s unpopular, mainly because of his freckles. Long story short, people who have freckles are automatically assumed to be very weak, as that is the usual trend among wizards and witches that have lived in the past. Because of this, he is constantly called names that revolve around his freckles, such as Freakles. The most serious offender is his Bully, Danzig, and his cronies Krull and Cedrick.

Surrounding this sweet main character is a wonderful cast of characters including his best friend Trent, another great friend named Esme, the stereotypical lead cheerleader Charlotte, a corpse-bride looking aunt, and really unexpectedly supportive teammates. In my opinion anyway. The kid was bullied so much, I kinda expected everyone to bully him, so seeing kids who were considered popular being nice to him was really great to see.

This entire story surrounds what I think every middle schooler experiences, and that is being insecure with themselves. Simon is very much an insecure kid who hates his freckles because they’ve brought him nothing but trouble. They’ve gotten him teased, he pretty much believes his magic will be weaker than everyone else’s because that’s the stereotype of people with freckles, and overall, he just thinks they don’t look attractive. His story is so relatable, because everyone has that one or a few physical things about themselves that they just don’t like and want to change. There are people who are categorized as ‘unpopular’ and ‘uncool’ who want to be what’s considered popular and cool, and it’s something pretty much everyone goes through at this stage of their lives.

Simon’s story is one big character arc that’s a great example of learning how to love yourself and love what you might hate about yourself and also to not be afraid of becoming or showing what you truly want to be. It’s about all that and also to be okay with knowing that not everyone is going to like it. As long as you love yourself, it’s okay. And there will always be people who will love you for who you are and not a fake persona you are trying to be. It’s a great lesson to teach through a story like this, especially since its target audience is middle-grade readers.

Before I get to the rating, I’d like to touch on the world of Freckles: The Dark Wizard. The world is charming like the story it’s in. It’s simple, but it makes sense. Everyone has magic, pretty much every school has magic classes, and there are sports that allow it, too. The main type of magic, imagecasting, is really unique. It basically allows you to change your appearance or another person’s appearance within the range your magic has effect. You can do anything from removing your freckles to making yourself look like a skeleton. And the really cool thing about it is that if you imagecast yourself long enough up to a certain point of your life, around the time you’re basically all grown up, you stay that way forever. So, if you imagecast yourself to be a skeleton and reach your late teens and early twenties and are still that way, you remain that way for the rest of your life. I just think it’s a really cool concept.

There really wasn’t anything I disliked about this book other than the very rare instance of coming across a typo. And I’m really surprised to say that one of my favorite scenes was whenever Simon’s older sister described fruit, because she hates fruit. Never have I ever heard or read strawberries being described as kitten hearts. Or a banana looking like if you peeled back the skin of a baby’s arm. Kind of graphic, but very funny in context. I promise.

So, Freckles: The Dark Wizard rating:

5/5 and kinda hoping for a sequel with Simon. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a purely middle-grade book, and I really enjoyed this one! If you like reading middle-grade or have or know a kid who is in that age range, I highly recommend this book. It’s entertaining and it teaches an important lesson.

Thanks for reading!