The Last Fallen Star
Sure, it’s hard to be magic in a family of Muggles, but it’s even harder to be a saram (a person without magic) in a clan of powerful Korean witches. In The Last Falling Star, Riley’s life has revolved around the Korean magical community ever since a Gom clan family adopted her when she was a baby, and even though she’s memorized every spell she can get her hands on, she’s resigned herself to an unmagical life — until her sister comes up with a crazy idea. Hattie is about to earn her Gi bracelet — and her place in the adult magical community — but she’s found a spell that would let her share her magic with Riley. If Hattie performs the spell at her initiation ceremony, Riley will get half her magic — and the sisters will triumphantly enter the magical community together.
Only it doesn’t go as expected. It turns out, Riley’s history is way more complicated than she knew. Now, with Hattie’s life hanging in the balance, Riley and her best friend Emmett (my favorite character!) have to complete a quest to find the last fallen star — whatever that is — so they can restore order to the universe and save Hattie. Along the way, they’ll find a library full of birds, ghosts who need a little help moving on to the afterlife, a secret magical community run by a banished clan, and the best bulgogi tacos with kimchi salsa in town.
The Rick Riordan imprint tends to be hit-or-miss for me, but this is one is definitely a hit. I found the folklore of the gifted Korean clans and the Godrealm fascinating — I didn’t know much about it going in, so I learned a lot as I read. (I kept having to pause to look stuff up because I wanted to know more!) If you’ve got a middle grades mythology lover, you’ll want to add The Last Fallen Star to your library list.
