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Summary
Summary
Who--or what--is stalking the students at Oakhurst Academy?
In the wake of the accident that killed her family, Spirit White is spirited away to Oakhurst Academy, a combination school and orphanage in the middle of Montana. There she learns she is a legacy--not only to the school, which her parents also attended, but to magic.
All the students at Oakhurst have magical powers, and although Spirit's hasn't manifested itself yet, the administrators insist she has one. Spirit isn't sure she cares. Devastated by the loss of her family, she finds comfort with a group of friends: Burke Hallows, Lachlann Spears, Muirin Shae, and Adelaide Lake.
But something strange is going on at Oakhurst. Students start disappearing under mysterious circumstances, and the school seems to be trying to cover it up. Spirit and her friends must find out what's happening--before one of them becomes the next victim...
Author Notes
Fantasy fiction author Mercedes Richie Lackey was born in Chicago on June 24, 1950, and she received a B.S. from Purdue University in 1972. She is also a professional lyricist and has rehabilitated raptors.
Lackey started writing her own short stories when her favorite science fiction and fantasy authors weren't producing new books fast enough for her. She began writing professionally with the encouragement of author C. J. Cherryh, whom Lackey had met at a science fiction convention. Many of Lackey's books, including the Queen's Own trilogy, the Vows and Honor series, Valdemar: family Spies, and the Last Herald-Mage and Mage Winds trilogies, take place in the imaginary world of Valdemar. She has authored numerous series, including the Bardic Voices series and a series of occult mysteries featuring Diana Tregarde, a modern-day witch. Lackey enjoys collaborating and has co-written books with authors such as C.J. Cherryh, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mark Shepherd, and Ru Emerson. Her title Redoubt made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-Spirit White, the sole survivor of a car accident that kills her family, finds that her parents had provided for this eventuality by making her a "legacy" of Oakhurst Boarding School for Magicians, just outside Billings, MT. There she joins others in her situation, all of whom have learned the nature of their magical (or "mage") gifts except Spirit, whose talent has not yet manifested itself. She and her friends discover the school's terrible record of "losing multiple students every year" and plot to overcome the evil force. Along the way, they IM and have pep rallies and school dances. (Another techie touch for librarians: RFID-chipped books.) This novel has a too-familiar setting and a cliched plot. However, it's a really good read. The authors do a great job of juxtaposing a scary theme and the ordinary angst of adolescents. They also do a nice job with the metaphor of magical gifts as means of self-actualization. Legacies has enough action for reluctant readers, and enough character development for teens to see themselves in this group of friends. The book's fans are sure to eagerly await Spirit's discovery of her mage gift and further confrontations with the forces of evil.-Corinne Henning-Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In the first book in the Shadow Grail series, an orphan, suddenly beset by mysterious circumstances, is sent to a posh boarding school accessible only by train, and discovers that she is a magician. Sound familiar? Lackey and Edghill know it, and pepper their tale with self-conscious references to Harry Potter. Spirit White is sent to Oakhurst Academy in Montana, where she learns she is a "Legacy"--the child of an alumnus, gifted with magical powers. Spirit's gift is not immediately apparent, but her friends, who have similarly portentous monikers such as Lachlan Spears and Burke Hallows, perform amazing stunts from the get-go. Their Dumbledore is a rather nasty character named Doctor Ambrosius, who assures them that they must prepare for war with nameless forces, but offers nothing so useful as an explanation or even an invisibility cloak. The inclusion of contemporary references--the school's Wi-Fi setup, Spirit lamenting the loss of her parents at Thanksgiving (even though they served tofurky)--seem intended to put a novel spin on trod territory, but there is little that is freshly imagined. Ages 13-up. (July) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
Horn Book Review
After her family's death, Spirit White is sent to remote Oakhurst Academy (a.k.a. "Hogwarts West"), where all the students are magicians. Something sinister is making students disappear, and Spirit and her friends must stop it. Too many pages are devoted to descriptions of the school and its resources in this series starter, but the action gets going in a tense ending. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Imagine attending Hogwarts...but the school seems designed to murder you. The car wreck that killed Spirit White's family left her in the care of Oakhurst Academy, a luxurious private school in remotest Montana, the curriculum of which revolves around elemental wizardry. Spirit, like all the orphans at Oakhurst, is a "legacy" student, and her magical heritage makes her a target, even though her powers stubbornly refuse to manifest. Demanding coursework, hostile staff and vicious competition leave her little time to grieve. Until she realizes that students are disappearing, as if something were hunting them...This dark mirror of the standard magic-school story makes an intriguing premise, and Spirit is a likable heroine with a strong, sharp voice, although the constant pop-culture references may date quickly. Other characters are more sketchily defined, but Oakhurst itself exudes a brooding presence, a portentous brew of isolating strictures, up-to-yesterday technology and moldering secrets. While the immediate menace is economically dispatched, numerous ominous threads still dangle for inevitable sequels. A competently crafted fantasy that should satisfy all but the most exacting fans of the genre. (Urban fantasy. YA)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After 16-year-old Spirit White's entire family dies in a car crash, she emerges from weeks of rehabilitation to discover she is being sent to Oakhurst, an exclusive boarding school in Montana for orphans with magical powers. The problem is, Spirit doesn't seem to have any magical powers even though one or both of her parents did (all students are Legacies). Though the school attempts to isolate students and encourages competition rather than friendship, Spirit becomes close with five engaging and very different teens. The group decides to investigate the mysterious and surprisingly common disappearances of fellow students. Lackey and Edghill know how to spin a yarn, immediately pulling the reader into Spirit's mourning psyche as well as the fast-paced action of the mystery, mixing marvelous elements of fairy tales and mythology into both the plot and references in the students' Magical History class. There's also a touch of gentle romance, and readers who appreciate everything from X-Men to Harry Potter will be begging for the sequel, signaled by the abrupt ending.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2010 Booklist