Aliyah Serin and the Box of Zenas by Lucy Anne Holland

What worked:

After determining Aliyah is able to control two elements, her parents are murdered so she’s raised by her two uncles. The plot takes a turn when she’s suddenly sent to a private school for elemental students. Aliyah immediately becomes a curiosity at Petrovis since she must choose between the fire and water and elemental houses. Her training is always interesting since she has an affinity for water but working with fire is always volatile. She feels additional pressure to perform when she’s chosen to join one of the school’s quest teams as its fire elemental. Her self-doubt creates a conflict throughout the book as she’s afraid of letting her friends down or possibly causing them to be harmed.

With Aliyah being a bit of an outcast, it’s natural that she gravitates toward other students who aren’t readily accepted. Seth’s element is aether which makes other students uncomfortable. It’s a rare, mysterious ability they don’t understand and it's even banned from the Atheneum, the building housing the leaders of all Canadian elementals. Rae is an earth elemental who has her own self-doubt and often messes up in critical moments. She’s also a bit impulsive which sometimes leads to endangering Aliyah and Seth. Together, the trio spends much of the plot investigating secret tunnels and passages where they enter a maze with increasingly difficult puzzles to solve. They also encounter the ghost of Aliyah’s relative who offers assistance in a frustrating manner. Rae immediately dislikes him but the trio probably can’t survive without his help.

The author creates a mystery when Aliyah is sent to the school due to her uncle’s ambiguous thinking. The actual reason establishes an underlying problem for the entire series but it’s not revealed until much later in the book. An unusual twist to the plot is how Aliya’s best friend Dorian flees to a secret destination with his family and the excuse is connected to Aliya’s own problems. Dorian isn’t physically part of the story but his communication with Aliya offers insightful information related to Petrovis and the Box of Zenas.

What didn’t work as well:

The antagonist is kept anonymous throughout the book and is never clearly identified. Aliyah and her friends suspect they must keep the Box of Zenas away from someone evil but they don’t know who or why. It’s sometimes easier to build tension from the conflict when there’s more clarity so the seriousness and intensity of the problem could have been elevated. On the other hand, not knowing the villain first lets readers’ imaginations free to imagine the many possibilities.

The Final Verdict:

Attending a school for kids with powers will be a familiar format but this book offers creative angles to make it different. Racing to navigate a maze of tunnels by decoding puzzles to beat an unknown opponent is novel and problems with Aliyah’s uncle are interesting. Overall, this book is an exciting start to a new series and I recommend you give it a shot.