Pyxis: Discovery Book Review
3.5/5 Stars - Fun, but also kind of weird
Pyxis: Discovery by K.C. Neal is a fun, fast urban fantasy novel. I enjoyed reading it, though there were some things that bothered me. There were a fair number of places where the prose and/or pacing was a bit choppy, and it also had some formatting errors (although I'll admit that I'm probably more sensitive to formatting slip-ups than most). That being said, I thought this book was super funny. Unfortunately, I cannot continue this review without including spoilers. So, if you are interested in reading Pyxis: Discovery and don't want spoilers, you should stop reading now.
Okay, so I'd like to start this by saying that the copy of Pyxis I picked up is NOTHING like the one on Goodreads. It has a different cover, doesn't call itself "Discovery," and the blurb on the back is literally a spoiler. I'm not kidding, it discusses the existence of two words and the people who protect them, but the fact that there's another world isn't actually revealed until page 190 of a TWO-HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN PAGE BOOK!!!
Also, while we're talking about the ending, this book just ends. There is literally no climax. But, anyway, let's skip back to the beginning. So, like I said, I found this book hilarious. The whole premise is that the MC, Corrine, is baking little cakes for her school bake sale, and for
food dye, she uses these random bottles she found. Then, when her classmates started acting weirdly nice to her, Corrine and her friend Ageline decided to do an experiment. They make cookies with the unknown "food dyes" in them and give them out to their classmates. So, to be clear, the premise for almost half the book is two girls intentionally drugging their classmates to see what the mysterious (and, for all they know, dangerous) bottles do. I'm not sure this was supposed to be funny, but I found it hysterical. Also, in case it wasn't clear, these bottles are magic. But there is no actual conversation in the book where the characters ask questions like, "Wait, is magic real?" But at the same time, magic doesn't seem to exist in this universe.
So, yeah, this book is basically about three teenagers (because there is also a male love interest who shows up later in the book), uncovering that they are part of a magical group of protectors and also going around and spiking people's food with random substances.
During the first half of the book, Corrine is also being stalked by a super creepy woman named Harriet, but she disappears halfway through the book. After that, there is no real villain. There are creepy dreams that imply a threat is coming, but we never learn what the threat is. Overall, I feel like Pyxis is half of a very amusing (and genuinely interesting) story. I'm not sure if I'll continue the series, but I do think it shows promise. If nothing else, it is so funny when you look at it through the right lens.