Full Title: “The Gatekeeper’s Staff – TJ Young & The Orishas No. 1”
Written by Antoine Bandele
Published by Bandele Books, June 2021
461 pages
Completed July 25, 2024
Fourteen-year-old TJ grew up normal in a secret community of gifted diviners in the heart of modern-day Los Angeles. His powerful sister was ordained to lead his people into a new age of prosperity, but her mysterious death in Nigeria threatens to destroy the very foundations of TJ’s world.
Desperate to pick up where his sister left off and uncover the secrets behind her questionable death, TJ commits himself to unlocking the magical heritage that has always eluded him. So he enrolls in Camp Olosa—a remedial magic school for the divinely less-than-gifted in the humid swamps of New Orleans.
But little does he know, TJ is destined to cross paths with powerful spirits of old thought lost to time: the Orishas.
I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the way the family dynamics and the world building for the magic of this series. My only question was that it ends up TJ’s father also isn’t magical but there isn’t really a suggestion that that could be the reason TJ isn’t? Not sure if I missed something or that could have been clarified somewhere along the line. I liked the way TJ’s friendships developed at the camp and how things worked out. I did have one small issue with how one character was treated however it mostly works out in the end. In any case I thought it was a good start to the series and I’m looking forward to reading the next book.
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