Review Detail

Skandar and the Phantom Rider finds Skandar and his friends in their toughest plight yet. Someone is killing the wild unicorns, the island’s magic is becoming unstable, his friends are divided, and his sister won’t stay in contact with him. Those are just the problems he knows about. Secretly, his sister is being held prisoner and is the focal point for a dark plan. All these events make for an action-packed read.
I have come to admire Mitchell’s character. He is a smart and steadfast friend to Skandar even when facing the prejudice of his father whom he wants to gain approval from. Same with Flo who stays by his side and stands up for injustice even when it could mean her imprisonment at the Silver Circle Stronghold.
I did like in this book that Skandar is finally able to live openly as a spirit wielder. However, there is so much prejudice and fear that he faces that it is hard to read at times. These fictional injustices could make for a good discussion of real-life injustices and prejudices that minority groups face.
What left me wanting more: I found the plot for A.F. Steadman’s bloodthirsty unicorn adventure to be sometimes distracting and hard to accept. There are many parallels to other middle-grade fantasies like the Harry Potter and Kelcie Murphy series that could make Steadman’s series the perfect next read for fans. However, there are times I felt like things happened just to make it pointedly different from Harry Potter so that instead of feeling authentic it felt distracting. The biggest instance of this is his very smart and capable female friend, Bobby Bruna. Instead of being a faithful and loyal friend like Hermione who helped Harry survive all his obstacles we have Bobby refusing to be his “sidekick” and off trying to establish her own glory almost at the cost of her friends’ lives. I lost patience with her attitude even though in some ways it is likely how many middle school perfectionists may have reacted.
Overall, A.F. Steadman has created an interesting fantasy world that has a mix of unique traits such as bloodthirsty unicorns and familiar story tropes like the chosen one needs to face the big evil with the help of his friends. I can see why there are mixed reactions about how much people are liking this series. I did find it hard to stay engaged in the plot when there were many times it just felt like things were being done to be different. With all that being said, I am interested to see what happens with Kenna and the fate of spirit-wielders in future books.