Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
B. is on a search for truth and for purpose when he heads from his home tThank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
B. is on a search for truth and for purpose when he heads from his home to the South. I saw the cover of this book and the description and knew I had to read it. It sounded captivating. I am sorry to say I was horridly disappointed.
I think the initial issue was that I just didn't mesh with the writing style. It was very...unembellished. Which is fine, especially for this type of novel, in and of itself, but it was TOO jarring. There wasn't enough variation in the sentence style. There were lots of fragments that made too little sense as fragments. Plus, I couldn't find a reason to sympathize with this main character. I usually root hard for people who feel love slipping away but with this dude, I was like, "Of course she wants to leave you dude you're literally the Most Boring Human."
I could see sprinkles of "haunting" aspects of this book, and I was interested just enough in the mysteries presented within B's world that I didn't DNF. The ending had moderate pay-off for finishing...and I do see that some other people might be super into this narrative style. Since I think for me it's mostly a style preference and expectation not aligning with the reality of the book, I give this book 2 stars because I don't doubt others might find it suits them. ...more
My Overall Thoughts - 4/5 Sarah Greenburg has spent her life as the Mirabel Madrigal of her own family…the one without magic, except for the glaring faMy Overall Thoughts - 4/5 Sarah Greenburg has spent her life as the Mirabel Madrigal of her own family…the one without magic, except for the glaring fact that her family has kept this little trait of theirs a secret for all thirty-nine years of Sarah’s life. She is a Chicago food critic, a writer, and in the midst of falling in love with her boyfriend. The sudden appearance of magic was NOT in her plan, suffice it to say, but now she has no choice but to deal. This book was a lot a fun. The writing is clever and contemporary, the characters were enjoyable, and the relationships were heartwarming. The read, itself, was rather enchanting.
Character Development - 3.5/5 Sarah seems like she was born to be the heroine of a contemporary romance novel and instead found herself the heroine of a fantasy novel…in the best way. She was scrappy and fun, family loving and career minded. She felt very fleshed out, like a real person I could sit down and have a coffee with. Some of the secondary characters were far better developed than others. Esra was wonderful and his quirkiness was always something I looked forward to in a scene. And while Colin was a great, supportive boyfriend, he was a bit flat and uninteresting as a fictional character.
Story Structure - 4.5/5 The structure and pacing were superb. I loved that in the final chapter, everything was brought full circle in a way I did not expect.
Tone/Style - 4/5 Inglis is studying comedy writing, and I think she sprinkles the humor and banter very well into the narrative. She’s not beating you over the head with her ability to sound hip, but the characters, teens to middle-aged, all sounded utterly believable in modern America. A couple of times, Sarah or Raya would say something that I totally say all the time and I’d chuckle.
World Building - 3/5 The bit of the Magycian world we see in the book is interesting, but it’s so obviously just a bit of the grand scheme and I would have loved to know more about the magic world. At no point was anything confusing or problematic, but it felt like worldbuilding in general took a backseat to plot and character.
Representation/Diversity The Greenburg family is Jewish and one of the Magycians uses they/them pronouns
Content Verrry mild language
My Final Thoughts I’d love to keep reading more from this world! I think this book would appeal to fans of Garth Nix’s The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, and C.J. Archer’s The Watchmaker’s Daughter, and anyone who likes some light, fun, contemporary adult fantasy. ...more
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