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caseythereader 's review for:

Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston
3.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thanks to Tor Books for the free advance copy of this book.

 - WILL DO MAGIC FOR SMALL CHANGE is a wildly imaginative and ambitious story within a story, braiding characters and plotlines from 1893 and 1987 together. It's something like a cross between Octavia E. Butler and Nalo Hopkinson, maybe with a dash of Nicky Drayden.
- I found myself more compelled by the 1800s story than the 1980s story, even though I thought Cinnamon was a great character. I think that historical plotline was just better paced for me. The modern plot often had 20 or so pages of conversation pinging between half a dozen characters while nothing much happened, and then a big pivotal moment would occur in a space of a sentence or two.
- I didn't realize until after I started reading it that this book is a companion to REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE, and while I could figure it out well enough, the characters were constantly referencing people and events from that book, so I wish I'd read it first. 

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