This was really ambitious. I enjoyed the world building a lot, and the way that everyone is constantly just a little selfish, a little flawed, a little awful. The characters felt more real that way. I loved Maya and her random flashes of the future, but I also really loved that despite her deep loyalty to Auncle, she could still recognize & process that the Frenro may have been wrong, that Auncle may have lied to her, and that morality is not black and white. I was hoping for a bit of romance between Wil & Maya but by the end I understood why that didn’t make a ton of sense. 

Having said that, I do think this really struggles with pacing, particularly in the middle. Some parts dragged and others were swallowed by a time jump, which lessened the emotional impact & relationship building. 

It is fantasy with no romance, and just a smidge of horror in the last 15% or so. For readers of Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty & The Blighted Stars by Megan O’Keefe.

how are they having sex and the book has barely started, I don’t even know these people yet I know their intimate grooming habits?! no thanks 

I enjoyed this! I think the comparison to A Marvellous Light is fairly apt, though I would say this splits its focus between the fantasy plot & the romance a little more evenly. I'd also say it's less violent, though there is still some violence/danger. I think the writing is not quite as vivid as A Marvellous Light, nor is the worldbuilding as engrossing. The other comp was Foundryside and ????? I guess if you just go by having a sentient magical object, yes, but I don’t actually think anything else lines up. 

Set in an AU turn of the 20th century in NYC, this follows four queer characters (of various identities, including genderfluid, pansexual, etc but all he/him or he/ they) as they come into contact with a magical, sentient grimoire; various intrigue ensues. The romance is fairly insta love but honestly in a way that makes a lot of sense and is more sweet than anything else. I do wish we had more tension in that relationship. It’s nice that everyone is instantly like, “you’re hot, let’s be a throuple, get to the kissing” but like…. can we have a LITTLE development?? A little push and pull? 

I also felt like I was sometimes missing things about the world. Are gay people inherently more magical in this world? It felt like queerness and magical ability was intertwined but it was never explained, and there were also straight magic users, so I’m not really sure what was going on there. Things like the magic unions would get brought up but kind of dropped again without a real impact, then one character’s brother turns out to be part of the evil magic group?

All in all, though, I think the world was well researched and well grounded in its historical setting, I liked the discussion of different types of magic and the concept of patterning was very cool, and I only want the best for our sweet little throuple. I don’t really know how to take the cliffhanger ending but I guess we’ll see. 

I literally can’t remember the characters if I step away from this for a few days.