Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey is an urban fantasy book about a PI investigating a suspicious death at a magical boarding school in the US. I had previously read Gailey's novellas about hippos in an alternate American South (and upsetting violence against said hippos), but this is her debut novel.

Ivy Gamble has never wanted to be magic. She is perfectly happy with her life—she has an almost-sustainable career as a private investigator, and an empty apartment, and a slight drinking problem. It's a great life and she doesn't wish she was like her estranged sister, the magically gifted professor Tabitha.

But when Ivy is hired to investigate the gruesome murder of a faculty member at Tabitha’s private academy, the stalwart detective starts to lose herself in the case, the life she could have had, and the answer to the mystery that seems just out of her reach.

This book starts in a typical urban fantasy investigator way, with Ivy, the protagonist, being given an interesting case to solve. What makes the case unusual for Ivy is that it involves a magical boarding school, when she has always lived in the non-magical world we are all familiar with. In fact, the only reason Ivy is already aware of the existence of magic is because her twin sister has magical powers and went away to a (different) magical boarding school when they were in high school. As a reader, what I found a bit unusual about this book was seeing a boarding school from an adult outsider's perspective, which I don't think I've come across before.

As well as trying to solve the murder, Ivy finds herself mixed up with some slightly strange teenagers, a hot teacher and having emotionally complicated conversations with her estranged sister, who is now a teacher at the school where the murder occurred. I found the setting added a point of interest to what was otherwise not a terribly unusual story — although I will say that some of the magic that comes up is a bit more uncommon, overall. It also explored how magical solutions could be applied to typical teenage problems in a way that wasn't explored in the obvious example of Harry Potter. For example, magical contraception and abortion get a look in, at one point. (Because of course that would be a problem that came up in a co-ed boarding situation.)

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I was hesitant to read it because of the hippo thing, but I was assured no hippos appeared or were harmed in it, which was indeed the case. It's a fairly different tone and setting to the River of Teeth world, so I don't recommend deciding whether to read it based on that. If the idea of a PI set loose on a magical school appeals to you, then I highly recommend giving this book a go.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: June 2018, Tor
Series: I don't think so
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan is a standalone YA portal fantasy book that I picked up because it was shortlisted for the new YA (not a) Hugo award. It hooked me with the first sentence and, even though I originally had other plans, I ended up inhaling it in a day. Since it's not the shortest YA book ever, that did, unfortunately, involve staying up until almost 3 am.

The Borderlands aren’t like anywhere else. Don’t try to smuggle a phone or any other piece of technology over the wall that marks the Border—unless you enjoy a fireworks display in your backpack. (Ballpoint pens are okay.) There are elves, harpies, and—best of all as far as Elliot is concerned—mermaids.

Elliot? Who’s Elliot? Elliot is thirteen years old. He’s smart and just a tiny bit obnoxious. Sometimes more than a tiny bit. When his class goes on a field trip and he can see a wall that no one else can see, he is given the chance to go to school in the Borderlands.

It turns out that on the other side of the wall, classes involve a lot more weaponry and fitness training and fewer mermaids than he expected. On the other hand, there’s Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle, an elven warrior who is more beautiful than anyone Elliot has ever seen, and then there’s her human friend Luke: sunny, blond, and annoyingly likeable. There are lots of interesting books. There’s even the chance Elliot might be able to change the world.

Told from the first person perspective of Elliot, a sarcastic and hyperintelligent teen, In Other Lands is in part a scathing commentary on the moral and ethical ambiguity of a certain class of portal fantasy worlds. Elliot's voice is what makes this book an excellent read and so if sarcasm is not your kind of thing you'd probably best give this a miss. On the other hand, if you enjoy the deconstruction of portal fantasy tropes and don't hate humorous banter, then this is the book for you.

The one flaw I found in this book was the telegraphing hooks at the ends of some of the sections. I did not realise when I started reading, but apparently In Other Lands was originally published serially online, and I can see why tantalising hooks all over the place were conducive to that format. In the book format, however, I found some of these to be irritating semi-spoilers of what was to come in the following section. Even when one hook confirmed something I had guessed plot-wise, I was still annoyed by it. But there weren't that many that stood out for me and over the course of the book this was a relatively minor flaw.

The only thing that annoyed me about Elliot was his fixation with having/getting a romantic partner. However, this certainly fit in with how his character was portrayed from the very beginning and worked within the story, driving it forward in between external events. And it provided a counterbalance to the "Oh my god, we're child soldiers!" and "but don't you want to write a good treaty?" sides of the story. It does mean there's more sex that you might expect in a YA book, but it's all of the fade-to-black variety and certainly fits in with the world building (if you're treating teenagers like adults in the arena of war...). The fact that one of Elliot's best friends is an elf girl and that elven culture is pretty much gender-swapped traditional human culture, magnifies this aspect and also allows for some interesting discussion.

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot — as evidenced by how quickly I read it — and I would definitely read more books in the same style (although I don't expect a sequel for this one). The irreverent format provides and excellent vehicle to question some of the ideas that have been normalised in children's portal fantasy stories and bring others down to earth. I highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

5 / 5 stars

First published: 2017, Small Beer Press
Series: No (but there is a tie-in short story, apparently)
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased on Apple Books

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare is the first in a new series of fantasy books for middle grade/younger readers (as in pre-YA). It is, in a nutshell, about twelve-year-olds going to a secret underground magic school in the US.

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.

So he tries his best to do his worst - and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .

Because of the contemporary setting plus magic school element, comparisons to Harry Potter are inevitable. Aside from the starting age group, the fact that there is a school for magic, and the gender distribution of the three main-est characters, there's very little the two series have in common. The type of magic and the structure of the school are completely different. Instead of going to a series of different classes, the students are apprenticed to a master in small groups of five or less. That and the different type of magic make for a very different dynamic.

Black and Clare throw in some nice twists on the standard formula... which I can't go into detail about without spoiling, but they were my favourite part. My least favourite part was probably the "twelve-year-olds are stupid" aspect, but this wasn't especially prominent. However, I will say that I felt The Iron Trial was less apt to transcend it's target audience than the last middle grade book I read, which was a bit unfortunate. I listened to it as an audiobook borrowed from the library and, while I'm glad I didn't request an ARC and feel obliged to read it, I am interested in what happens next. There were some interesting things towards the end, particularly, which certainly made me want to see how it all works out. I will probably read the sequel in some form at some point.

I should also mention that the main character, Call, was injured as a baby in circumstances such that one of his legs never properly healed. Now he has a limp and his leg causes him chronic pain. I felt this was well incorporated into the narrative to show both realistic limitations and the fact that Call hated to let it stop him from doing anything. The story (so far, anyway) would have worked just as well without it, so it struck me as a nice inclusion.

The Iron Trial was a reasonable read. My dislike mainly stems from not being the target audience (I like YA, but younger books don't usually do it for me), which I knew going in. I would definitely recommend it to younger teens and pre-teens who like fantasy books (and perhaps are Harry Potter fans but have run out of those books to read).

4 / 5 stars

First published: September 2014, Scholastic (Audiobook narrated by Paul Boehmer)
Series: Magisterium book 1 of 5
Format read: Audiobook
Source: Borrowed from library

The Holders by Julianna Scott

The Holders is Julianna Scott's début YA novel. It's a secret magical race living hidden in the modern world type of novel, set mostly in Ireland with an American main character. It wasn't my favourite read of the year. This review contains spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled, I suggest not reading past the blurb. Blurb exerpt:

17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother - from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland's "problem" and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.
She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid's is a world beyond their imagination.

I thought The Holders started promisingly enough: Becca's younger brother is recruited by a boarding school in Ireland that doubles as a magical training school for Holderkind. Becca goes with him to the school for a few weeks to look out for him and make sure no one wants to hurt him (like the shrinks who've previously wanted to institutionalise him). One of the school recruiters is an attractive, more-or-less age-appropriate guy who Becca quickly develops a crush on; par for the course in YA. An additional complication is that Becca's estranged father happens to be the principal of the school, opening the story up for some familial angst.

The further into the story I got, however, the more various aspects bothered me. On the one hand, it was a change of pace to have Becca's ten-year-old brother be the special one in the family. It wasn't a huge surprise when the twist turned out to be that Becca was the really special one, but that was OK. What I found slightly problematic at best, however, was the assertion that women don't usually have as strong/useful magic as men, except not Becca because she's special. I think it was initially used to make it more surprising when Becca did turn out to have magic, but it didn't exactly rock my boat. There were some good female characters along with Becca in the book, however they pretty much included every single female Holder nearby, ie all two of them.

A small thing that wouldn't have bothered me if it was the only issue I had with the book, was the arch bad guy and his powers. Sort of. Apart from the assertion early on that none of the Holders can fly, they're basically superheroes particularly as they exist in a modern setting. Which made me think of other group of superhero narratives which brought me to Heroes (the TV show), particularly when the arch bad guy is revealed to be similar to Sylar, the arch bad guy of Heroes. And then what does special Becca's power turn out to be? (Hint: very similar to Peter's in Heroes.)

But the thing that really pushed my buttons was the imprinting/soulmate trope. The idea of having your free will to love whoever you want taken away is kind of repulsive to me. The only justification in The Holders is that Becca has a crush on her love interest before magic imprinting binds them together. The idea is not deconstructed at all. The closest we got was Becca's dad, who had imprinted on her mother, leaving the family for their own safety. It all irked me. Even Twilight did a better job of analysing moral implications of imprinting with Leah/her ex and later Jacob imprinting on a baby. There was something to dig into there, but in The Holders it was all too saccharine with Becca waxing too lyrical too often about how awesome her love interest was after the imprinting event. On the other hand, I suspect issues of free will are going to be confronted in a different context — mind reading — in the sequels (and were a little in the first book), but I just don't have confidence that the imprinting thing will be.

The Holders wasn't one of my favourite reads. Stylistically it wasn't poorly written, however, it was more the content that bothered me. The ending leaves it open for sequels and I would be tempted to read the next book if it had a promising blurb. I am interested in watching Becca defeat the bad guy, and I would hope that Becca's love interest relationship wouldn't not take centre-stage, having now been established (well, one can hope).

I recommend The Holders to YA fans who aren't bothered by the things I discussed above. It happened to push a lot of my buttons at this point in my life, but I suspect that if I'd read it some years earlier I probably would have been less annoyed. The timing, of course, is not the book's fault.

3.5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2013, Strange Chemistry
Series: The Holders, book 1 of ?
Format read: eARC on my iThings
Source: the publisher via NetGalley

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Etiquette and Espionage is the first book in Gail Carriger's newest series, the Finishing School books. As the series and title suggest, it's set mostly at a special kind of finishing school in Victorian era steampunkish Britain. It's the same world as Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books (which start with Souless and end with Timeless) but fifteen to twenty-ish years earlier. In no way do you have to have read any of Carriger's other works to enjoy this one, however. The blurb:

Sophronia Temminnick at 14 is a great trial more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners -- and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Her poor mother, desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady, enrolls the lively tomboy in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage -- in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

It has intrigue, technology and delightfully humorous lines. Sophronia is clever and resourceful and a wonderful character to read about. I particularly liked the angle Carriger took where she's sent off to finishing school for acting too boyish and unladylike, but in the course of the book, she learns not only that her boyish interests can prove useful, but that there are also many uses for girlish things. Like full skirts to hide knives in or deceiving unsuspecting men with ladylike appearances. It's nice to not have dresses dismissed simply because they are feminine and dresses. (Of course, there's another opinion regarding dresses from a character we've grown to know and love from the Parasol Protectorate books.)

I thought the technological regression was done well. There was technology that hadn't yet reached the levels in the Parasol Protectorate books, but it was clear the direction it was heading. For example the dirigibles are much less advanced and can't yet go very quickly in Finishing School, although we know they're used for long-distance travel in Parasol Protectorate.

Because of Sophronia's age, this series is being classed as YA (whereas Parasol Protectorate involved marriage and children and hence was for adults). However, I see no reason for adult readers not to enjoy it. There is little stylistic difference between the two series, even if the characters are mostly nothing alike (apart from the few that appear in both, of course). Since Sophronia is only fourteen, on the younger side for YA, I suspect it would be a good book to use to hook in younger readers.

Etiquette and Espionage was a quick read, which was a bit disappointing because I didn't want it to end. I can't wait to read the next in the series, which I believe is due out in November. Let's hope the series continues to progress at a book every six months. I think I could live with that. In the mean time, I want a Bumbersnoot — Sophronia's adorable mechanical puppy pet.

New readers to Carriger's world will find Etiquette and Espionage a good place to start. Returning readers will find the world a little different to how they remember, but not too much. I highly recommend Carriger's work to fans of steampunk, Victorian Britain, socially accepted vampires and werewolves and witty lines.

5 / 5 stars

First published: February 2013, Hachette
Series: Finishing School Book the First (of ?)
Format read: ebook on iThings
Source: bought from iBooks