A review by petermcdade
The Magnetic Girl by Jessica Handler

5.0

I love history, which may be why so much historical fiction fails to work for me. I get caught up in some small detail that feels off, and get pulled away from the world of the novel. That didn't happen once in _The Magnetic Girl_; the time period feels so right that I was instantly immersed in 1880s Georgia, and never drifted away.

And that meant my attention could be devoted to the characters, which is the reason I read fiction. Lulu is a fully realized character, as are her family, friends, rivals, and "marks." Best of all, this story about very specific people doing very specific things offers universal insights; it turns out there have always been people desperate to believe things they must know cannot be true.