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inthelunaseas 's review for:
Spellbook of the Lost and Found
by Moïra Fowley-Doyle
This is a rather enchanting urban fantasy book that feels like it should play into the realm of faeries but never quite reaches there.
Told in a multi-perspective style, the writing is confusing in parts (sometimes deliberately so, I imagine), and when the twist finally comes, it feels like it should have been far more obvious than it turned out to be. The fantasy elements also flitter in and out so naturally that it was easy to forget that this was a novel about magic and not a, well, magical novel.
The cast of characters kept expanding and it did mean at the start I had to go back and re-read a few sections to know who was telling the story- was it Olive? Hazel? Laurel? or someone else entirely- and the narrating styles kept blending in so it was difficult to shake myself out of the previous chapter. I found it a little curious at closing that two of the narrators, Olive and Laurel, weren't even the main characters, so to speak, of their sections. Their spots could have been easily told by Rose or Ash and been more invested in the story that was happening around them... but that, I suspect, was the point.
While most people have jumped to celebrate the inclusion of multiple LGBT narrators, I want to take a moment to appreciate that Rose is half-Indian and Olive is deaf in one ear. I also really love that while this book is about 'lost' things being found, Olive's hearing remained gone- she didn't lose her hearing and it never came back. And though it may have been nice for Rose's Indian heritage and Olive's disability to be brought to the surface more, I can also understand why these aspects were mostly passing mentions; these are parts of their identity, but it's not their full identity.
One thing I do want to bring up that I can't see anyone else referring to... but, uh, did Ivy's parentage cause a double-take for anyone else, especially after Rowan admitted to making out with her, and Hazel said both she and her brother were in love with her? Anyone else get stunned by that? No one? Just me? Aight, okay.
In short, I am enthused to read another book by Moira Fowley-Doyle and I love falling back into the world of queer urban fantasy.
Told in a multi-perspective style, the writing is confusing in parts (sometimes deliberately so, I imagine), and when the twist finally comes, it feels like it should have been far more obvious than it turned out to be. The fantasy elements also flitter in and out so naturally that it was easy to forget that this was a novel about magic and not a, well, magical novel.
The cast of characters kept expanding and it did mean at the start I had to go back and re-read a few sections to know who was telling the story- was it Olive? Hazel? Laurel? or someone else entirely- and the narrating styles kept blending in so it was difficult to shake myself out of the previous chapter. I found it a little curious at closing that two of the narrators, Olive and Laurel, weren't even the main characters, so to speak, of their sections. Their spots could have been easily told by Rose or Ash and been more invested in the story that was happening around them... but that, I suspect, was the point.
While most people have jumped to celebrate the inclusion of multiple LGBT narrators, I want to take a moment to appreciate that Rose is half-Indian and Olive is deaf in one ear. I also really love that while this book is about 'lost' things being found, Olive's hearing remained gone- she didn't lose her hearing and it never came back. And though it may have been nice for Rose's Indian heritage and Olive's disability to be brought to the surface more, I can also understand why these aspects were mostly passing mentions; these are parts of their identity, but it's not their full identity.
One thing I do want to bring up that I can't see anyone else referring to... but, uh, did Ivy's parentage cause a double-take for anyone else, especially after Rowan admitted to making out with her, and Hazel said both she and her brother were in love with her? Anyone else get stunned by that? No one? Just me? Aight, okay.
In short, I am enthused to read another book by Moira Fowley-Doyle and I love falling back into the world of queer urban fantasy.