books4days 's review for:

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

3.0

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Very cool book, right on the edge of magical realism (does the spell work? does it not? who can say?). Three stars (instead of more) because I still had a bunch of questions at the end, especially about Mags (and her dog[s]), what really happened to the missing boy(s), etc. I liked how the narration was split into three different perspectives, as well as the diversity showcased in this book (one character was disabled, one was biracial, two were bisexual, and one was lesbian). The Irish setting was cool, too, as well as some direct discussions about feminism one of the narrators, Olive, has with her younger sister Chloe. (Also, as this book is about losing [and/or finding] things, as soon as one of the characters brought up "losing her virginity" as a potential result of a spell, I was anticipating the eventual "hetero-patriarchal concept" [Olive's words] discussion/rant that Olive eventually has with Rowan, and I was not disappointed! Thank you Moira Fowley-Doyle for addressing this!) This book would be a good book for fans of modern-day urban fantasy who enjoy a little ambiguity and room for interpretation in their novels.