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A review by tani
Magic for Nothing by Seanan McGuire
4.0
I was so excited when I read that this book was going to be about Antimony, and even more excited when I read that she was going to be infiltrating the Covenant. My expectations for this were incredibly high, so maybe that's why it fell a bit flat for me. I still enjoyed it a lot, but it might actually be my least favorite book of the series.
My problem is, I felt like a lot of the Covenant infiltration plot didn't really go anywhere. Antimony puts herself at risk in a huge way, and at the end of the day, I don't feel like my understanding of the Covenant was really affected in any way by her experiences. I see and respect what McGuire was trying to do with the plot and the way that she handled it, but I'm still left with the feeling that nothing much happened for the first 40% of the book. I don't know, maybe I'm being a bit overly critical. I wasn't in the best mental space when I was reading the first part of this book, so that probably didn't help. I just wanted more from it, I guess.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed having Annie as a POV character. After spending 5 books with Verity and Alex demonizing her, it was nice to get a glimpse into her head and discover that she's actually the least selfish and most practical of the three of them. (Which doesn't change my affection for Verity and Alex in any way. It just adds depth to my perception of them.) It was fun getting to know Annie and realizing that she's probably the sibling that I empathize with the most.
My favorite part of the book, though, was hands-down the romance. I absolutely fell in love with Annie and Sam as a couple. So cute! So sweet! Yup, there may have been some fangirlish squeeing over the two of them. I can't say too much about them because it can get into spoiler territory, but McGuire really hit my buttons with them. A++ rating from me on that.
Other than that, the series continues to deliver on some of my favorite elements: fun encounters with random incryptids, steadfast protection of said incryptids by the Price family, a bit of identity-related skullduggery, and the Aeslin mice. In fact, the subplot involving the Aeslin mice was another of my favorite parts of the book. (Also, I thought that Antimony's attitude toward the mice was a refreshing change after Alex and Verity's benign semi-distaste.)
So, color me excited for the next book!
My problem is, I felt like a lot of the Covenant infiltration plot didn't really go anywhere. Antimony puts herself at risk in a huge way, and at the end of the day, I don't feel like my understanding of the Covenant was really affected in any way by her experiences. I see and respect what McGuire was trying to do with the plot and the way that she handled it, but I'm still left with the feeling that nothing much happened for the first 40% of the book. I don't know, maybe I'm being a bit overly critical. I wasn't in the best mental space when I was reading the first part of this book, so that probably didn't help. I just wanted more from it, I guess.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed having Annie as a POV character. After spending 5 books with Verity and Alex demonizing her, it was nice to get a glimpse into her head and discover that she's actually the least selfish and most practical of the three of them. (Which doesn't change my affection for Verity and Alex in any way. It just adds depth to my perception of them.) It was fun getting to know Annie and realizing that she's probably the sibling that I empathize with the most.
My favorite part of the book, though, was hands-down the romance. I absolutely fell in love with Annie and Sam as a couple. So cute! So sweet! Yup, there may have been some fangirlish squeeing over the two of them. I can't say too much about them because it can get into spoiler territory, but McGuire really hit my buttons with them. A++ rating from me on that.
Other than that, the series continues to deliver on some of my favorite elements: fun encounters with random incryptids, steadfast protection of said incryptids by the Price family, a bit of identity-related skullduggery, and the Aeslin mice. In fact, the subplot involving the Aeslin mice was another of my favorite parts of the book. (Also, I thought that Antimony's attitude toward the mice was a refreshing change after Alex and Verity's benign semi-distaste.)
So, color me excited for the next book!