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A review by howlsmovinglibrary
Girl in the Shadows by Gwenda Bond
2.0
*I received a free ARC copy for this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
Moira is an aspiring stage musician, who finds out that she has real magic. When an invitation to join the mysterious Cirque American mistakenly falls into Moira’s possession, she takes joins them in the hopes of proving to her father that she has as much talent as him. But when a series of high stakes escape acts leave her performing real impossible feats, Moira discover she is one of the Prestigae, real magicians with powers beyond any stage trick.
This book had an interesting premise, combining real and performance magic in the same style as The Prestigate (as perhaps inferred by the group name Prestigae), in a more modern setting. Moira decides to escape her overbearing father, who refuses to let her follow in his footsteps, by joining a world renowned circus as it's resident magician. Performing seemingly impossible mistakes, Moira must balance her burgeoning magic with the desire for fame and fortune, while also avoiding the sinister Prestigae whom she has somehow remained hidden from.
There were several things that I thought were done well in this book. I liked the setting of the story in the world of Vegas and the circus, it was a fun environment to set a story in and the reader learns a lot of technical detail about magic and it's mechanics, which was new and interesting information. I also liked the way that gender was addressed in the world of magic - very few women are as successful as their male counterparts, and Moira emphasised this dynamic a lot in her interactions with her father and with other male performers in her life. I liked that this was something that the author chose to highlight in the performance setting.
However, as is often the case with ARCs, this story was in need of some serious editing. It got very longwinded in places, balancing Moira's arc as a performer with the Prestigae threat, as well as several subplots and a romance. There was a lot of exposition heavy portions of this book, and while I enjoyed that when it was addressing the technical aspects of Moira's tricks, there were other points - particularly in the initial dialogue explaining what Moira's real magic was and who the Prestigae were - when it just felt heavy handed and dull. This was very much the case once I reached the ending, as it seemed to end at several places - with the ferris wheel trick, then with her father's acceptance, then with the epilogue - where I just felt that it could have been cut down. Moira's narration was very descriptive and a hard slog at times.
While I think a lot of this can be fixed with some editing, what seemed particularly unfixable was that I just didn't find Des, Moira's love interest, at all compelling or interesting, nor Moira's interaction with him. Des himself is a knife thrower who just seems to....talk a lot? He didn't really do anything interesting, didn't show much backstory, and didn't stand out as a unique character in the same way the Raleigh and Dita did. The awkwardly paced witty banter that seemed to be the basis of their attraction was clunky and not that funny, not in, say, the way of Cassandra Clare, which obviously feels very unreal but at least is amusing. And Moira's constant 'I'm here for work, I can't be interested in boys' spiel that was used to inject the relationship with a 'will they won't they' vibe was just badly done: if you use that as the reasoning, particularly when your book focuses on the issues that face women's careers in comparison to men's, having her capitulate and stay with Des just seems like a pretty confused message. And even if you ignore its implications, her reticence felt forced, as if it was needed to provide some kind of obstacle to their otherwise very boring and personality-less romance. I felt that too much time was dedicated to building a relationship that wasn't really there and wasn't particularly interesting when it was, which really impacted and otherwise interesting story.
Basically, I really liked the idea but I felt it was executed badly, with too many plotlines that meant that the worldbuilding was confusing, and a romantic plot tumour that really dragged on the book. Hopefully much of this will be fixed with editing!
Moira is an aspiring stage musician, who finds out that she has real magic. When an invitation to join the mysterious Cirque American mistakenly falls into Moira’s possession, she takes joins them in the hopes of proving to her father that she has as much talent as him. But when a series of high stakes escape acts leave her performing real impossible feats, Moira discover she is one of the Prestigae, real magicians with powers beyond any stage trick.
This book had an interesting premise, combining real and performance magic in the same style as The Prestigate (as perhaps inferred by the group name Prestigae), in a more modern setting. Moira decides to escape her overbearing father, who refuses to let her follow in his footsteps, by joining a world renowned circus as it's resident magician. Performing seemingly impossible mistakes, Moira must balance her burgeoning magic with the desire for fame and fortune, while also avoiding the sinister Prestigae whom she has somehow remained hidden from.
There were several things that I thought were done well in this book. I liked the setting of the story in the world of Vegas and the circus, it was a fun environment to set a story in and the reader learns a lot of technical detail about magic and it's mechanics, which was new and interesting information. I also liked the way that gender was addressed in the world of magic - very few women are as successful as their male counterparts, and Moira emphasised this dynamic a lot in her interactions with her father and with other male performers in her life. I liked that this was something that the author chose to highlight in the performance setting.
However, as is often the case with ARCs, this story was in need of some serious editing. It got very longwinded in places, balancing Moira's arc as a performer with the Prestigae threat, as well as several subplots and a romance. There was a lot of exposition heavy portions of this book, and while I enjoyed that when it was addressing the technical aspects of Moira's tricks, there were other points - particularly in the initial dialogue explaining what Moira's real magic was and who the Prestigae were - when it just felt heavy handed and dull. This was very much the case once I reached the ending, as it seemed to end at several places - with the ferris wheel trick, then with her father's acceptance, then with the epilogue - where I just felt that it could have been cut down. Moira's narration was very descriptive and a hard slog at times.
While I think a lot of this can be fixed with some editing, what seemed particularly unfixable was that I just didn't find Des, Moira's love interest, at all compelling or interesting, nor Moira's interaction with him. Des himself is a knife thrower who just seems to....talk a lot? He didn't really do anything interesting, didn't show much backstory, and didn't stand out as a unique character in the same way the Raleigh and Dita did. The awkwardly paced witty banter that seemed to be the basis of their attraction was clunky and not that funny, not in, say, the way of Cassandra Clare, which obviously feels very unreal but at least is amusing. And Moira's constant 'I'm here for work, I can't be interested in boys' spiel that was used to inject the relationship with a 'will they won't they' vibe was just badly done: if you use that as the reasoning, particularly when your book focuses on the issues that face women's careers in comparison to men's, having her capitulate and stay with Des just seems like a pretty confused message. And even if you ignore its implications, her reticence felt forced, as if it was needed to provide some kind of obstacle to their otherwise very boring and personality-less romance. I felt that too much time was dedicated to building a relationship that wasn't really there and wasn't particularly interesting when it was, which really impacted and otherwise interesting story.
Basically, I really liked the idea but I felt it was executed badly, with too many plotlines that meant that the worldbuilding was confusing, and a romantic plot tumour that really dragged on the book. Hopefully much of this will be fixed with editing!