A review by ninjapanda
Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston

3.0

Rep: plus-size Black bi mc in a polyamorous relationship, Non binary bi mc, gay sc, BIPOC scs, queer scs 

This book is a mix of genres. It has some sci-fi and fantasy, even some paranormal-ish elements, but also in a more contemporary setting in one of the timelines. I went in thinking it was just sci-fi and in space lol I was wrong. It doesn’t take place in space, but it does have sci-fi elements.

It has a very interesting concept and elements. It was cool that Cinnamon had a magical book that slowly reveals more pages as time progresses. When there are new pages, we get transported into that world and follow the characters of it. Slowly we see the ties between the two timelines. 

This book is pretty long and slow. I felt it drag at points.I wasn’t super invested in the characters. I think the dual timeline being in a similar styles and the same narrator confused me at times. I sometimes forgot which timeline I was in. I think I just read the blurb once, so I didn’t really know what the plot was. And listening to the book, I still didn’t really know where the story was going. I’m very visual and I found it hard to visualize what was going on at times. 

I liked that it explores themes such as race, gender, sexuality, and family. It was nice to see so many queer characters and the two different journeys with identity the two main characters go through. 

Taiwo was probably my favourite. It was cool seeing their fluidity. They were apparently an alien? Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention, but I kept forgetting this fact. They didn't seem like an alien, not in the traditional sense anyway. 

There are a lot of homophobic slurs in here. The beginning especially has a lot. I think they could have take a few out and it would have been fine. But that many felt a bit excessive. So beware of that going into this. 

Overall, this has a lot of interesting things about it and cool concepts. It’s good if you like mixed genre books. For me it was just okay. 

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC of this book