#the concept of competing to be heir is really unique and cool

[kbrown78]

My Thoughts: An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard

I first heard about this book online and the premise sounded interesting. Different Houses ruling the Unseen World, a magical tournament of sorts, and magic is failing. It helps that the cover is also stunning too, with the simplicity of design using just branches and various shades of white. This is a sort of urban fantasy, bordering on a sort of thriller fantasy. It reminded me a bit of The Magicians, but the story was so condensed and relied on a suspenseful plot line that wasn't as thrilling as it could have been, so unfortunately the book wasn't as good as it could have been.

World building: The whole point of urban fantasy is to create a hidden magical world that coexists with our world. Throughout the story we only get snippets of this Unseen World. The House being actual magical buildings that are aware, a school for magic was mentioned, magicians working in law firms. The sentient Houses was a really cool concept, and I just didn't get enough of that. The whole premise of this is that there is magical competition, and there are different types of magic, but the only thing that is explained about the magic is that it requires a sacrifice, which led to rise of the corrupt House of Shadows. The set up of the Unseen World was good, but I wish that there had been a little more depth to it.

Characters: So the character's in the book weren't bad, they were just a little flat. The only character that gets any development is Sydney and the reader sees that through her relationships. So let's starts out with the 3 antagonists: Miles Merlin, Grey Prospero, and Shara. Grey is the easiest one to cover because it is revealed early that he has been killing girls for their bones to store up more magic for himself. He wants to be heir to House Prospero again because he believes he is entitled to it. Miles is a very snobby man, who is willing to cheat and sacrifice his own family to get what he wants, which is more power. Shara is the twist because she gives off that evil vibe but the reader isn't fully aware of her actions and motivations until later. We learn that she is Mile's sister, and she runs the House of Shadow and wants to push Miles into a position where the House of Shadows is the ruling House of the Unseen World. These antagonists all have in common that they want more power for themselves and serve the purpose of showing the corruption in greed. There were several other character's that did get a POV but didn't stand out. Harper knows a little magic and wants to find her best friends murder but that's about it. Verenice has freed herself from the Shadows and wants to help Sydney. Ian is a strong magician who fights for morality despite his background, and Laurent is a good person who is trying to integrate himself into the magical community. Sydney is arguably the protagonist, and by far has the most depth and development. She is a very powerful magician who wants to destroy the Shadows because she grew up as a sacrifice for the Shadows so that other people had easier access to magic. She hates the Shadows but is willing to teach others, like Laurent, how not to rely on it. So while she has a mission, she isn't blinded by her vengeance, which is really shown through her relationships. In the end she loses her magic, and does feel vulnerable for it, but relies on the people around her to help her through it. The characters individually, were a little bland, but were still decent.

Relationships: The relationships in this book were probably the highlight, because they were the most well developed aspect of the book and really displayed a persons character. First, there are the familial bonds. The readers see that Miles truly wants things his way and lacks morality in his willingness to pit his children against each other, knowing full well that one of them could have to kill the other. Father of the year award, not. Ian and Lara, Miles children, both care enough about each other to want to work out a solution where neither of them gets killed and help end the corruption their father has created. I would say this is the best familial relationship, but Lara is such an underdeveloped character that there isn't much to work with there. Also Miles and Shara, siblings, are always trying to one up and use each other, but Shara is always superior. For the Prosperos, Grey is willing to kill to get what he wants, including his own mother, so he is quite a self entitled little shit and I hated him from the beginning. Miranda is sort of aware of how bad her son is, and while she disinherited him, she didn't really do anything else. This may be due to her guilt over what happened with Sydney when she was a baby. Sydney was isolated her entire life because she was given to the Shadows, and Miranda feels a lot of guilt about her, but Sydney is rather indifferent about Miranda. It is refreshing to see a character that treats there parents with indifference rather than nurturing a grudge that turns them into a villain. Sydney had the most relationships, and many of them were with women that knew about her being from Shadows and wanted to help her, which was good but many of these characters didn't have any substance. Sydney's strongest relationships were with Ian and Laurent. Ian and Sydney respect each other both as opponents and as potential lovers. They met each other and had an immediate one night stand, which I wasn't crazy about, but that was the only physical part of their relationship. Instead they talk about getting rid of magicians reliance on Shadows, trying to make the Unseen World a better place, and when Sydney feels vulnerable after losing her magic Ian is there to support her. They do at one point talk about how they shouldn't get too close to each other because they will probably have to duel each other, but once it's established that they won't duel then they slowly get closer. I also liked that Sydney and one of her friends who had also been in the Shadows talk about how they struggle with relationships because of the trauma they underwent, which is good point to make. Syndey and Laurent was my favorite relationship in the book. Laurent is impressed by Sydney's magic and hires her to compete for his new House, and Sydney accepts. Both are outsiders with a sense of morality. She helps guide him through entering the Unseen world, and she also opens up to him about her past and her plan. Even at the end, they check in on each other, and Syndey says that she was glad that Laurent was the one who hired her. Overall this is a pretty solid friendship that left me both wanting more but was also satisfied with what I got.

Writing: Most characters, concepts, and plot lines were only lightly touched on. The main theme of this book is where corruption steams from, and encourages a younger generation to change the old ways. The whole point of the Turing is for young magicians to duel and establish themselves as fully fledged magicians. The older generation is alright with giving away people to be sacrifices so that they don't have to put as much effort into doing their magic, but they want the Shadows to stay out sight, which sounds a bit like racism. It's also noted that the exclusive club for magicians consists of nothing but old white men. As the book progress magic starts to fail, and it's because of the older generation relying on Shadows. So there are strong indications of change and prejudice in this book.

Dislike: While this book was mediocre, there wasn't that much that I actually disliked about it. The issue was that these problems spread through out the entire story. First, many of the character's are introduced not through actions or dialogue, but by physical descriptions. This isn't necessarily bad, but it was something that bothered me because it felt like telling and not showing. My next big issues were the POVs, there were way too many. Within the first two chapters, I had six different POVs, and more was added as the story progressed. I like multiple POV stories, but this just felt like too much for such a short amount of time. Another issue I had that is closely linked to the POV thing, is that none of these characters had a unique voice, so they all blurred together and none of them really pulled me in, except for Grey, who disgusted me. The other big issue was the plot itself. It was supposed to be shocking at certain points, but the most surprising thing in the whole story was Sydney being Miranda's daughter. Everything else was revealed early on and wasn't that shocking once the characters learned about it, like Sydney being from Shadows, Grey being the murder, Miles using the Shadows for his own gain resulting in magic failing. I just wasn't as pulled in with the story as I could have been, in part because everything was underdeveloped and already known.    

Final Thoughts: This was a decent read that didn't quite live up to what I expected it to be, I think because I just expected a little more mystery and depth to this story. The characters were good, the themes were well executed, and there were some interesting aspects of the Unseen World. There just wasn't enough to really pull me in and make me excited about reading this. But that cover is so beautiful, I want to display it on my bookshelf.