Being born and raised in New York (upstate, not the city, thank you), I couldn’t resist the idea of a book being set in Old New York.

I mean, there’s also the whole idea of magic, heists, betrayal, and time travel, which only makes it better in my opinion. Hard to go wrong with that.

Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.

The tagline seems so easy, but of course it’s not. Because how boring would that be? As soon as I read the tagline, though, I knew I had to read the book. I’m a fan of all three: magicians, books, and the future. As long as there’s no zombies.

 

 

❧ The book basically opens at the close, and that hooked me right off the bat.

No, that’s not a riddle. Please don’t put the book in your mouth. Nothing splendid will happen. I’m pretty sure of that, at least.

This is a pretty common technique I see lately, and sometimes it falls flat, but here, I thought it worked well with the story.

The book opens with the Magician destroying himself, and by extension the book, and that’s a pretty attention-getting way to start.

Since this obviously ties to the main character’s mission (you can figure that out from the summary), it’s relevant and plunges the reader right into the story. Besides that, it shows some pretty high stakes for the conflict, right? But what I thought made this particularly effective is that the book deals with time travel, so the beginning isn’t really the beginning, and the ending isn’t really the end, and nothing is as it seems. Not even this (duh, he’s a magician). You’ve been warned.

His life might have been built on illusions, but his death would be his greatest trick. Because for once there would be no deception. For once it would be only the truth. His ultimate escape.

❧ I’m getting a Newsies vibe here, and it feels all warm and familiar and cozy.

I mean, if you find teens/young adults living in squalor and forming gangs just to survive cozy, I guess? If you plan to survive as a Mageus in Old New York, you basically need to fall in with a gang, which is generally full of young kids. By the time you’re in your mid-20s, you’re already old.

Dolph Saunders is the leader of the gang Esta must earn her way into, and he trades not in threats and violence, necessarily, but in secrets.

Which I thought was a fantastic way for him to hold power, and rest assured, we get to see it in action, and I love it! That’s not to say he shies away from violence when it’s necessary, but that’s just not the majority of his strength.

This book has about 70% of the charm of Newsies, except with higher stakes and 100% more character death.

There’s no music. Sadly. If someone figures out a way to make that happen, though, that’d be awesome and you’d be rich. The leader of the opposing gang also isn’t an adorable teen with big blue eyes and a horrible accent who comes to your aid in the end because, hey, he’s a pretty swell guy.

Actually, the big rival gang in this book is pretty horrible. Go figure. But if you enjoyed Newsies, this setting, at least, should feel familiar to you.

❧ If this book had a Facebook relationship status, it would be “it’s complicated.”

Because it is. Everything. Everyone. The relationships between everyone are tenuous, at best, and no one is what they seem. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has a different end game. The layers of complexity in the story are brilliant,  and eventually, things start to slowly tie together and make sense.

This is a world where anybody can be a traitor, and where being betrayed has severe—and mostly short-lived (pun intended)—consequences, so all the characters keep others at an arm’s length.

In short, it’s not a great place to live in. Makes a great story, though, as you struggle with the characters to figure out who to trust and what everybody’s motives and endgame are.

Life and death, Dolph had once told him, back when they’d still been friends. Survival was about balance. The threat of death could inspire you to carve out a life worth having.

❧ The magic system is unique and fascinating.

There’s no definitive answer for how the Mageus came to be or what made the Brink that keeps them trapped in Manhattan. The only thing anyone knows for sure is the Ars Arcana must hold the answers. Also, anyone who has the book would have ultimate power. How’s that for motivation?

The types of magic were interesting and varied, and I loved seeing how everyone twisted their talents to fit the lifestyle they had chosen.

Esta, our protagonist, just happens to be able to slip between time, which helps her as a master thief. I can’t really give away anyone else’s power, because that would be spoilers, and you’ll just have to read it to find out. Rest assured, they’re all pretty unique.

❧  I’m a big fan of the main character being a female thief who has to travel back in time.

I mean, she’s no assassin (although, there are a couple of those), but she’ll do. What I particularly liked is that the world Maxwell creates mirrors ours to some extent with fashion and societal norms, and Esta has to get used to a woman’s place in Old New York, despite being raised otherwise.

Esta is no stranger to danger (this one’s not intended, I swear), and she’s a capable, strong female lead … for the most part.

I’ll admit, there were a few times I wanted to shake her, but hey, that happens. All in all, I love the way she played the game, how she remained strong and inserted herself where she needed to, unabashedly, and didn’t feel the need to hide her strength. There are a lot of strong females to choose from in this book, and that was refreshing.

❧ Trust. No. One. Everyone’s lying.

It’s just a matter of to what degree and how likely their lie is to get you killed. Which is a pretty important thing to determine before hanging out with a person, obviously.

I was a big fan of the duplicity and cover-ups in The Last Magician, as they kept me on my toes and had me guessing.

We know Esta’s lie right off the bat: she has to steal the book. However, she’s far from the only one with ulterior motives. I can’t even name one character who doesn’t have them, so be prepared! The Magician isn’t the only one performing tricks here.

Forgive my cheesy jokes, I’ll see myself out now.

❧ The book is just under 500 pages long, and it took foreverrrr to get into the real interesting meat of the story.

I contemplated adding this to DNF several times. The writing is good, I didn’t feel there was a spark to keep me interested in the plot. I wasn’t all that fond of Esta, who felt flatter in the beginning, and I really didn’t care as the other characters (like Dolph) were introduced in the alternating timelines because they didn’t seem to connect up or have anything to do with each other at first. Until they did.

In fact, I would say that nothing of interest really happens until Esta goes back into the past, and even then, it still takes a while to really ramp up.

At that point, the two timelines merge, and the characters start having more life and interacting with each other. That’s when I really started caring for them. It was a long build-up, and ultimately, it was worth it, but I had my doubts there for a while.

❧ I saw the big shock reveal at the end coming from about midway through the book.

Which only serves to make me even more disappointed that the characters didn’t. Not even so much as a doubt, question, suspicion—nothing. From a person who’s a master of duplicity. It just made me grr.

❧ There were multiple times the characters did something that had me scratching my head.

They’re pretty bad-ass, capable, suspect everybody, and smart enough to put two and two together. I’m not the sharpest pencil in the … cup? Pencil holder, I suppose, for all you fancy, not-poor people. Still, some of the things that happened were so obvious that even I figured them out ahead of time. How is it that none of these smart people did?

Have you read The Last Magician? What did you think? Are you planning on reading The Devil’s Thief?