Genre: Urban Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Trans FTM
Reviewer: SI
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About The Book
When you have chaos magic, the only thing you can do is expect the unexpected.
Zombies. Shoestorms. Illicit unicorn rides. A talking red panda.
Before today Max never believed in magic, despite bad luck so terrible he used to jokingly call it a curse. Now he’s a reluctant believer. His first day as a mage he draws the attention of the magic police, not to mention the mysterious hooded figures chasing him all over downtown Portland trying to kill him with magic.
With the help of his new speed-demon red panda familiar, his fortune-telling neighbor, a gadget-obsessed witch, a grumpy vampire, and his maybe-brother, Max needs to learn to use his chaos magic, and quickly, or his ‘curse’ is going to be the end of him and the people he loves.
The Review
Max has bad luck. Not just a bit of bad luck; we’re talking chronic, recurrent, multiple-broken-bones bad luck. He accepts this as his lot in life until one day, things start to get … weird. A red panda Max has drawn crawls off the page, guys in grey robes show up and burn the house down, and Max discovers one of his best friends is an actual witch.
This offbeat urban fantasy novel somehow delivers a powerful story about identity and belonging wrapped in a fun, light-hearted story.
This was an engrossing read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
My one complaint was to do with the romance. My usual issue is that authors tend to use romance as a stand-in for character development. In this case, it was the reverse. The characters were full fleshed out, but I didn’t see any hints of romance until it was explicitly stated. It felt out of the blue and didn’t ring true for me.
However, if it was going to go that way, I liked how it was resolved.
All in all, a clear 4.5 stars from me.
The Reviewer
SI CLARKE is a misanthrope who lives in Deptford, sarf ees London. She shares her home with her partner and an assortment of waifs and strays. As someone who’s neurodivergent, an immigrant, and the proud owner of an invisible disability, she strives to present a diverse array of characters in her stories. And she loves reading about diverse characters too.