The Magician’s Daughter

I wasn't sure about this one at the beginning, but I ended up enjoying it.

Biddy has grown up on the island of Hy-Brasil. She lives there with her found family Rowan and his familiar Hutchincroft. Rowan is a mage with little magic. That's because almost all the magic has gone out of the world. But together, maybe they can bring it back.

I loved the found family element and the setting. The characters too. I loved the mage/familiar relationship as well. Loving, but also funny at times.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.

THANK GOD IT'S OVER!!!

It was like chewing a piece of food, and it can't be swallowed, it just grows and grows and grows... but... just 200 pages. It won't take long. Just 100 pages. Just 15 pages... it's over, soon. Just one more word, and another, and... WON'T THIS CRAP EVER END!!!!

Ok, so you probably understand I don't like it much. Though I like the story. There were some nice bits in it. I liked the Puca bit and the solution to the thing.

But I didn't like Biddy at all. Well, I liked her in the beginning, but somewhere at 100 pages she became your typical teenage heroine and I hate those. Sorry, all the typical teenage heroines out there, it's probably me being autistic and never having been a typical teenager, but whatever it is, I hate you.

I didn't find her reactions to things to be believable. I think she is hypocritical. She accuses everyone else of lying to her but lies herself without thinking twice about it. She believes her 100+ years old “daddy” can't take care of himself, but needs her, a 16 years old girl who has never done much to take care of the “daddy” to that day - it was always “daddy”s familiar who did all the work there. She was just reading books and running around the island. And what's with the Japan love? Had it been explained somehow it would have been interesting spice to the book, but we are just thrown the snippet that Tokyo was the city she most wanted to visit, and a word, komorebi.

“At this time of year, the path was like a dark green cathedral, dappled with sun, and Biddy told the other two about the words the Japanese had for different kinds of light: Light through leaves was called komorebi.”

“Flickers first, like sunlight glimpsed through leaves, the light the Japanese called komorebi.”

What an incredibly well written tale of magic. Deftly plotted and some of the best world building I've ever seen. I hope we see more of this world in a future book - and last but not least...Hutchincraft ❤️

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what this book really was going to feel like when I originally requested it from Netgalley. I really enjoyed HG Parry's first novel, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, but wasn't really a fan of her next book, A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians. It was a toss up if I'd enjoy The Magician's Daughter, and some early reviews from other bloggers had me a little worried. But, all the worry was for naught, as I really did enjoy this one.

So to start, I don't really think this book has any business being labeled an adult novel. The main character is sixteen, just about to turn seventeen, and for most of the novel, she acts much younger. However, this makes sense within the confines of the story — Biddy was raised on a remote island in the middle of nowhere with only an eccentric magician and his familiar as her adult role models. How would she know how to act in society if she's literally never been around more than one person at a time? In my opinion, The Magician's Daughter reads much more like a YA novel. In fact, reminds me of one of my favorites, Howl's Moving Castle. Basically, The Magician's Daughter is if Howl Pendragon adopted a young girl and had to raise her by himself with a little help from Calcifer. The comparison isn't perfect — Hutchincroft is much more anxious than Calcifer, but overall, the books are similar in really lovely ways.

The setting of the book bounces around a lot, so you see a great deal of London in the 1910's. At one point, Biddy is placed into a poorhouse as a teacher for orphaned girls. Parry does an excellent job of showing how bleak these places were, and you're left feeling like you need to do something. (Biddy felt this way too, of course!) I know these places were true to life, and my heart just shattered when she was taking care of the tiny babies. When it comes to the actual villains of the story, they are appropriately horrifying and terrifying in equal measures. I won't give away any details, but there's a moment in the book where you are scared that everyone has failed and that the bad guys win. Of course, this isn't the case, but oh for that few chapters you are so, so worried.

I really enjoyed The Magician's Daughter, but had just a few tiny things that bothered me. Overall, I'd grant this one four and a half stars! Please do pick it up, and enjoy the story of Biddy and her family trying to bring magic back into the world!