Rebecca's Thoughts

Originally in Top 4 Books of November and December

An Unkindness of Magicians (The Unseen World #1) – Kat Howard

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Magic, Contemporary

Goodreads Synopsis: There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city’s magicians’ power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard.

In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney—a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who can stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn’t want to help the system, she wants to destroy it.

 Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians.

This is also a re-read and it was just as good as the first time I read it. The book is the first in a series but stands on its own as a complete story. I have some issues with the second book, but I think that it is a solid story and an interesting addition to the first book. An Unkindness of Magicians is one of my favourite books especially when it comes to fantasy! I think that the urban fantasy setting of New York mixed with the tournament action plot seems like it was a book made for me to love. 

The world is bleak and almost depressing, but the characters can add warmth to it through their relationships and their ambitions on how they want to make the world a better place. I think the story has a lot of interesting commentary on society and how it treats people, crime, and poor people. It’s not blatant in its messaging and at no point is anyone ever being beaten over the head, but I think it adds to the world of the story and makes it seem more real and lived in. 

I think that the characters are amazing and the reasons behind their actions are interesting and something that I would have liked to have been explored more in the second book. The number of characters is something that is often held against the book, but I’m not particularly bothered by not knowing everything about all of the characters. That being said, I do think that many of the characters and their relationships are almost milked for content in the second book so if that is not something you are interested in, I’d recommend just reading the first book! I think the second book was a bit of a letdown, but this first book (which was originally a standalone from my understanding) more than makes up for it.