The Girl Without Magic
by Megan O’Russell
Curiosity Quills Press
Published: January 9, 2018
From Goodreads:
Death would have been easier, but the Siren wasn’t through with her.
Seventeen-year-old Maggie Trent fell out of a battle and into the Siren’s Realm, a land where secrets hide in the shadows and pleasure comes at a price Maggie is unwilling to pay.
The time for the Siren’s reckoning has come, sweeping away all she deems unworthy to live in her realm. Those without magic are hunted by the Siren. Those with magic are hunted by the Stricken. Fighting or hiding seem necessary to survive. But there is a different way.
Bertrand Wayland, unaging and unrelenting in his determination for Maggie to accept her fate, slips in and out through the stitches that bind the Siren’s Realm to other worlds, gaining magic and having glorious adventures. When Maggie follows Bertrand out of the Siren’s Realm, seeking an adventure of her own, she finds instead a world of magic on the eve of war. To save innocent lives Maggie risks her heart, her life, and her only chance of returning to the Siren’s Realm.
Let me start off by giving my appreciate to NetGalley and the people at Curiosity Quills Press for providing me a copy of The Girl Without Magic.
The Girl Without Magic was a quick read. I have no problem with short books, or long books for that matter. A story should be however long it needs to be, as long as it’s told well. That being said, I think TGWM was too short. It really affected the pace of the book.
We meet Maggie, and we don’t know where she is. She doesn’t either. It’s a very intriguing beginning. You can’t wait to find out more about it. Once she discovers where she is, and finds out a little about it, she’s kind of pumped to be there. Then there’s talk of a storm, and she’s suddenly terrified. Kind of strange, right?
Maybe she has an irrational fear of storms? I don’t think so. I do think there was a genuine reason for her to be afraid, but as the reader I wasn’t let in on that info. Before you can fully figure out this fear and the storm, there are people attacking her and her friends.
It’d be a bit like Harry Potter getting his letter from Hogwarts and when you turn the page he’s climbing on the train. There’s a lot of good stuff in-between, we just need to author to show it to us.
The title also threw me off a bit. It’s about a girl who has magic. The entire time. There’s never a time when she doesn’t have magic.
What I did like about TGWM was Bertrand Wayland. He’s a fascinating character. He’s been everywhere, through many different worlds/universes/realities/etc. It actually reminded me of a Doctor Who story. For me, that’s not a bad thing at all. I LOVE Doctor Who. Even the book’s title is reminiscent of ‘The Girl Who Waited’ and ‘The Girl Who Died/Lived.’
Also under ‘likes’… it was just a fun read.
Even though I had a few issues with this book overall, I enjoyed reading it and I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes next. I think with a few improvements in pacing, this could end up being a very solid series.
Cool cover!