Shadowshaper
Last year I was hearing a ton about Daniel Jose Older. Both this book and Half-Resurrection Blues had just come out and they were receiving great reviews. I was excited to read both of them, but I got my hands on Half-Resurrection Blues first. Sadly, that book was a bit of a let down. It wasn't horrible, just not as good as I'd been expecting. It wasn't enough to dampen my excitement for Shadowshaper, though.
In fact, it may have been a good thing that Half-Resurrection Blues lowered my expectations a bit. Or maybe it didn't need to. But at any rate, I loved this book. It was an excellent, magical, coming-of-age tale about a young girl in Brooklyn.
Sierra has a family history of magic, but it's been hidden from her. And now that magic is dying, and it looks like it's going to be up to her to save it before her heritage dies out completely. It's a nice metaphor for the children of immigrants, struggling to find a way to honor their family history and assimilate to their new country. Even better, it turns out that the magic is weakening because Sierra's grandfather decided that women weren't worthy of the magic, adding a nice little critique of old boys clubs to the mix.
I also appreciated that the magic is tied to art. People access it by painting or playing music or telling stories, which isn't something I see all that often. It's how the magic worked in NK Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy, but I can't think of any other books I've read where that's the case. It's a nice change of pace from the usual magical systems, much as I love those, too.
It turns out that this is going to be the first in a series, which is actually a bit of a disappointment. I understand that there's more money in series, but this book was so perfect on its own. I can only think that continuing the story would provide diminishing returns. That said, it does have me excited for the second of the Bone Street Rumba books, as this one addressed a lot of the issues I had with the first one, and now I have confidence that that series will progress in a more satisfying way.
In fact, it may have been a good thing that Half-Resurrection Blues lowered my expectations a bit. Or maybe it didn't need to. But at any rate, I loved this book. It was an excellent, magical, coming-of-age tale about a young girl in Brooklyn.
Sierra has a family history of magic, but it's been hidden from her. And now that magic is dying, and it looks like it's going to be up to her to save it before her heritage dies out completely. It's a nice metaphor for the children of immigrants, struggling to find a way to honor their family history and assimilate to their new country. Even better, it turns out that the magic is weakening because Sierra's grandfather decided that women weren't worthy of the magic, adding a nice little critique of old boys clubs to the mix.
I also appreciated that the magic is tied to art. People access it by painting or playing music or telling stories, which isn't something I see all that often. It's how the magic worked in NK Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy, but I can't think of any other books I've read where that's the case. It's a nice change of pace from the usual magical systems, much as I love those, too.
It turns out that this is going to be the first in a series, which is actually a bit of a disappointment. I understand that there's more money in series, but this book was so perfect on its own. I can only think that continuing the story would provide diminishing returns. That said, it does have me excited for the second of the Bone Street Rumba books, as this one addressed a lot of the issues I had with the first one, and now I have confidence that that series will progress in a more satisfying way.
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