The Glass Magician

December 2, 2019
In this unexceptional, low-stakes fantasy, Stevermer (best known for her YA historical novels the Cecelia and Kate series) invites readers into the gritty streets of an alternate early 1900s New York City, where wealth and power are a matter not only of birth but of magical ability. Stage magician Thalia Cutler is confident in her identity as a magicless Solitaire until a life-threatening accident during a magic trick forces her to shape-shift, a power she didn’t know she possessed and which signals her status as an animal-shifting Trader. As an untrained Trader, Thalia is vulnerable to attacks by magic-draining Manticores and is confined with a Trader family until she can learn to shift on her own. Thalia’s stage manager, meanwhile, is under investigation for the death of a rival magician. As secrets start to surface, the two story lines are kept isolated from each other, sapping the tension, and the plot is bogged down by actionless passages about Thalia’s opulent life with the Traders. Readers will be charmed by the well-rounded characters and bustling Gilded Age backdrop, but long for Stevermer to pick up the pace. Agent: Frances Collins, Frances Collins Literary.

January 1, 2020

In a Gilded Age New York where Traders can shapeshift into animal forms, Thalia is a stage magician who relies instead on tricks and sleight of hand to entertain an audience. Thalia has always thought she was a Solitaire, lacking real magic. Mounting evidence of Trader blood could put her in danger of attacks by rogue Manticores, but it could also open up a world of wealth and privilege. First, however, she must come to terms with her fledgling powers, while simultaneously defending her business partner from a murder charge. VERDICT Stevermer spends little time on worldbuilding, and the terms she employs may confuse readers. Characters are placed into intriguing situations but never seem to learn or grow. Fans would be better served with the YA novels of Anna Godbersen.--Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2020
An urban fantasy set just after the turn of the 20th century in New York City, Stevermer's (Magic Below Stairs, 2010, etc.) latest blends innate magic with stage trickery. Raised to be a vaudeville stage magician, Thalia Cutler finds herself in the midst of an identity crisis when her hand briefly transforms into a feathery thing in the middle of a dangerous trick, allowing her to slip through a set of handcuffs that had jammed before she could unlock them. Thalia had never transformed before; that's something that can only be done by a Trader, a person born with the innate ability to Trade between human and animal forms, but Thalia is a Solitaire, a human without any real magic. If she were a Trader, she would have shown some sign of it by now, or so she thinks. Convinced that there's a logical explanation for her situation, Thalia carries on, only coming to terms with her new identity when she's attacked by a manticore, a creature that eats the magic of untested Traders. The revelation of her Trader identity is the least of Thalia's problems, however, as the onstage death of a rival magician has made murder suspects out of Thalia and David Nutall, her business partner and father figure, and she alone can solve the mystery and clear their names. Although the three types of humans--nonmagical Solitaires, form-shifting Traders, and nature-minded Sylvestri--are mentioned early in the novel, more in-depth explanations of these labels don't show up until much later, which may confuse some readers. Adding to this confusion, distrustful relations among the three classes often make them feel like clumsy metaphors for ethnicity, especially when we learn that "many of [the Dakota] were Sylvestri." Ultimately, many readers will be left wanting to know more about the way the world works rather than about its star players. A slow buildup that leads to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.

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