By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews!
After being consistently drawn to colourful covers I did a 180 and picked a book that has a haunting quality due to its washed out colour (or lack thereof) and twisted tree branches. Which is entirely appropriate given that the book is about magic. Love the title too, especially after a surfeit of novels entitled I Let You Go, I Found You, I See You etc, etc, etc.
I wasn’t wild about Kat Howard’s writing style. It felt overwrought at times and pretty clunky. On more than one occasion I would find myself re-reading a sentence with a raised eyebrow, trying to make it work for me. But like any writing, once you get used to its rhythm and cadence it flows more easily. There’s also a lot going on in the first half of the book and a pretty large cast of characters that can make it a bit confusing. This wasn’t helped by the fact that two of the main characters are called Madison and Miranda. Two M names were a little too similar for my liking. Had Madison been named, say, Violet, it may have prevented some confusion on my part. Just me, perhaps.
The setting is New York and the Unseen World of wealthy and powerful magicians is about to set the stage for the Turning, a roughly generational magic event that pits House against House to determine which one will become the Grand Poohbah of the magic kingdom. The heir to the House, or a hired champion, takes on the magical challenges, which is where our main character, Sydney, comes in. She is chosen by Laurent to represent the House of Beauchamps and as an unknown outsider Sydney immediately starts tongues wagging when it becomes clear that she has a very big hat filled with a lot of powerful magic…and is not afraid to use it. Better yet, Sydney has a score to settle. Revenge, apparently, is best served with a heavy dose of sorcery.
The challenges themselves get progressively more difficult until reaching the mortal rounds. Two magicians, only one survives. Think of it as The Hunger Games, magician edition. And while everything unfolds we learn about the dark and sordid origins of The House of Shadows, which lies at the heart of this story and sets the scene for all the family betrayals and broken relationships that curl and twist themselves throughout the pages.
There’s a lot going on to be sure, not just the Turning. There’s a serial killer on the loose and a young woman, Harper, is trying to discover the identity of her best friend’s killer. Because of this I think the book lacked some depth in both plot and character development. Despite the subject matter, which lends itself to all sorts of wild and wonderful outcomes, there’s not a great deal of suspense. Given Sydney’s overwhelming power the result seems to be a foregone conclusion, especially as the author didn’t offer up much in the way of a challenge for her.
Despite this however I thought it was an engaging story and I did find myself wanting to pick it up and read. Again, without the lure of the cover, I wouldn’t have given it the time of day, but it was a fun change and the one thing I kept coming back to was that this would make a highly entertaining and visually stunning movie…sort of a Harry Potter for grown ups.
