Beckett, Galen - The Magicians and Mrs. Quent

[oyceter]

This is a very confusing book. It starts out as a bit of an Austen pastiche: three sisters live together in a house with their mother, who desperately wants to marry them off to rich men, as the house will be entailed when she dies. It'll go to their smarmy cousin, of course. One of the sisters (Ivy) has no delusions about her family, and is

Comments

[buymeaclue]

I was flipping through a friend's copy of this on the train and it sounds exactly how it looked. I find that somehow encouraging.

[oyceter]

Heh, I was fooled by the cover copy! There's a bit in the author blurb that says something about magical reasons for the constraints in women's lives at the time that sounded vaguely like a Regency version of Tooth and Claw, but so far, nothing...

[swanjun]

Wow, that is some kinda Austen rip-off there at the beginning!

[oyceter]

I mean, I think it is very deliberate, but it was still too close to the source for my taste. Ivy also gets sick at one point and has to stay over at the house of her romantic interest, like Jane Bennet.

[swanjun]

Wow. Are there snide sisters to contend with when she gets there? :)

[oyceter]

Alas, no!

[wordsofastory]

Oh, this is an interesting review. I hadn't thought much of the book, because the title and cover made me think it was a rip off of 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell', but now I might have to check it out.

[oyceter]

It's... very odd. I'm not sure if all the parts hold together, and some are too imitative and not transformative enough, but it was still fun while I was reading it.

[oyceter]

I actually haven't read the Clarke, so I don't know how it compares. Um. This book... I am not sure I'd rec it, just because it's so uneven, but it was an interesting read.

[sarahtales]

I was describing this book to all my friends as 'the adventures of elizabeth eyre.' *beams*

[oyceter]

It is so true! With magic!