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duddlepuck's review against another edition
3.0
This book was enjoyable read. However, like following one of Delia Smith's souffle recipes, all the potential is there, however if not baked in that precise manner, it may fall a little flat. The individual elements of Magic to the Bone were certainly intriguing, but for me, lacked that certain something in its entirety. All that said, I was definately hooked enough to go searching amazon for its sequel.
moewe's review
3.0
a solid three stars but I wish there'd be more depth to it all: characters, world building and story. I''ll be reading the next in the series, so maybe I will get some more information then :-)
sunshinemkm's review
3.0
This book has an interesting concept for magic use that gave wonderful depth to the story. The author spent her time well developing the world of Allie so that the reader can feel truly, fully immersed in it. I enjoyed it thoroughly and will continue the series.
supermantei's review
5.0
I really liked everything about this book. How the main girl is tough, can take care of herself, and also knows when to ask for help. The use of description for the different smells all over the city was very nice and made the book feel more alive than many others in this genre. I'm excited to read more about Allie Beckstrom and Zayvoin Jones
patricia_nascimento's review
2.0
RATING: 2.5 Stars.
Imagine an alternate world where magic is real and you can use it at your leisure... if you pay the price, of course. Magic is a wild resource and it's as bad for you as alcohol and drugs. But the rewards are worth it; or at least some people think so.
Allie Beckstrom is the heir to the company that came up with the technology to harvest and use magic. But, tired of her manipulative father she ran away from home and is now a Hound; a sort of private eye that literally tracks (with smell and other magic-enhanced senses) people who use magic wrongly.
One day she discovers her father had made wrong use of magic; shortly after confronting him, Mr Beckstrom turns up dead. Now Allie is the prime suspect.
I bought this book mainly because it seemed original (by the summary in the back cover) in the urban fantasy genre. I was actually intrigued by the idea of magic as a commodity in the modern world; something you could harvest and sell. Something that used you as you used it.
Maybe I had too many expectations, because I was sorely disappointed by this book. While the world building was solid and interesting, the story was all over the place; it was sometimes, confusing. The identity of the "bad guys" was painfully obvious.
The characters weren't amiable at all, I didn't really care much for any of them, including the main character, Allie. They were all very much like the mass produced heroes and heroines we read about in urban fantasy nowadays. They even seemed one dimensional at times.
Will probably not follow these series, unless the synopse in the back cover of the second book is shiny. I confess I might continue reading just for the quirky world-building. :|
Imagine an alternate world where magic is real and you can use it at your leisure... if you pay the price, of course. Magic is a wild resource and it's as bad for you as alcohol and drugs. But the rewards are worth it; or at least some people think so.
Allie Beckstrom is the heir to the company that came up with the technology to harvest and use magic. But, tired of her manipulative father she ran away from home and is now a Hound; a sort of private eye that literally tracks (with smell and other magic-enhanced senses) people who use magic wrongly.
One day she discovers her father had made wrong use of magic; shortly after confronting him, Mr Beckstrom turns up dead. Now Allie is the prime suspect.
I bought this book mainly because it seemed original (by the summary in the back cover) in the urban fantasy genre. I was actually intrigued by the idea of magic as a commodity in the modern world; something you could harvest and sell. Something that used you as you used it.
Maybe I had too many expectations, because I was sorely disappointed by this book. While the world building was solid and interesting, the story was all over the place; it was sometimes, confusing. The identity of the "bad guys" was painfully obvious.
The characters weren't amiable at all, I didn't really care much for any of them, including the main character, Allie. They were all very much like the mass produced heroes and heroines we read about in urban fantasy nowadays. They even seemed one dimensional at times.
Will probably not follow these series, unless the synopse in the back cover of the second book is shiny. I confess I might continue reading just for the quirky world-building. :|
inionnamorrigan's review
4.0
Really liking this book. It gives a new look on Magic. Magic has a price to the hero Allie. A stranger Zayvion Jones is hired to follow Allie Beckstrom who is a hound (someone who tracks magic) for her father a man who learned how to harvest magic so everyone could use it but at a price. The story goes on after her father dies and Allie is blamed. I really enjoyed this book. And will be reading the next in the series!
traci_mm's review
4.0
This book was really cool. The mystery just sucks you in from the beginning. The author's portrayal of Allie's memory loss is amazing. You feel the need to supply the answers or feel her grief. It was a really good and quick read.
areadingraven's review
2.0
Read for genre bingo: arcane punk. I really liked the magic system but that’s about all this book had to keep me interested. I’ve not had the best experiences with urban fantasy because sometimes it feels like the same lead character, written in first person, and you simply hear about them reacting to their situations. I was hoping to find something different here, or at least funny, or maybe some interesting supporting characters. Oh well.
perkytxgirl's review
3.0
Magic to the Bone (Allie Beckstrom #1)
by Devon Monk
Introduction
I read Magic to the Bone for my Urban Fantasy Book Club and, though it has flaws, I enjoyed it more than most books I’ve read for the club.
Genre /Intended audience
Urban Fantasy / Adult
Narration
First person past tense from Allie’s POV, mixed with third person in Cody’s POV
Characters
Allie Beckstrom - a Hound with an ability to Influence people
Nola - Allie’s best friend; she works a non-magical chicken / alfalfa farm in Burns, Oregon
Daniel Beckstrom - Allie’s father, owner of Beckstrom Enterprises, rich and powerful both magically and politically
Violet - Daniel's latest wife, only a few years older than Allie
Peter Hoskil - claims he was cheated by Allie’s father of his share of magical patents
Zayvion Jones - a mysterious man who keeps turning up in Allie’s life
Mama Rossitto - runs a restaurant in the St. John's neighborhood of North Portland, a part of the city with no magic
Boy - what Mama Rossitto calls all her sons, adopted or biological; it is annoying and confusing
James - Mama Rossitto’s oldest biological son, very slimy
Cody - a Hand in prison for forgery; child-like but often refers to his ‘older smarter self’ who helps him cope; unclear if his apparent mental illness is the result of magical manipulation or an original condition
Kitten - Cody’s kitten
Bonnie Sherman - a Hound who has clashed with Allie
Setting
Portland, Oregon, a version of our modern world where magic has been used for about 30 years
Theme
Trust and fate
Plot
Allie thinks her estranged father, whom she hasn’t seen in seven years, has illegally Offloaded a magical price on a five year old boy, almost killing him. After confronting her father, Allie ends up on the run as she tries to figure out what is going on and who she can trust.
My Opinion
Much of what I liked about Magic to the Bone were the overall concepts and world building. In this book, unlike most urban fantasy, magic has a heavy price and is somewhat industrialized, collected and distributed with technology invented and patented by Daniel Beckstrom. Still, it seemed odd that this had only occurred about thirty years prior. It seems too short a time for magic use to be so widespread with an elaborate infrastructure to support it, especially given the high human price of using it. The author doesn’t reveal any clear advantage of magic over technology. It doesn’t seem cheaper, safer, or more reliable, so I’m left liking the concept more than the execution of it.
I did like the idea of Allie, twenty-five and a powerful magic user, with a memory riddled with holes caused by magic use. That’s not explained in this book. Perhaps it will be later in the series, but the lack of an explanation left me (again) liking the concept more than the execution.
Then there was Allie’s constant poor decision making and illogical behavior. Most of all, why does she keep using magic if it comes at so high a price? I didn’t see a compelling case for it.
When Mama Rossitto calls to ask Allie to come because her Boy has been hit with magic, Allie spends her last $10 on a cab ride to get there. Why? She can’t do anything but identify the source of the hit. She can’t actually help the Boy, other than telling Mama to call an ambulance and get the child to the hospital — which Mama should have already done. Later that day, Allie spends $20 more (which she has because her friend sent her money) on another cab ride back to St John’s and ask Mama for a place to sleep because she ‘can’t stand the smell’ of her apartment building. I was left scratching my head over that one. Cab rides were a recurrent theme.
From there Allie continues to behave in ways that made no logical sense (to me at least) through about 50% of the book. I started enjoying the book more about half way through — partly because she finally takes a shower. Making out, driving for four hours, and eating after she had rolled around in garbage was grossing me out.
In addition to Allie’s illogical behavior, I was confused at times by the rules of magic. Allie wanders down to the garbage laden river bank ‘to cover her scent’ — but how / why does that work against a magical Hound?
Allie says after Zayvion Grounds her, “I don’t need you to do that, you know. I could do it for myself.” One page later she says, “The way magic worked, you couldn’t Ground yourself.”
Interspersed through Allie’s first person narrative are intriguing chapters from Cody’s POV. We didn’t see much of him, but it left me wanting to know more about his story. When Cody is kidnapped, I spent the rest of the book wondering what happened to Kitten. Maybe it says more about me than the writing, if Kitten was the most important character in the book to me. I was relieved when I found out that Kitten was at the farm and perfectly fine.
Logical flaws aside, Devon Monk is good at building dramatic tension and getting me emotionally invested in the characters and their story. Unfortunately, there was enough I didn’t like about specific plot points to bring my overall rating down a little.
Conclusion
I enjoyed Magic to the Bone enough to want to read the sequels, and I recommend it to Urban Fantasy readers. I give it three stars mainly for the world building ideas and Cody — and Kitten! There is so much potential, and I want to see if the rest of the series delivers.
by Devon Monk
Introduction
I read Magic to the Bone for my Urban Fantasy Book Club and, though it has flaws, I enjoyed it more than most books I’ve read for the club.
Genre /Intended audience
Urban Fantasy / Adult
Narration
First person past tense from Allie’s POV, mixed with third person in Cody’s POV
Characters
Allie Beckstrom - a Hound with an ability to Influence people
Nola - Allie’s best friend; she works a non-magical chicken / alfalfa farm in Burns, Oregon
Daniel Beckstrom - Allie’s father, owner of Beckstrom Enterprises, rich and powerful both magically and politically
Violet - Daniel's latest wife, only a few years older than Allie
Peter Hoskil - claims he was cheated by Allie’s father of his share of magical patents
Zayvion Jones - a mysterious man who keeps turning up in Allie’s life
Mama Rossitto - runs a restaurant in the St. John's neighborhood of North Portland, a part of the city with no magic
Boy - what Mama Rossitto calls all her sons, adopted or biological; it is annoying and confusing
James - Mama Rossitto’s oldest biological son, very slimy
Cody - a Hand in prison for forgery; child-like but often refers to his ‘older smarter self’ who helps him cope; unclear if his apparent mental illness is the result of magical manipulation or an original condition
Kitten - Cody’s kitten
Bonnie Sherman - a Hound who has clashed with Allie
Setting
Portland, Oregon, a version of our modern world where magic has been used for about 30 years
Theme
Trust and fate
Plot
Allie thinks her estranged father, whom she hasn’t seen in seven years, has illegally Offloaded a magical price on a five year old boy, almost killing him. After confronting her father, Allie ends up on the run as she tries to figure out what is going on and who she can trust.
My Opinion
Much of what I liked about Magic to the Bone were the overall concepts and world building. In this book, unlike most urban fantasy, magic has a heavy price and is somewhat industrialized, collected and distributed with technology invented and patented by Daniel Beckstrom. Still, it seemed odd that this had only occurred about thirty years prior. It seems too short a time for magic use to be so widespread with an elaborate infrastructure to support it, especially given the high human price of using it. The author doesn’t reveal any clear advantage of magic over technology. It doesn’t seem cheaper, safer, or more reliable, so I’m left liking the concept more than the execution of it.
I did like the idea of Allie, twenty-five and a powerful magic user, with a memory riddled with holes caused by magic use. That’s not explained in this book. Perhaps it will be later in the series, but the lack of an explanation left me (again) liking the concept more than the execution.
Then there was Allie’s constant poor decision making and illogical behavior. Most of all, why does she keep using magic if it comes at so high a price? I didn’t see a compelling case for it.
When Mama Rossitto calls to ask Allie to come because her Boy has been hit with magic, Allie spends her last $10 on a cab ride to get there. Why? She can’t do anything but identify the source of the hit. She can’t actually help the Boy, other than telling Mama to call an ambulance and get the child to the hospital — which Mama should have already done. Later that day, Allie spends $20 more (which she has because her friend sent her money) on another cab ride back to St John’s and ask Mama for a place to sleep because she ‘can’t stand the smell’ of her apartment building. I was left scratching my head over that one. Cab rides were a recurrent theme.
From there Allie continues to behave in ways that made no logical sense (to me at least) through about 50% of the book. I started enjoying the book more about half way through — partly because she finally takes a shower. Making out, driving for four hours, and eating after she had rolled around in garbage was grossing me out.
In addition to Allie’s illogical behavior, I was confused at times by the rules of magic. Allie wanders down to the garbage laden river bank ‘to cover her scent’ — but how / why does that work against a magical Hound?
Allie says after Zayvion Grounds her, “I don’t need you to do that, you know. I could do it for myself.” One page later she says, “The way magic worked, you couldn’t Ground yourself.”
Interspersed through Allie’s first person narrative are intriguing chapters from Cody’s POV. We didn’t see much of him, but it left me wanting to know more about his story. When Cody is kidnapped, I spent the rest of the book wondering what happened to Kitten. Maybe it says more about me than the writing, if Kitten was the most important character in the book to me. I was relieved when I found out that Kitten was at the farm and perfectly fine.
Logical flaws aside, Devon Monk is good at building dramatic tension and getting me emotionally invested in the characters and their story. Unfortunately, there was enough I didn’t like about specific plot points to bring my overall rating down a little.
Conclusion
I enjoyed Magic to the Bone enough to want to read the sequels, and I recommend it to Urban Fantasy readers. I give it three stars mainly for the world building ideas and Cody — and Kitten! There is so much potential, and I want to see if the rest of the series delivers.