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Into the Crooked Place by Alexandra Christo (view source)
Revision as of 13:17, 8 January 2020
, 13:17, 8 January 2020no edit summary
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In the city of Creije, Tavia, a world thriving magical con-artist, specialises in wowing gullible tourists with black cheap charms and trickery. However, when a new and powerful form of magicunlike anything seen in decades begins trickling onto the streets, nearly killing her close friend Saxony, Tavia begins to worry. At the same time, her childhood best friend Wesley, the youngest underboss in the city, discovers that Dante Ashwood, kingpin of the Creijen criminal underworld, has his sights set on world domination. It's now up to the four young crooks embark on a quest unlikely allies to take bring down their criminal leader after they discover the plot behind his dangerous new magicplans...
The characters are probably the best thing about the book. Each of their viewpoint chapters does a good job of examining their psyches, their motivations, and how the other characters fit together. Wesley, being the youngest underboss of Dante Ashwood, is by far the most brutally pragmatic of the protagonists, and yet at the same time is filled with self-loathing due to the methods he used to ascend up the Kingpin’s hierarchy. His childhood friend Tavia, a busker (basically a magical street artist), is harbouring some resentment towards him and desperately longs for the days when they were still friends. Her other friends are Saxony, a Rishiyan crafter who is searching for her sister Zekia, and Karam, the descendant of a tribe of warriors sworn to protect Saxony’s kind. There is significant romantic tension between the latter two and it is heavily implied that they were in a relationship previously. Also, the banter between the four characters adds the occasional moment of levity in an otherwise dark book.