A SLEIGHT OF SHADOWS

A darkly glamorous tale about the price of magic—and who has to pay.

In this sequel to An Unkindness of Magicians (2017), the House of Shadows is rebuilding itself. Sydney sacrificed her magic to destroy it in the last Turning, but it’s coming back. And what’s worse, there are some in the Unseen World who want it back—some who believe the world was better when magic was easier, even if it meant anonymous magicians had to suffer and die in the House of Shadows to pay the price. Meanwhile, Laurent Beauchamps, who won the right to establish a new magical House in the last Turning, is reaching out to outsider magicians like Mia Rodriguez, who can sometimes make things move with her mind and who’s desperate to know if she can do more. Now Sydney and her allies will have to fight to destroy Shadows once and for all—while magicians from powerful old Houses work to reestablish the spell that allows the blood and pain of a few sacrifices to pay the price of magic for everyone. Like An Unkindness of Magicians, this novel is fast-paced, slick, and cinematic, packed full of dramatic imagery: Chunks of ruined house move on their own with an “echoing scrape of rock over bone,” whispering trees of bone rise from the soil of Central Park, a woman pulls a sticky thread of magic out of her own shadow. The characters would feel more alive if they ever slowed down enough to have nonportentous thoughts, but the race-against-time, good-against–elite-evil elements are strong enough to keep the story moving and keep readers engaged.

This sequel offers more of the first book’s strengths: dark, desperate magic in a glittering world of wealth and power.