Tropes: good vs evil, good witch, chosen one, reluctant hero, training moments, all hope lost
Publication Year: 2022
CW: blood, death, grief, murder
thestorygraph.com description
In the spellbinding sequel to “breath of fresh air for the genre” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) Blood Like Magic, Voya fights to save her witch community from a terrible future, perfect for fans of Legendborn and Cemetery Boys.
Voya Thomas may have passed her Calling to become a full-fledged witch, but the cost was higher than she’d ever imagined.
Her grandmother is gone. Her cousin hates her. And her family doesn’t believe that she has what it takes to lead them.
What’s more, Voya can’t let go of her feelings for Luc, sponsor son of the genius billionaire Justin Tremblay—the man that Luc believes Voya killed. Consequently, Luc wants nothing to do with her. Even her own ancestors seem to have lost faith in her. Every day Voya begs for their guidance, but her calls go unanswered.
As Voya struggles to convince everyone—herself included—that she can be a good Matriarch, she has a vision of a terrifying, deadly future. A vision that would spell the end of the Toronto witches. With a newfound sense of purpose, Voya must do whatever it takes to bring her shattered community together and stop what’s coming for them before it’s too late.
Even if it means taking down the boy she loves—who might be the mastermind behind the coming devastation.
What I Rated:
Cover: 3.5/5
Story: 4.0/5
Pacing: 3.0/5
So Good I Forgot I Was Reading: 3.0/5
Gave Me All The Feels: 2.0/5
Snap Counter: 42 (Yikes! Special addition for even more annoying overuse of the word)
What I Think:
The sequel opens with Voya, as the matriarch of her family, trying to help pick up the pieces of the mess her family has been dealing with since Auntie Elaine tried to join forces with a sociopathic tech genius, and shit went real left.
In the opening scene Liselle gives me everything I wanted in Blood Like Magic-an ideal amount of detail, no internal monologue doubling as information for the reader, and only one off putting metaphor about the words in her mouth being like some kind of food or cooking process.
But, as we transition to the next scene she slips back into direct exposition, having Voya tell herself things that she already knows about her life, as a means by which to convey relevant information to us, the readers.
I had hoped that Liselle learned to trust that her audience is smart enough to understand without being spoon fed every detail, but I suppose building that trust is still a work in progress.
Along with the running internal monologue that gives us details we didn’t ask for, there are also conversations where the “lesson” is spelled out too clearly by the person she is interacting with. Voya’s character isn’t given the chance to arrive at these groundbreaking conclusions that develop her character on her own, further contributing to the artificial dialogue I complained about encountering in the first book.
I also didn’t care for the semi frequent departures from the plot. I didn’t want to make a pit stop to learn about the history of the family or to stop for seventeen heartfelt conversations while shit was popping off. I wanted to know what was going to happen to all the people in present danger. I wanted to know what was wrong, and how they were going to fix it.
I also think that the Blood Like Magic duology would’ve been better served by Liselle writing in third person omniscient. Because Liselle chose first person, and because she clearly wanted to highlight several important issues through her characters, she was forced to have her main character have these interactions that just didn’t feel like a natural part of the storyline, in order to do so. This you can clearly see in her interactions with Keisha and Uncle Vacu about their stuff, that did nothing to further the plot.
In terms of the actual story itself, here’s where I got really happy. This storyline was much much more interesting than the first. There’s a bit of mystery about what exactly is happening, and as it unfolds for Voya, we the readers are also on edge as we try to figure it out too.
I enjoyed seeing the shift in relationships and alliances as the story progressed. It was cool to see through Voya’s eyes how generations of secrets, assumptions, rumors and such can change the trajectory of families and whole communities. At least in terms of the information that was actually relevant to the plot.
I think Liselle’s strengths lie in both creating characters with interesting backstories and creating exciting plots, but I am not a fan of her writing style (thus far). In my opinion it needs work to sound more natural, and to create distinct voices for her characters.
I’m walking away from Blood Like Fate feeling less disappointed than Blood Like Magic, which speaks to Liselle’s evolution as a writer between the first book and the second. I look forward to seeing more and better from her in the future.
