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Street Magic - Caitlin Kittredge
"At 16, Pete Caldecott witnessed the apparent death of punk rocker Jack Winter after he raised an ancient spirit. Twelve years later, Det. Insp. Caldecott has followed in her dead father's footsteps at Scotland Yard. She follows a tip about a missing child and finds Jack, now a heroin junkie claiming intimate knowledge of a parallel realm called the Black. As Jack detoxes and more children disappear, he joins Pete's quest to find them, teaching her to use hexes and spells as well as her physical abilities in the fight against a rising dark power. "
To be honest, this book felt like a first book. There were several sentences where I wanted to move clauses about to make them flow better and because the narrator referred to her own dad by his given name so much, I kept being unsure if the man she keep referencing was her father.
The other thing is that Kittridge struggles against having her heroine be a damsel in distress and doesn't quite manage to escape that. Part of it is that Jack knows what's going on and Pete doesn't, which gives him an edge of power that she doesn't have, but there is one place that just made me wince: Pete is kidnapped by the villains, and when Jack shows up to rescue her, she yells at him for letting her get kidnapped and turning her into the damsel in distress.
Sorry, sweetie, it doesn't work like that. What really annoyed me is that it turns out Pete had been being used for bait in that instance and having her know that would, without changing much, would have totally changed the dynamic of the book.
Honestly, this is a book that I deeply wish had a fandom - the author creates so many different angles and character interactions (for instance, there is a throw-away line that indicated that Jack - who was dating Pete's sister- was involved sexually with her as well) that I think fandom would explore these better than the author would.
Not to mention that Kittridge fixed Jack's addiction (via magic) in the epilogue of the book. I was like 'no! despite the fact that what you're doing makes total sense, don't give up epic drama like that! String the agony out, bb!'
Also, while the cover is awesome:
I cannot get over Jack's biceps. Seriously, he is a skinny addict who has been living on the street. He didn't just get out of prison.
I feel like all my whinging gives the wrong impression of this book; while I can't exactly say why (well, actually, I think the characters just worked for me on an epic level) I blasted through this book in two days and when I found out that the sequel had yet to be released by reaction was 'oh noez!'
So clearly I want more. (Also, the narrator is switching from Pete to Jack, and I honestly think that it will improve the books.) Less curious about how Jack is going to escape from a devil's bargain, I'm curious about Pete's sister's reaction to Jack being alive, whether Pete left the police to work with Jack, if there will ever be a punk-rock reference in these books that I'll actually catch, etc.
Besides the characters, the author also does place very well; London feels appropriately old and half-foreign and rather ominous, I like the magic.
Also, the author does an excellent riff on how to say 'I love you' without saying 'I love you': things are looking grim for our heroes, and Pete tells Jack what her (terrible) given name is.
Awwww.
Oh, and I totally want to be in a situation where I have Jim Butcher trapped in an enclosed space and can get him to give me a cover quote.
"At 16, Pete Caldecott witnessed the apparent death of punk rocker Jack Winter after he raised an ancient spirit. Twelve years later, Det. Insp. Caldecott has followed in her dead father's footsteps at Scotland Yard. She follows a tip about a missing child and finds Jack, now a heroin junkie claiming intimate knowledge of a parallel realm called the Black. As Jack detoxes and more children disappear, he joins Pete's quest to find them, teaching her to use hexes and spells as well as her physical abilities in the fight against a rising dark power. "
To be honest, this book felt like a first book. There were several sentences where I wanted to move clauses about to make them flow better and because the narrator referred to her own dad by his given name so much, I kept being unsure if the man she keep referencing was her father.
The other thing is that Kittridge struggles against having her heroine be a damsel in distress and doesn't quite manage to escape that. Part of it is that Jack knows what's going on and Pete doesn't, which gives him an edge of power that she doesn't have, but there is one place that just made me wince: Pete is kidnapped by the villains, and when Jack shows up to rescue her, she yells at him for letting her get kidnapped and turning her into the damsel in distress.
Sorry, sweetie, it doesn't work like that. What really annoyed me is that it turns out Pete had been being used for bait in that instance and having her know that would, without changing much, would have totally changed the dynamic of the book.
Honestly, this is a book that I deeply wish had a fandom - the author creates so many different angles and character interactions (for instance, there is a throw-away line that indicated that Jack - who was dating Pete's sister- was involved sexually with her as well) that I think fandom would explore these better than the author would.
Not to mention that Kittridge fixed Jack's addiction (via magic) in the epilogue of the book. I was like 'no! despite the fact that what you're doing makes total sense, don't give up epic drama like that! String the agony out, bb!'
Also, while the cover is awesome:
I cannot get over Jack's biceps. Seriously, he is a skinny addict who has been living on the street. He didn't just get out of prison.
I feel like all my whinging gives the wrong impression of this book; while I can't exactly say why (well, actually, I think the characters just worked for me on an epic level) I blasted through this book in two days and when I found out that the sequel had yet to be released by reaction was 'oh noez!'
So clearly I want more. (Also, the narrator is switching from Pete to Jack, and I honestly think that it will improve the books.) Less curious about how Jack is going to escape from a devil's bargain, I'm curious about Pete's sister's reaction to Jack being alive, whether Pete left the police to work with Jack, if there will ever be a punk-rock reference in these books that I'll actually catch, etc.
Besides the characters, the author also does place very well; London feels appropriately old and half-foreign and rather ominous, I like the magic.
Also, the author does an excellent riff on how to say 'I love you' without saying 'I love you': things are looking grim for our heroes, and Pete tells Jack what her (terrible) given name is.
Awwww.
Oh, and I totally want to be in a situation where I have Jim Butcher trapped in an enclosed space and can get him to give me a cover quote.
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