Mixing Magics by Clare Edge

Much thanks to Clare Edge, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed by book 2. It felt like a hot mess of a first draft. It also felt like the author had no idea what to do with any of her own lore.

Book 1 was fantastic, and the two things it did extra well was relating the struggles of a disability without rants, tangents, and infodumping, as well as including a diverse cast of characters. Edge still does those things well here, but this time it’s uncomfortably heavy-handed: e.g., Krystal with a K served little narrative purpose as written, and Cai’s announcement in the epilogue felt like tokenism.

The plot didn’t know what to do with itself. I expected the kids would work together to figure out Fin’s riddle early on, their heroic rescue would have unintended negative consequences, their newfound friendships would get rocky as problems went from bad to worse, but they’d come together in the end—all the magics would come together, including the adults—and use their individual talents to save the world or whatever, like in book 1 but better. Was that not the point of Book 1, to prove that magic users were stronger together than apart? Was that not what made it such a heartwarming and satisfying story?

That’s not at all what happens in book 2. We spend over 60%—way too long—dinking around trying to figure out Fin’s “Prophecy.” Let’s talk about this. 1. It was so incredibly vague and cryptic that it was wide open to interpretation—no wonder they kept arguing and couldn’t pin anything down! 2. Somehow, I still don’t completely understand how, the solving of the riddle required them to involve some guy from Grandma’s past that we’ve never heard of who ultimately served very little purpose and his character was of little consequence. 3. Fin backtracks on the riddle and effectively admits they didn’t know what they were talking about, they were just pulling shit out of Orla’s mind. Which completely undermines the power and wisdom they’re supposed to possess. None of it made any sense whatsoever. The longer we spent dinking around with the riddle, the clearer it was to me as a reader that Edge didn’t know what to do with her plot and was avoiding progressing it.

When finally, finally, we move on from the riddle, the stakes disappear. Nothing compelling is happening in the demon dimension. Time doesn’t exist, bodily functions don’t exist, the landscape isn’t dangerous, and no demons bother them, aside from taking off with Grandma and Patrick for no reason. The humans need to get home, sure, but that’s actually super easy to do (I’m sorry, what?) and the only reason they don’t do so immediately is because they have to go find Grandma and Patrick and explore the arbitrary memory gimmick this book wasted time more of our time with.

I did not like the memory sacrifices. It made me panic inside. Our memories, our experiences, are what make us who we are. I think the sacrificing of important memories was beyond sufficient payment for the demons to be conjured. Yet humans also had to sacrifice blood and their infants for an unspecified amount of time? Who was taking advantage of who, again? Or did the memories only start being collected after Bernadette Senior put the kibosh on the infants? Unclear.

Whys and hows were blatantly overlooked. Drink mugwort tea, it helps in unspecified ways. Why? Demons like watching human memories. Why? Only blood witches can enter the demon plane. Why? What is this super special bond demons have with blood witches? How does blood magic actually work? How is it different from other magic? What is the history here? We get some answers as to what happened between Fin and the Crowleys to instigate this multi-generational drama that we’re skimming the surface of, but I still don’t understand how things used to work before and exactly what changed when Bernadette Senior broke up with the Mysteries. Again, we don’t get any whys. Fin just ups and decides one day to go to a third, utterly unexplained dimension. Why? (Also, what?) Demons covet the babysitting of human children. Why? The more we learned, the less any of it made sense.

And in the end, nothing’s really changed. Half-assed promises are made, that’s all. Magics don’t get mixed. All the cultural prejudice among magics is still present, the blood witches still hold all their secrets. It was incredibly unsatisfying.

Let’s pivot to characters. Ber was fine and had a lovely arc about accepting life with diabetes. Everyone else, though…

Cai and Phoebe are present in the beginning and some great conflict is introduced, but then they get left behind literally and figuratively. They apologize to Ber and all’s supposedly well, but their relationships don’t evolve or grow stronger. They still felt tenuous to me at the end, like they weren’t sure where they sat with each other. We learn no more about plant magic than we already know. Phoebe’s grandma is introduced but nothing’s done with her. Cai’s powers have grown, which is cool but he has a real problem with reading everyone’s minds and not doing much to stop himself. He’s also a little too okay with manipulating people’s minds and emotions.

Maeve was one of my favorite characters from book 1, I got Nancy Wheeler vibes from her, but we barely see her here; she disappears from this narrative for a reason I don’t recall. I assume she was off trying to salvage her relationship with Tempest, whom we never see. We don’t learn if they’re still together in the end. We don’t learn any more about weather mages. It’s never even explained how Ber integrated weather magic into her Patrick spell. Wtf was that?

I 100% agree with Ber—Mom and Dad gave up way too easily and didn’t treat the situation with the seriousness they should have. I didn’t like them. Maybe they should have asked for help from other blood witches or even mages? They’d have had to share some secrets—Gasp! *clutches pearls*—but isn’t the safe return of a beloved family member worth it? Aaand isn’t that what they were supposed to start doing in this book? (Also, it’s unclear what Mom and Dad do for a living—book 1 talked about it a bit at the beginning, but I don’t remember and it wasn’t reiterated here. Dad just spends his weekdays baking pies, I guess.)

Krystal with a K was introduced for the sole purpose of being a bitch and never brought back around. It’s a shame, because there was a lot of sympathetic potential there—how much of her perfect appearance was compensation for her disability? Was being an influencer her idea, or her mother’s? And sorry, Ber, she had a point: Ber should probably reconsider some of her diet. And so should her parents. Our society has normalized bad health and poor diet while also blaming us for it. It’s fucked up.

Patrick served no purpose other than being a flimsy, unnecessary plot twist.

Grandma Orla was reduced to a MacGuffin and didn’t seem at all inclined to change like she was supposed to.

Fin….didn’t feel like Fin. He felt smaller and less powerful. His motivations remained unclear, like everything else. He wanted to hash out the past, but why? What did any of it matter to him? Also, his reticence was tolerable in book 1 because it was book 1, but when we’re in book 2 and still being told “I’m not at liberty to say” and “Questions for another day,” Imma get a little cranky.

I hate that there’s still so much I don’t understand. Why do demons have Irish names? Why does everything stem from Ireland as if it were the cradle of all creation? The first book talked about ancient native magic, and it sounded fascinating. Wasn’t so much as mentioned here.

Okay, moving on, moving on. The ARC I read had an air of finality to it, and at this time I don’t see anything about a third book, so as far as I know this is the end of Ber’s story. Which, despite all the unanswered questions, I’m okay with. When it feels like the author doesn’t know what to do with the story, I don’t care to continue it either. Best put it to bed.

*sigh* So disappointed