A Curious Kind of Magic

Gr 8 Up–A cozy fantasy that will appeal to fans of Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning and Margaret Owen’s Little Thieves. When the taxidermied chimera at the front door of the shop intones, “Beware the girl in the oxblood cloak,” Willow Stokes is so surprised it spoke at all that she doesn’t connect the words to her first–and only–customer of the day. It’s difficult to run a successful curiosity shop when your recently deceased father was a notorious charlatan, and everyone knows the store doesn’t contain any magic. That is, until Brianna Hargrave walks in. Born with the ability to turn anything she touches magical, Bri needs to find the spell book that can break her curse. Willow agrees to help, provided Bri uses her power to enchant some items in the shop. Thus begins a folklore-inspired quest fueled by Bri and Willow’s contrasting emotional arcs as they both grapple with how they connect to others. A romantic subplot between Willow and her best friend Finlay adds a slice-of-life quality to the fantasy world, while her stress about rent and money grounds the novel in highly relatable problems. The village is a character unto itself, imbuing the world with a chaotic eccentricity that magic only exacerbates. While the plot meanders into cozy corners rather than maintaining a productive pace, it ultimately finds a satisfying resolution. Main cast reads as white.