I’ve got some feelings.
Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones
Published: September 19th, 2017
SYNS: The year is 1818, the city is London, and our heroine, 16-year-old Annis Whitworth, has just learned that her father is dead and all his money is missing. And so, of course, she decides to become a spy.
Annis always suspected that her father was a spy, so following in his footsteps to unmask his killer makes perfect sense. Alas, it does not make sense to England’s current spymasters—not even when Annis reveals that she has the rare magical ability to sew glamours: garments that can disguise the wearer completely.
Well, if the spies are too pigheaded to take on a young woman of quality, then Annis will take them on.
She’ll follow the clues her father left behind and discover what befell him.
She’ll prove she can sew an impenetrable disguise.
She’ll earn a living without stooping to become a—shudder—governess.
It can’t be any harder than navigating the London social season, can it?
REVIEW
(I received this book from Netgalley for my free and honest review)
Based solely on the synopsis, I was super excited to read this. It checked almost all the boxes for me: murder, spies, and a strong female lead.
I do have a little bone to pick, though.
It took me a long time to really get to a point in the book where I felt like I liked Annis. I’m the first person to debate about “unlikeable” female characters, and how people dislike certain women in fiction because of qualities that we view as weak or annoying or, in contrast, too bold. But my criticism of Annis isn’t that she’s an “unlikeable” girl, it’s that the entire book I was waiting for the moment where I could say to myself, “wow, she’s really grown as a character”. Annis is shown to be used to being a city girl with a little bit of entitlement and big dreams for herself, and a great amount of the plot hinges on the fact that after her father dies she loses access to the money that was sustaining her and she doesn’t want to stoop below her “status” to a job that’s lower on the social rung- specifically a governess. Okay, I can dig that a little bit. This book does take place in Regency-era England, and social status meant a lot. But even at the 80% mark of this book, she’s still bemoaning the idea of doing something below her. It’s not until the final chapters where you see a marked change in her, and it really takes the last few pages for you to see her fully realized as a character and acting selflessly.
But my feelings about Annis’ character development don’t change the fact that I think the rest of the book was pretty amazing. The setting was great, and every time I sat down to read a little bit more, I felt like I was given a nice escape. The magic elements within the book were easy to keep up with, and the actual worldbuilding focuses mostly on the idea that there are spies operating in plain sight all the time, instead of on the fact that magic is a thing that people can do. It was a nice contrast to most books that have fantasy elements, where once the main character discovers that magic exists, all of their attention is drawn to that. In Murder, the fantastical discovery for Annis is that spies exist, which, to me, is just as exciting.
And all of the supporting characters throughout the book- though it was a bit hard to keep up with how Many of them there were, geez- were fleshed out and weren’t just props to support Annis’ narrative.
Plus, I think this is the first corset-wearing heroine in a book that I’ve read that never openly complains about wearing a corset. There’s never an “I wish I could be free of this ribcage prison” because, like most corset-wearing people in her time, she’s used to wearing one.
I do have a warning though, because this is something that, regardless of spoilers, I’m going to mention in a review of any book that I read. So, y’know, skip ahead a little if you don’t want to be forewarned. But there are a few mentions of sexual assault within the book, with a heavier emphasis in the last like, two chapters. Plus there is a moment where Annis is attacked, and though no sexual assault takes place, the attack is carried out with the intent of it becoming sexual assault. It was uncomfortable for me and slightly jarring, so I felt the need to mention it for anyone who might want to avoid content like that.
I’ve rambled for a little long though.
Overall, I give Murder, Magic, and What We Wore 3.5 Very Important handkerchiefs out of 5.
Almost Professional 