Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Paperback, 225 pages

Published February 1st 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing (first published December 22nd 2009)

ISBN

1408802120 (ISBN13: 9781408802120)

edition language

English

original title

Magic Under Glass

series

Magic Under #1

characters

Nimira, Erris, Hollin Parry

setting

Lorinar

This was a very odd and peculiar book but the story is interesting and engaging because its original and yet fresh at the same time. I seem to have really gotten into books based on fairies at the moment so It was no surprise to see that this too was based on a fairy. Yet the idea of the plot was rather engaging in the sense that it seemed to be about a fairy that was trapped within the mechanisms of a metal wind up body. The main characters were detailed and yet I still felt that there was something missing as they seemed to be roughly graxed over. There was detail and information but there wasnt a whole let that meant you could truly identify with the characters.

The book seemed to have a old sort of historical feel to it, especially with the talk of travelling over the seas in the lowest class posible on a boat. Of joining a sort of circus and becoming a source of entertainment for those who actually come to visit. Yet the characters themselves seem to have this sort of modern attitude about them for they seemed to know things that perhaps never existed back in those times. Of course I am aware that people were not truly turned into clockwork wind up people. Thats not scientifically possible as far as I am aware. I suppose what strikes me the most is the fact that the main female character was able to fall in love with someone that could not talk but merely spell out words on a piano.

In many ways this makes you question what happened behind the scenes of the book, was there more meetings that we are not told about. Yes this in many ways is a good aspect of the book because it means the reader is left to delve into their imagination, to create the background story themselves. I do feel there is a lot of potential in this book to be elaborated on, but there is also potential for this book to become a series because it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Will he become a real human fairy again or will he always be a mechanism working wind up machine?

It wasw just engaging and yet boring at the same time. It was different and seemed to have a lot of thought behind it but could be worked on a lot more.

My rating