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Street Magic

by Caitlin Kittredge

Reviewed by Coral


Sneaking into a cemetery to summon a spirit with her older sister’s boyfriend, Jack Winter, sounded like a fun idea to Pete Caldecott at the time. Unfortunately, she wasn’t expecting the magic to be real or for the spirit to kill Jack in front of her eyes.

Years later, Pete is now a detective working the case of a missing child. When an anonymous tips brings her face-to-face with a very much alive Jack, Pete finds herself dragged back into the supernatural world she’d hoped she’d imagined. Worse, Jack is a shadow of the man he used to be, an addict who wants nothing to do with her. But when more children go missing, Pete and Jack will be forced to rely on each other to save not only the children but their own lives as well.

I think that this book really needed to sell me on Pete and Jack’s connection, as something that could survive the ritual gone wrong and all of the emotions left behind in its wake, and I don’t think it did that. They talked about their connection sometimes, but it never rang true to me.

Considering that Pete was a novice in the supernatural world, I didn’t understand why she seemed to be holding back when it came to the statement given by one of the characters. For all she knew, “the cold man” could have been a supernatural entity who was well known that could have helped Jack narrow down what they were after.

I also didn’t understand why Pete couldn’t understand why Jack was angry with her when they first met each other again. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he would have some resentment about being left for dead.

When being attacked by a supernatural creature, Pete really shouldn’t have known the creature’s name in her narration a few pages before she asks Jack what it was.

It also annoyed me that Pete constantly referred to her father by his first name. The first time during a chapter when she was remembering Connor, I had no idea who that was because I don’t think anyone had mentioned his name previously.

I was interested in the character of Jack, in the glimpses we got of his past and the larger secret he’s very obviously keeping about how he survived the ritual gone wrong and why people call him the crow-mage, but I just don’t think the book worked enough for me to pick up the second one.

 

Grade: C


Ruby's Review

I have to agree with Coral on this one. There was something lacking in the writing that made it impossible for me to get emotionally invested in the characters. That is a major problem considering that the author was trying sell the connection Jack and Pete had for each other as the main focus of the book. Yes, there was a plot with missing children but it was mentioned infrequently and there was no urgency behind it. For most of the book it was complexly forgotten. It was also wrapped up in like half a chapter with no fanfare whatsoever. It was just over.

The author chose instead to focus on Pete and Jack "relationship" as they faced a variety of random magic obstacles and threats that had very little impact on the book and felt very tenuously connected. Pete herself was annoying. Not only was she a terrible cop that would have gotten fired in real life she also was supposed to be - I'm assuming - a tough and independent women and yet all she does is talk about how the men in her life have affected and changed her. There was even a scene where she got mad at Jack for him letting her get kidnapped and then went on about how being a damsel in distress was disgraceful. There was just something so off about her that it was impossible to take her seriously as a real character. Jack was only slightly better, but still unbelievable. For someone who was supposed to be a long time drug user he got over his addiction pretty damn quickly.

There was just something off and unbelievable about the entire book. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I could tell from the writing that the author wasn't British. She had no idea about the metric system or many actual British terms that it pulled me out of the story right away. There were also scenes in the book that I'm sure where meant to shock and disturb the readers but felt so out of place that they came off as lame and stupid.

Grade: D