An Unkindness of Magicians (An Unkindness of Magicians #1) by Kat Howard

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

There is a dark secret that is hiding at the heart of New York City and diminishing the city’s magicians’ power in this fantasy thriller by acclaimed author Kat Howard.

In New York City, magic controls everything. But the power of magic is fading. No one knows what is happening, except for Sydney—a new, rare magician with incredible power that has been unmatched in decades, and she may be the only person who is able to stop the darkness that is weakening the magic. But Sydney doesn’t want to help the system, she wants to destroy it.

Sydney comes from the House of Shadows, which controls the magic with the help of sacrifices from magicians. 

Unkindness of Magicians thrusts readers into a world without any previous knowledge and teaches you about the dangerous world as the chapters progress. I was pulled into the story immediately and thought that it read a bit like a movie. There are quite a few perspectives but I think that it adds to the story as well as the flow of it. I usually have issues with so many points of view because it can be distracting and confusing but I was able to follow along easily. 

I thought that the author set the scene extremely well and brought readers into the world without info dumping. I thought that the magic system was really interesting and loved the elements that the author added in. I have often wondered what happens to those with magic as they use it and this book answered a question that no other book has before. 

I loved Sydney! She was by far my favorite character due to her flawed but righteous nature. She is a result  of her circumstances and an example of what can happen when your choices come back to haunt you. I enjoyed the simplicity of the questions that the novel posed through each characters experience with the magical world. It asks the question: How far would you be willing to go to obtain power? What would you do to fix a broken system?

There was one point that I felt was anticlimactic after so much build up to that event coming to pass. I would have liked to have had more tension within that part of the story as well as more detail in the rest of the story but found the book enjoyable enough to overlook the flaws. I recently found out that the author has decided to write a sequel which I am looking forward to reading. If you are looking for a fantasy book that doesn't require much brain power and is a fun read read then I highly recommend Unkindness of Magicians.