The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic DEALS
When searching for a new fantasy read, our choices are numerous. As someone who is constantly pouring through the fantasy section at my local bookstore, I’m always first drawn to a title and a cover. This is essentially what drew me to The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, a novel that explores the possibility of escaping to a new world. This is Emily Croy Barker’s debut novel.
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The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic Synopsis
I picked this book up as a last-minute choice mainly due to the title, with ‘real magic’ grabbing my attention. Ultimately I read this book and its sequel How to Talk to a Goddess, but I found the story was lacking a complete ending. Things begin on the right foot, and The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic introduces you to Nora, our moderately mundane main character.
Nora is a woman who is struggling to find the inspiration to finish her thesis and is plagued by a bad breakup. We can tell right away that Nora is an incredibly intelligent and driven woman who is just trying to move past a trauma that has shaken her to her core. However as the story progresses, she finds herself trapped in another world. Filled with beautiful people and offered a life of complete happiness, Nora finds herself wrapped up in the perfection of the other world and with that, she ends up married. The thing is, Nora finds that she cannot think coherently, or put a sentence together. Something is wrong and she can’t quite understand her predicament.
This alternate world utilizes a force which Nora dubs ‘real magic’, but its perfect inhabitants have in fact trapped her in ‘illusion magic’. Imprisoned in this marriage and losing everything she values of herself, Nora needs to find a way out… but how?
The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic: My Thoughts
Unfortunately, everything that follows Nora’s realization was sort of a let down. Emily Croy Barker crafts this amazing fantasy world with The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, but then lets everything fall flat. From Nora’s discovery of the real magic, to finding her groove in this new world, felt as though it were lacking a through line. There were several details that she brought up that remained unimportant and were never followed up on again.
A perfect example: the whole time Nora was navigating her new unexpected marriage, she wrote letters to her best friend. This was something that kept her sane and helped her to figure out what was going on in her new life. But then nothing about her best friend was ever mentioned again. In addition, later on in the book Nora’s family becomes very important, but their introduction into the story felt much too delayed, leading to several loose ends with their portion of the story.
Delving deeper and deeper into the story, even the ending is disappointing. Obviously the sequel picks up following the first installment, however I still believe that the ending could have used a tad more drama and flair. This lackluster final act left me disappointed and a bit bored. Barker included some great historical parallels between the two worlds; she makes the reader truly understand both sides of the coin.
Overall The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic is a quick read for a light day, but not a story that I ever found myself completely immersed in. As an easy young adult read it is perfect if you’re on the go, or do not want a complicated plot. It had parts where I was quite intrigued by the idea, and as something of a completist I read the sequel in order to reach the conclusion of the tale, but this fantasy fare felt like a bit of a flop.
The Review
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic
A great light read. Perfect for moments when you do not want to be wrapped up in a book. Starts off strong but fizzles at the end.
PROS
- Unique twist
- Relatable Character
- Excellent World Building
CONS
- Fizzles out
- Felt Unfinished
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