Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In this book our main character is Silla, her life just hasn't been normal since her parents died. And when I say died, the police say that her father killed her mother, then killed himself. So Silla has had to deal with that, as well as the fact that she is the one who came home and found them, got their blood all over herself, and in her hair, and she sat there, until her brother came home and called the police. She now lives with her older brother Reese and her step-grandmother. Of course as happens in many teen books, a new boy has moved to town, and he lives in the house across the cemetary from Silla. Silla receives a book in the mail from someone named the Deacon. It is her father's spellbook. And now Silla thinks that maybe her father didn't kill her mother, that maybe something else happened. Silla goes to the cemetary and tries out some magic, and it works. But the new boy, Nick, sees her. Nick has magic in his past as well. His mother is in an institution for what has driven her mad. Nick has come to live in his grandfather's house which was left to him when his grandfather passed away. His father and stepmother, who he calls Lillith, live with him. His step-mother, (Lillith is not her real name) is an author and really thinks living in the small town by a cemetary will help her write. When bad things start happening, and Silla reads about what might have happened to her parents, Nick suspects Lillith. But just who it is, well, that will be a bit of a surprise. And then, Nick and Silla must defeat this person if they want to live.
I enjoyed this book for the most part. I liked the story. I enjoy when authors insert diary entries, or else even just flashbacks to the past. And I think when they leave it so you don't know for sure exactly who this person from the past might be in the present time story it adds a bit of mystery that I like to try to figure out as I read. Now, I understand that the title is blood magic, and that means that blood is needed for the magic, but it was a little too much cutting for me at times. And I won't give it away, but when Silla attempts a new idea to get a lot of blood for one spell, well, I really couldn't stand that part. I'd rather hear about a person cutting themself in that case. I am interested to see that it is listed as a part of a series on Goodreads. And as I said, I did like the story, so I'll be looking out for the 2nd book in the series so that I can read on and see where it goes to next. Which is good, because although we find out who the person writing the flashback diary entries is, we never learn exactly who the Deacon is. I have to also say that there were some very emotional, and unexpected events in this book. Another thing I really like is that the author set it in Missouri, my home state, and where my one teen novel I sort of started is set. This is one of the authors that I met when I went to see Maggie Stiefvater, and counts towards my Meeting 12 Authors Quest. And I like that it isn't all that if you are a good guy you scrape by without being a casualty of some sort. That seems more realistic to me, and is more what I think teens read realistically. As a teen I was reading Stephen King so you know I was reading about a lot of casualties. Funny that now that I'm an adult I've gone back to reading what I was kind of ahead of at that age. But these YA books are really good these days!
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