Moonshine

by Jasmine Gower

Positioning statement: Daisy's starting a new job and stylish city life, but mage-hunters out for her dark magic threaten to destroy her vogue image. Sales points: An inclusively written second-world urban fantasy that feels both familiar and strange. For fans of Max Gladstone, Ferrett Steinmetz, and Paul Krueger's Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge. Synopsis: In the flourishing metropolis of Soot City (a fantastical version of 1920s Chicago), progressive ideals reign and the old ways of magic and liquid mana are forbidden. Daisy Dell is a Modern Girl - stylish, educated and independent - keen to establish herself in the city but reluctant to give up the taboo magic inherited from her grandmother. Her new job takes her to unexpected places, and she gets more attention than she had hoped for. When bounty hunters start combing the city for magicians, Daisy must decide whether to stay with her new employer - even if it means revealing the grim source of her dazzling powers.

• ISBN13: 9781525272615
• Publish Date: 2 March 2018 (first published 1 February 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: ReadHowYouWant
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 454
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

People of colour, queer characters, and a fantasy setting reminiscent of the 1920s - what more can a girl want?

Moonshine starts as a slice-of-life kind of story, following Daisy (a nod to The Great Gatsby, I'm assuming) as she gets a new job as an assistant. Daisy carries little trinkets made by her grandmother that she can pull on and do small magic with - but being a magician in Soot City is heavily frowned upon, and she is careful not to show her trinkets to anyone.

It takes a while for the plot to develop, and I feel that is why the book has a relatively low rating on Goodreads. At page 50, I still had no idea what the main hook/plot was, and this is a problem that will make many people put it down. I kept going, because I thought the reimagined 1920s setting was quite fabulous, including speakeasies and dancing, and I don't regret it. Once the story starts to unfold, it is well-paced and interesting, with some small twists that I thought were well-done and appropriate to the narrative.

Moonshine isn't just diverse, it is also just a good story which happens to feature people from several different ethnicities (though they're fantasy ones, they have resonances with real-life regions), a genderfluid person, a bi/pan poly character, a trans character, and a character on the aromantic spectrum. The best thing about this is that these characters are just there. Their sexuality is not a plot point. Their ethnicity doesn't determine their character. It was quite great to read fantasy that isn't built on the (rather boring) pillars of white Western heteronormativity.

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Trigger warnings: mentions of fascism/oppressive regimes, mention of having to flee from home nation, mention of human sacrifice. Contains a sexual relationship between a human and fae, and the fae cannot give verbal consent (they do not share a language). Trigger warning for shooting in a public space, gun violence, and death.