"Washington, DC, 1926. While sorcery opponents have succeeded in passing the 18th Amendment, the Prohibition of magic has only invigorated the city's underworld. Smuggling rings funnel magic contraband in from the coast. Sorcerers cast illusions to aid mobsters' crime sprees. Gangs have even established secret venues called "magic havens," where the public can lose themselves in immersive magic, as well as imbibe a mind-bending and highly addictive elixir known as "the sorcerer's shine." Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from the back woods of Norfolk County, accepts an offer to work for DC's most notorious crime syndicate, The Shaw Gang, when her family's home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. Joan meets Alex at the Shaws' magic haven, and soon discovers a confidante in her fellow performer. As Alex grows closer to Joan, he begins to fall under her spell. But when a new breed of sorcerer's shine - one sorcered within the walls of the Shaws' magic haven - gets set to change the face of the underworld, Joan and Alex are forced to question their allegiances and motivations, as they become pitted against one another in a dangerous, heady game of cat-and-mouse"--
A Criminal Magic was a fantastic read. I was especially impressed with the ending, how it all worked out, and how satisfying it actually was. I'm not usually one for loose ends.
It starts out slow, building the world around Joan and Alex.
Alex is a sort of prodigal son, a tarnished golden boy in a downward spiral of his own making. Joan on the other hand, is dealing with the destruction of her family with abuse, death, addiction, and her own damned magic.
It was interesting, but REALLY took off when Alex and Joan met and when their settings finally line up. From there it was a race to see how'd the twists would turn, who'd lived and died, who'd fried and who was freed.
But I was disappointed how white it all was, how racism was ignored despite how important a factor it is in Prohibition then and continues to influence. How would've racism played into sorcery? And sexism and misogynoir? DC is has and always been at least 50% black, where'd they all go in A Criminal Magic? Voodoo gets dragged as usual as demonic. But most black people are Christians, so where are they and how'd they reconcile their magic and religion? How'd it have changed slavery?
Couple of articles to pursue on Prohibition, Racism, and How White Women Fuck Everything Up:
Rational Wiki on Prohibition
Why Racism Flourished Under Prohibition
Prohibition, Racism and Class Politics in the Post-Reconstruction South
Prohibition: Speakeasies, Loopholes and Politics.
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9 May, 2016:
Reviewed