When We Were Magic

by Sarah Gailey

[Berls]

2.5 stars
I thought this was going to be so much more than it was. Another read that had tons of potential but really didn't deliver for me.

First, the good stuff - the potential that wasn't fully realized:
* The friendships - we have this group of girls who have bonded over their magical abilities. Supposedly their friendship is this deep, amazing thing. But it failed to really make me feel that at any point. Maybe there were too many of them to show a deep friendship within the confines of 1 book?
* The diversity - one of the characters is Muslim. Another has dark skin (I can't recall her ethnicity/race). The main character is being raised by two dads and she doesn't define her sexuality - she's been interested in both men and women, but isn't ready to say that she's bi or gay. There are a couple moments where I felt like the author was going to really leverage this diversity and she got super close to showing the nuance. But maybe there was just too much going on - it wasn't bad, it was good in fact. It just had the potential to be GREAT.
* The magic - the magic is super interesting, but maybe because the characters themselves aren't really sure how everything works, it ends up being very hazy and confusing. I never really understood exactly how everything works (and neither do the character honestly). Maybe that's the point - they're still learning and growing - but for me it was another potential great detail.

And the not-so-good:
* the whole story is based on the fact that the main character accidentally killed a boy with her magic. And the way the girls dealt with it just got worse and worse. Here's a boy who's only crime was making out with Alexis (finally remembered her name!) and realizing that she's nervous so backing off and giving her space. Basically, doing exactly what he should do. And because she doesn't understand his magic, he's dead. Their attempt to fix this accidental murder is the plot of the book and I don't want to spoil the ending, but personally I wasn't satisfied with the resolution at all.

The shining gem in this book was the narration. I've never listened to Amanda Dolan before, but I would not hesitate to pick up another book she narrated, she delivered distinct voices and personalities for all the characters. I probably would not have finished this, if it weren't for her narration.