Cassandra

I enjoyed this book! It had dark academia vibes minus the academia. There was a lot of worldbuilding and the amount of magical elements could get overwhelming at times but I loved the creativity and all the themes that were touched on in this book. The main characters in YA novels can be a hit or miss for me but Laura was such a funny character to follow.

This was a unique sort of family saga that explores the relationships between parents and their children. The story was set throughout California (and not just LA!) from the 1950s to the 1980s to present-ish day.

This is the first of Russell's books that I've read and I quite enjoyed it. The writing was beautiful and expansive and the way that magical realism was tied into the story was unique to say the least. This is a definitely a slower paced book, especially the first half. There was a lot of setup that took a lot of time and it caused the first part to drag. I didn't really understand what was going on until the second half of the book.

There were a lot of characters and a lot of threads to follow and the way that these threads were tied together felt rushed and unnatural. That being said, I enjoyed the setting (geographically not to mention it being set in an interesting time period) and I appreciated James Riding In's context and further education at the end.