Magic under glass

It's always the books that are ‘alright' that are more difficult to review and rate.

Anyhow, Magic Under Glass is a young adult tale set in a world with fairies. Our main character Nimira, Nim for short, is what they called a ‘Trouser Girl'. Life couldn't get any worse for her, until the mysterious man appears, Hollin Parry, and hires her to sing along with an automaton that plays a piano.

It is no surprise to us that there is a fairy trapped in the automaton, and Dolamore tries to portray the development of the relationship between Nim and the automaton, Erris. At times it felt quite artificial, and there were some inconsistencies with the characters, like there might have been gaps that were months long between each chapter, however we know that Nim only stayed at Vestenveld for a little over a month. The Hollin Parry you meet at the beginning is nothing like the one we get to know later on. I did enjoy the main character though, Nim is a strong willed girl who stood up against Smollings when even Hollin couldn't. I'm not sure if we were supposed to like Hollin or Erris, we get some backstory from each of them, both with ‘heartbreaking' pasts, but I didn't feel upset for either one. I did however, get irritated whenever I thought of how Erris spent 30 years trapped in the automaton and couldn't move, talk or feel. It didn't help to know that there was no body that he could be restored into. I liked Hollin's wife, Annalie, despite the fact that she was locked away and thought to be dead and or mad by everyone, she doesn't seem to lose herself in it all. In fact, it was her who saved them all. Linza, despite being a minor character in the book, has some great character development which I enjoyed. Smolling's was the average antagonist that was to be feared and as expected, he was annoying.

I felt like the world in which they lived in wasn't quite clear. We are told of fairies that live there, and how they look just like humans. We are also told that there has always been trouble between fairies and humans, which brings me on to the next point. The characters feared a war between fairies and humans, and went as far as using dark magic in order to prevent it. I didn't enjoy all the politics, especially at first because it wasn't explained and I felt bombarded with all the names and didn't know who was who.

The writing was rather easy to read, with just a few odd names here and there. I enjoyed the first 200 or so pages more than the last 100, and almost didn't want to put the book down. I liked the story, and it reminded me of the Infernal Devices. If you like automatons, magic, and/or the Infernal Devices, you might enjoy this book. I only wish the author had elaborated and wrote some more.

All in all, I would give this book 3.5 stars, and I might read the sequel someday.