The Master Magician

Holmberg dropped the ball on the perfect opportunity to create a strong, independent female protagonist. Though Ceony is courageous and strong-willed, her only motivation for these traits is to save her family and her lover—the “acceptable” motivations for female protagonists handed down to us by the Patriarchy. At the end of the novel, where there is a glimpse of redemption for Ceony as a character, her aspirations to join Criminal Affair are deemed incompatible (by another woman no less) with the social expectation that she be a mother and housewife. Moreover, the romance between Ceony and Emery is based largely on her cooking and cleaning for him—need I say more?