The Uncrossing

Magic in a modern New York setting. A mob family with a labyrinth of secrets. Another family just trying to survive by working for them. True love's kiss to break a spell.

This book was...a lot. There was so much going on. Sometimes that was good, but most other times it was confusing and distracting. I think I need to break this review down into sections in an attempt to clarify my thoughts.

WRITING
Decent in the micro, but sloppy in the macro. Some good dialogue, but overall the plotting needed so much tightening up.

CHARACTERS
The two main characters were multifaceted—likable but flawed. Their voices felt distinct, and their alternating POVs helped flesh out the story. They both underwent some great character growth. Some of the side characters could've used a bit more exploration—Luke's family and Alexei in particular. And other characters were extraneous and unnecessary. Katya and Natalya? Probably could've been cut. Max (whose name I had to look up because I forgot it)? Absolutely should have been cut. Removing some of these characters and storylines would've helped increase the impact of other, more important storylines.

ROMANCE
Cute and pretty realistic, actually. This relationship could have very easily fallen into so many fantasy romance tropes, but it impressively avoided most of them, and the ones it dabbled in were done with a refreshingly light-handed touch. Even the “true love's kiss to break a spell” trope, which was very much part of this relationship, was handled with nuance and a sort of satirical questioning of the trope itself.

PLOT
Messy. This is where the most cleaning up needed to happen. Like I mentioned before, there were just so many storylines happening at once, that the less important ones ended up detracting from the really important ones. I think it could've been paced much better too, so that information was revealed in a more natural, consistent way, rather than in huge chunks in a few places.

WORLD-BUILDING
I wanted so much more from the world-building. I love love love magic in modern settings, and I just wanted to know everything. But even though this book was so much about magic, and spells, and reversing those spells, I never really felt that I understood the rules of magic in this world. Again, I think this was just another symptom of too much going on, and the narrative being stretched too thin and trying to do so many things, that it wasn't able to deep dive into the parts of the story that I was really interested in.

This was a book full of great ideas and unique concepts, but in the end it was just too ambitious, especially for a debut. I'll keep an eye out for Melissa Eastlake's books in the future though, because I do think if she manages to bring a little more focus to her writing, she could create something really special.