Industrial Magic – Book Review

This was a real rollercoaster. One could definitely argue that I was too invested, as this book lead me to some rather personal questions about my deepest, truest fears about death and independence.

Spoiler-free Summary of Industrial Magic

For readers looking for another story about a young woman and her ward, Industrial Magic won’t satisfy your needs. Savannah takes a back seat in this book, and is off-screen for most of it.

Instead, the book focuses on Paige and Lucas’ blossoming relationship during a dark time for American supernaturals. A serial killer is on the loose, and their latest victims are young witches and sorcerers. Paige and Lucas soon resolve to solve the mystery and start pulling in favours across the supernatural community.

In this book, expect a deepening of the romance between Paige and Lucas, a spooky serial killer, and more lore on Armstrong’s supernatural races.

Major spoilers for Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic from here on for the full review!

Rising Like a Phoenix

I’ve (finally) realised that I don’t like tragedies. I read for escape and entertainment, so when Industrial Magic teased the death of a major character, I was very unimpressed, and even proclaimed (aloud, angrily) that I regretted starting the book. I genuinely believed I’d made a mistake in reading it, and that I should have prolonged the wait between Dime Store Magic and this one.

Fast forward fifty pages, and everything is set right again. Our good guys are happy, safe, and still driven to chase and capture the bad guy. Perfect. Even better, a masquerade ball is on the cards and I’m positively giggling about how happy this turn of events has made me.

Cut to me writing this review, and analysing all this, and remembering the last time a beloved book killed off its male lead only to go ahead and kill the female lead too. I was fuming. Incandescent. I still haven’t forgiven it—which is ridiculous. Without the capacity for good characters to truly die, plots lack gravitas.

It turns out that perhaps I don’t want gravitas from a lot of my epic fantasy. I want a happy ending. I want an escape from the mundanity of office life and all its anxieties—I don’t want to be reminded of my greatest fear, death of a close loved one, so I was more than happy when that wasn’t the case in Industrial Magic.

Readers with greater mental stability than I, or a better approach to death, might find Lucas’ return to be cheesy and unearned. That sucks, but for me, I’m very relieved. True love wins, yet again!

Family Issues

This book is narrated by Paige, but in many ways, the story is Lucas’. He’s on a mission to talk to Paige about their future, while at the same time, his past is catching up to him.

Benicio is determined to win back his favourite son, and although Lucas is loathe to return to family politics, he discovers that moving forward requires a few steps back.

Benicio is a well-written parent. He’s believably overbearing, which makes Lucas’ estrangement quickly understandable. By the finale, I’m fully rooting for the heroes and empathetic for Lucas’ torment regarding the safety of his father.

At least Savannah is fairly easy in this book!

Relationships vs Independence

This is the rollercoaster that had me screaming. It’s so obvious to the reader that Lucas is trying to gauge whether Paige wants a deeper commitment, and she slides away from his questions every time, leaving Lucas feeling more and more confused.

A very gracious partner, Lucas doesn’t point out the mixed signals that Paige has been giving when they finally talk it out.

“He pressed his forefinger to my lips. “No, my resolve is to see this conversation through to the end, saying what I want to say without backing down for fear of frightening you off with a proposal that may impose upon your need for independence.”

P.458

It’s usually the male depicted as avoiding commitment, so it’s been nice to see Paige filling this role in these two books. The narration didn’t really hang on it, though as a reader, I’m certainly curious about the root of her avoidance. Unfortunately, I know this is the last book from Paige’s perspective, so it’s a story I don’t expect to see told.

I Need More!

Much like Armstrong’s The Darkest Power’s trilogy, I’m not finished with Paige and Lucas’ story. I want to know if Lucas’ reestablished relationship with Benicio goes well, how Lucas’ eventual proposal will take place, and whether Paige can really focus her efforts or continue to spread herself thin across her various goals (relatable). Perhaps I’ll get a bit of that when Savannah is old enough to narrate her own book, later in the series.

Final Thoughts

Next up in the series is Haunted, featuring a new protagonist and narrator. I’m guessing we’re going to see more about necromancy, but I could be wrong!

Either way, I’ll be taking a break from Kelley Armstrong to sink into Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings with the Liveship Traders trilogy and another strong, female lead.

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