Magic Under Glass

I picked this one up after all of the controversy in various kidlit blogs over another instance of Bloomsbury putting a white girl on the cover of a YA novel featuring a person of color. I’m glad to see that Bloomsbury will be re-releasing this with a more appropriate cover (incidentally, this is why I’m not featuring the current cover here in my review), although disappointed that they didn’t seem to have learned their lesson after what happened with Justine Larbalestier’s Liar.  As I said, there’s been a lot of discussion on this topic already, and there’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said.  I’d point everyone to Colleen Mondor over at Chasing Ray, among many others, for a good discussion of the issue.

That said, here’s my quick review of Magic Under Glass itself.  I imagine this one will really appeal to a lot of teen fans of the historical fantasy and even steampunk genres.  I liked the twist on Jane Eyre and gothic romances, and Nimira is a great and well-depicted character.  I do think that this book was too short, and a lot was left underdeveloped. Specifically, the romance between Nimira and Ennis, the clockwork man. Everything happened far too quickly for me to really get a feel for the connection between these two characters.  I was also left wanting to know a lot more about the world that the story is set in than we got.  That said, it was an enjoyable read, and as it looks like the story’s been set up for a sequel, I’m looking forward to reading it.

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