Ruthless Magic ~ Megan Crewe (Conspiracy of Magic #1)

★★★★☆

I received this eARC from Another World Press on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.

He just saw how warped and wrong his Confed must be to have brought us here with their ruthless, brutal magic.

#RollCredits

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

The Writing and Worldbuilding

I have to admit, I was considering DNFing this, to the point where it basically convinced me that I don't actually really like urban fantasy all that much. The first 30% was actually quite dreadful, with confusing motivations, rushed exposition, and confusing worldbuilding--like how the magic system even worked in the first place--but once the Exam really picked up, it was smooth sailing from there on out and I was invested and intrigued.

Also, this is being compared to The Hunger Games, but honestly, besides that last challenge, it was way more like Ender's Game or Netflix's 3% in every regard.

The actual conspiracy of magic, though, was a little weird. I was pretty confused why the government was even allowing this kind of thing to even happen, especially because people knew that underage minors were dying in this magical government sanctioned competition. Why hasn't the Confed been sued yet? Some of this was kind of explained in the story, but it still kind of took me out of the world and made this whole thing seem really unrealistic.

The perspectives were often very confusing because there was little difference in the narrative voices of Finn and Rocío, the two POV characters, and the book was written in first person. I got lost a lot and had to go back and re-read just to see who was the perspective character at the moment several times.

The real-world insertion with the Twin Towers and the Middle Eastern terrorists kind of pissed me off, though it is really way more of a pet peeve than a problem with the book. I just hate real-world insertion in urban fantasy so much you don't even know.

Also, why the flip do they worship the Greek gods?? This is never explained, it just is, and it confused the heck out of me. If Crewe had made some connection to the sirens (which would have made sense given the magic system being sound-based), I would have understood to a degree, but she didn't.

Also, NOPE with that animal cruelty in the beginning part, like, um, who on earth would do that to make a point? A literal crazy person, that's who. Dude, I wouldn't trust her if I were you after witnessing her doing something like that just to make a point and then following it with:

"Could you use that weapon on another living being, Finn? Do you really want to become someone who has?"

Lady, you're someone who has.

The Characters

Note: My first impression of the introduction of Callum, Finn, Prisha, and Rocío was that the only boys were white and the only girls got all the diversity checkmarks, and that pissed me off, frankly. Later on, more diversity is introduced and it stopped feeling like Crewe was just writing stereotypes, but still.

Finn: He was honestly pretty funny, and his chill demeanor was honestly so great, because the kinds of jokes he made are the kinds of jokes I make, so I felt we were kindred spirits. His motivations for declaring were a little iffy at first, and his insta-love for Rocío was annoying, but I still really liked him.

Rocío: I feel like the beginning would have been much more powerful if she had been the focus of the first chapter, instead of Finn. While he really grew on me, the wit and charm he exhibited in the rest of the book didn't come across in that first chapter and it was just a load of exposition instead. Rocío, though, was very intriguing from the get-go. I loved her courage and her resolve, as well as her selfishness to the point of self-deprecation sometimes, despite her extreme level of power.

Prisha: She was the gay rep in the book and that was brought up like twice, but honestly, I appreciated that. It had nothing to do with the story and someone's sexuality doesn't define their entire character, so it was a breath of fresh air that she was just a normal person that so happened to also be gay. I was really worried when she was introduced that she would just end up being the literal gay best friend, but my fears were thankfully unfounded.

Desmond: I really liked Desmond. He was great and funny, with that knack for quoting his favorite media (which I do literally all the time because I'm a walking meme) so that was really appreciated.[I was confused as heck though about his eye-sight issues. Dude, just get glasses, it isn't a big deal. I have glasses and without them, I'd probably be blinder than you. Glasses aren't that big of a deal, and if you don't want people to know, contacts work too, and they even make some that you can sleep in and wear for several days at a time as long as you aren't allergic to the material or have other eye issues, which would have been ideal for the Exam. (hide spoiler)]

Judith and Mark: They were nice but I didn't really get attached to their characters much. Between the two, I liked Mark more though, despite his cheesy mohawk (who even has a mohawk any more??)

Lacey: What the flip was this girls problem? She was probably the most stereotypical character in this but I didn't mind too much, because it was interesting.

Callum: He was literally just the Cato of this book. Maybe that was where the Hunger Games connection was lol

Conclusion

Overall, I am glad I liked it by the end, even though it really pissed me off in the beginning. I found the action pretty good and the tests interesting, so I will probably continue this series.

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