Book Review: A Kind of Magic by Ryder Phoenix (Rainbow Reflections #1)

 

I don't often get to review the final product of a book I beta read, but that's certainly the case over here. So let's have a look at the final product of this one, shall we? This is the first book in the Rainbow Reflections series, A Kind of Magic. Spoilers ahead.

We follow three characters as our leads. There's Sarala, with a mysterious past, and the adopted twins Zyn and Ren. Together they now face the mysteries of spirits and magic as their first year of magic school starts.

This was definitely a fun and lighthearted read, especially compared to Phoenix's earlier books. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and worldbuilding, though much of the latter is still left (presumably intentionally as this is the first installment) vague or up to interpretation. 

The characters I mostly enjoyed. Some of my favorites were Sarala and Zyn, whom I both related to. Zyn's transgender journey especially hit home in some parts. That said, this book does contain scenes of extreme dysphoria for said character, so if you feel uncomfortable reading that, here's your trigger warning. I do think that Ren could use some more development, though, especially as our third lead she felt a bit like a blank slate over here, though she does have her moments and her relationship with Sarala was fun to read.

If I do have some criticisms for this book, it's probably the lack of a plot. There is a mystery that is being built up throughout the book, but the characters themselves do very little to do with the mystery until around the climax. For them, it's mostly just them going through their character arcs and moments and not really building towards anything bigger of themselves. Ak-tu does do some research into the mystery, but he's not one of the mains and doesn't have a lot of chapters, so it feels a bit added on and not like the plot was being properly built up throughout the entirety of the book.

I was also distracted by the references to song lyrics. It just really takes me out of this world that is different from our own when we're being reminded of popular songs from ours. Zyn is also referred to inconsistently in the earlier chapters, with sometimes Zyn being used by the narrator but other times their full name (Zynivus). I get it for the first occasion, but it happened a couple of times.

But overall I definitely enjoyed this book and look forward to the next book in the series. This is definitely a series you should look into if you want LGBT+ representation and wizardry. 

Rating: 4.25/5