https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/07/2023089-cost-of-all-things-maggie-lerman.... ( )

I am having an extreme book hangover from this intricately weaved novel. I am still shaking my head and my jaw may have broken from how far open it fell.

This world is almost completely like ours, except that hekamists can berform magic. I love that instead of taking over the world, the hekame (magic) simply adds to the world we're already used to. Instead of having to suspend my disbelief to truly understand what kind of world has been created, I get to see a regular world with just a little magical element. Of course, I wish there had been a little bit more on the politics of hekame--covens had recently been outlawed and all hekamists were facing a lot of discrimination.

Lehrman throws us into her story with very little set up or warning, which left me on my toes throughout the book. I hadn't read the blurb, so when I found out in the last sentence of chapter one that Win was dead, I was shocked. The plot of this novel is much more intricate and complex than I thought, with mysteries from ten years that I thought closed eventually all coming together to be solved.

I was really impressed by how Lehrman portrayed depression and mental health. In a character who seemingly has it all, depression to an outsider can seem very fake. The way she wrote about this person was accurate and I related immensely to the feelings that were portrayed.

The mix of characters in this book was really interesting. I adored how it was written from four different character's perspectives and how we saw them each uniquely meeting certain people and experiencing different events. There was enough overlap in the telling of events to see how each occurrence affected each person differently without making it redundant or boring.

Ari felt most like the main character, and to me had the most depth while at the same time feeling the most shallow. There was an intriguing contrast between Ari before the spell and Ari after the spell, and seeing her try to reconcile these two selfs was tough.
Diana and Kay additionally brought two more sides to the scene. Often in literature groups of friends will feel very 2D, but these two girls had their own sets of issues they were dealing with and looked at Ari's situation from a new perspective.

This book threw an entirely new meaning to consequences and gave me a new perspective on the butterfly effect, how one decision can change everything. Though not a mystery or a romance, it had aspects of each enough to create a captivating and spellbinding tale. ( )

This page-turner had a bunch of catnip for me: a real-world setting with a bit of well-thought-out grounded magic (in this case, witches who cast small spells with unspooling consequences); a nonlinear structure that builds in to the climax from before and after; an unreliable narrator (in this case because she had a memory spell cast on herself). It asks some of my favorite questions, too: about unintended consequences, and what you gain or lose as a person from experiencing trauma and processing it. It reminded me very much of [b:We Were Liars|16143347|We Were Liars|E. Lockhart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402749479s/16143347.jpg|21975829], which I also couldn't put down, but I think this holds together better and is ultimately more interesting.

It's about older high school students, but there's nothing in it that would keep me from recommending it to strong readers in 7th or 8th grade. Will add to my library! ( )

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets We Were Liars?



2015 Reading Challenge #39: A book with magic.

1,5 ESTRELLAS.

Yo soy una de esas relativamente escasas personas que AMÓ [b:We Were Liars|16143347|We Were Liars|E. Lockhart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402749479s/16143347.jpg|21975829], y una mas entre los millones de personas que aman Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, así que cuando leí la sinopsis supe que iba a leer este libro, y supe también que lo odiaría o lo amaría. Gano el odio.

[b:The Cost of All Things|22999153|The Cost of All Things|Maggie Lehrman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413576505s/22999153.jpg|42563910] comienza muy bien, con una primera escena que causa impacto y da ganas de seguir leyendo; Win, el novio de Ari, acaba de morir en circunstancias misteriosas, y Ari va a que una hekamista (que es básicamente una bruja) para que le prepare un hechizo para olvidarlo. Sin embargo, el hechizo viene con efectos colaterales capaces de cambiar la vida de Ari para siempre.



A partir de allí comienzan a entrelazarse cuatro POV: el de Ari, Win, Kay y Markos; cada uno con sus propios secretos, sus propios hechizos. Los POV ocurren en distintos espacios temporales que intentan ir revelando el misterio poco a poco. Todo genial hasta allí. Lamentablemente, pronto me di cuenta que TODOS los personajes son un asco. Seres egoístas y desdibujados, caparazones huecos con personalidades estereotipadas. Que no me provocaron ningún sentimiento, excepto aburrimiento.

Cuando iba ya por la tercera parte del libro y aun no pasaba NADA, me forcé a seguir leyendo únicamente por esa sinopsis que prometía una mezcla entre Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind y We Were Liars. Me imaginaba que iba a encontrarme con un final sorprendente capaz de redimir la historia.



El final es melodramático, ridículo e igual hueco que los personajes:
•El misterio, resulta que no es ningún misterio. Es solo algo común y corriente que la autora decide guardarse hasta las ultimas paginas.
•La similitud con Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comienza y acaba con el hecho de que Ari olvida a Win.
•¿Y la similitud con We Were Liars? Nunca la vi. ¿Acaso los publicistas decidieron que decir que era similar a We Were Liars por el simple hecho de que hay un incendio? ¿No se dan cuenta de la mala idea que es crear falsas expectativas en los lectores si no son capaces de cumplirlas?

Antes, tenía tantas ganas de amar este libro. Ahora, tengo tantas ganas de olvidar que existe y que lo leí.

( )

The right spell can fix anything. This book introduced the idea of hekamists; people who can create potions or cook up a spell to cure your problems. Ari's boyfriend, Win, dies, and she decides she wants a spell to wipe all memory of him from her brain.The book jacket summary was inaccurate because it says that Ari's spell sets off a chain of events, but what you find out is that there were spells in place before Ari's spell and they were what caused the complications. Due to the mature topics and profanity in the book, I wouldn't recommend it for middle school readers. Provocative idea - to be able to buy a spell to fix your problems, but I just didn't like the way the story unfolded. ( )