Review: Allison Saft’s A FAR WILDER MAGIC.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

The cover of A Far Wilder Magic just gets right to the core of my fairy / woodland / magical-loving heart & the book itself—with its mix of whimsy & fright, possibility & heartache—is something to appreciate.

Margaret is an outcast in her small town & she’s frequently abandoned by her alchemist mother, who’s obsessed with her research. Her family is gone & her day to day is keeping things together in the hopes of pleasing her mother. Changing her.

Then hopeful-alchemist & charmer Weston Winters—who makes use of that flighty, irresistible charm to get what he wants—appears on Margaret’s doorstep, wanting to serve as her mother’s alchemy apprentice.

She tells him her mother should be home soon, a lie told with some positive intention & some selfish, because she’s decided to join the notorious, often deadly hunt for the hala, a mythical beast who is actually terrorizing their community, & she needs an alchemist like Weston.

Forced proximity, opposites attract with some deep baggage thrown in? What could possibly go wrong…or right?

This YA fantasy with romantic elements will be emotionally resonant for many, I think. It’s a story about two people who are often treated as outsiders bc of where their families are from & the faith they practiced/practice. It’s a story about imperfect people carrying around a lot of pain who aren’t “fixed” by their growing feelings for the other. Their pain isn’t totally erased & they still have uncertainty for the future. But there’s a lot of hope.

I really enjoyed this one.

4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 03/08


CWs: xenophobia that ultimately turns violent; gory story.

[ID: an ebook copy rests on a long, mint green textured dress. All items are on a dark brown floor.]