The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry is a coming-of-age historical fantasy novel with a heavy dose of Celtic mythology and magic (4.25/5 stars)

The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry is a coming-of-age historical fantasy novel with a heavy dose of Celtic mythology and magic. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at a little over fifteen hours and is narrated by Rose McPhilemy.

In an alternate 1912, Biddy has lived on Hy-Brasil–the legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic–with her guardian, Rowan for as long as she can remember. With her seventeenth birthday on the horizon, Biddy finds she must finally leave the island to rescue her guardian after he fails to return home after one of his mysterious nighttime travels.

This was a lovely read and is one of those rare books that feels like a warm hug to me. Though shelved as an adult novel, it leans a bit YA or New Adult. Biddy is a wonderful main character who actually acts her age. I appreciated that she loved reading and made references to characters she’d read about. I saw a lot of myself in her.

The book is overall well written, and the author has a particularly good hand at writing the setting to make it easy for me to imagine in my head. The first half may feel a bit slow to some readers, but the back half definitely picks up the pace.

I really enjoyed the exploration of the relationship between a mage and his familiar in this book as well, as it isn’t something I see very often in fantasy books. Hutch is amazing and I would protect him with my life.

The character of Morgaine provided an undercurrent of feminism throughout the book, as she appears to be the sole woman in a very male-dominated field, trying to create change from within.

We get a lot more time with our secondary antagonist than our primary one. I think the primary antagonist would have felt more scary if he was more developed.

CW: abduction, torture

I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

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