Review: Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

Magic to the Bone is Devon Monk’s debut novel, the first in an urban fantasy series featuring Allie Beckstrom.

In Allie’s world, magic is real, and it’s a commodity. The city of Portland has been piped for magic, with steel and glass set into the city’s infrastructure to store and act as a conduit for magic. The use of magic has a price – a magic act could be paid for with illness, or, in cases of heavier use, loss of memory. This price can be offloaded onto someone else, an act that is strictly regulated.

Allie is a Hound, one skilled in the art of tracing magic back to its owner through their signature. She is called into a case where someone has offloaded the magic price onto a young boy, a case that turns bad when the signature turns out to be the last person she wants to see.

Many of the tropes associated with urban fantasy are here – the romantic subplot, the protagonist who seems at times to be better than everyone else, the light and conversational tone. The beginning of the book is somewhat difficult to get into, and the story often gets bogged down the repetition of the rules of magic use. The romantic subplot also feels forced at the beginning, with no real basis for the attraction (and even reason as to why it shouldn’t exist).

These issues become relatively minor as the book gets into the swing of the story. Allie is a likeable narrator (though possibly an unreliable one, something that it is hoped will be explored in later books), and Monk’s worldbuilding is original and interesting. It’s refreshing to see an addition to the genre that isn’t just another standard vampire or shapeshifter book and Monk shows a lot of talent. This is going to be an interesting series to watch as it develops, especially if it can manage to break free of the standard urban fantasy tropes and deliver something truly original.

Magic to the Bone is published by Roc.