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jpskewedthroneThis is the first book of Laura Resnick's that I've read and is the first book in her Esther Diamond urban fantasy series. The premise: Esther is a struggling actor in NYC but has a small part in a musical built around a magician's act. In the final scene, the magician makes one of the main characters in the muscial "vanish." The actors have rehearsed the scene an uncountable number of times, and have been performing it for weeks . . . but one night, Golly Gee, the lead, literally vanishes and the magician can't bring her back.
Esther is ecstatic, because that means SHE gets the lead, but soon she begins to get warnings not to do the vanishing act. Terrified, she begins to investigate Golly Gee's disappearance and discovers that Golly Gee isn't the only magician's sidekick to have vanished recently. The deeper she looks, the more she learns about the magical world around her that she's never seen. Real magic, not the illusions magician's ply on stage. And unless she wants to risk her entire career, she needs to find out who . . . or what . . . is causing people to disappear during magic acts, or she may be the next victim.
The set-up is cool and the writing really captures and drew me into the novel. I enjoyed Esther's character and loved the fact that Esther herself doesn't have any magical powers that make her special in any way. She's exactly what she's portrayed to be: an actor who'd like to keep her job and not get killed. There's also some romance elements woven into the plot and, while generally I'm not really reading for this, I thought this romance was well done. I didn't feel the need to skip pages or paragraphs and was actually interested in the romance plotline because it struck me as realistic, not overdone.
My main complaint about the book is that there was a lull in the middle of the book where it felt as if the plot had stalled out. This is the section where the slew of interesting characters Esther has somehow gathered together to help her are trying to research what's happened to the vanished people in their lives. Having the characters hit a wall and not know where to go next or what to do is fine, but this dragged on too long in my opinion, and I wasn't interested in the many wrong possibilities that were "discovered" by their research. Too much time was spent on this part.
Also, while the tone of the novel was fun and fast-paced and, yes, a little over the top like Esther's character, I thought the events at the end of the novel were just a little TOO over the top.
In the end, a very fun read. Fast-paced, with a ton of interesting characters, most of whom I hope appear in the next book. And I'll definitely be reading the next book, because even though I pointed out a few "issues" I had with the book, they were far outweighed by the sheer fun of the adventure.
Just FYI, the version of the book I have was published by LUNA and is no longer readily available. However, DAW Books will be re-releasing Disappearing Nightly in paperback this coming June. Preorder your copy today!
Esther is ecstatic, because that means SHE gets the lead, but soon she begins to get warnings not to do the vanishing act. Terrified, she begins to investigate Golly Gee's disappearance and discovers that Golly Gee isn't the only magician's sidekick to have vanished recently. The deeper she looks, the more she learns about the magical world around her that she's never seen. Real magic, not the illusions magician's ply on stage. And unless she wants to risk her entire career, she needs to find out who . . . or what . . . is causing people to disappear during magic acts, or she may be the next victim.
The set-up is cool and the writing really captures and drew me into the novel. I enjoyed Esther's character and loved the fact that Esther herself doesn't have any magical powers that make her special in any way. She's exactly what she's portrayed to be: an actor who'd like to keep her job and not get killed. There's also some romance elements woven into the plot and, while generally I'm not really reading for this, I thought this romance was well done. I didn't feel the need to skip pages or paragraphs and was actually interested in the romance plotline because it struck me as realistic, not overdone.
My main complaint about the book is that there was a lull in the middle of the book where it felt as if the plot had stalled out. This is the section where the slew of interesting characters Esther has somehow gathered together to help her are trying to research what's happened to the vanished people in their lives. Having the characters hit a wall and not know where to go next or what to do is fine, but this dragged on too long in my opinion, and I wasn't interested in the many wrong possibilities that were "discovered" by their research. Too much time was spent on this part.
Also, while the tone of the novel was fun and fast-paced and, yes, a little over the top like Esther's character, I thought the events at the end of the novel were just a little TOO over the top.
In the end, a very fun read. Fast-paced, with a ton of interesting characters, most of whom I hope appear in the next book. And I'll definitely be reading the next book, because even though I pointed out a few "issues" I had with the book, they were far outweighed by the sheer fun of the adventure.
Just FYI, the version of the book I have was published by LUNA and is no longer readily available. However, DAW Books will be re-releasing Disappearing Nightly in paperback this coming June. Preorder your copy today!
