"The Last Magician" by Lisa Maxwell

I read Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell last year and really enjoyed her writing. So when I saw her newest novel at my local library, I was immediately interested. This is a YA fantasy novel that includes time travel, several heists, lots of characters with questionable morals, and various cons and deceptions.

Our main character Esta is a thief who lives in modern day New York and has the magical ability (or "affinity") to slow down time around her such that to a casual observer she can simply vanish out of sight or move through space very quickly. With the help of a magical cuff, she is also able to travel through time. I should mention that Manhattan is surrounded by a magical force of sorts called the Brink which people with magical abilities (called Mageus) cannot cross without irrevocable damage to their powers or even death. The Brink had been created by a powerful underground Order whose sole purpose appears to be hunting and eliminating all Mageus and harnessing magical powers through alchemy and other pseudo-scientific methods. Esta's latest and most important task is to travel to 1902 and steal a book that contains the secrets to bringing the Brink down and thus liberating the Mageus trapped in New York.

The narrative (especially in the beginning) shifts between various time periods and is presented from several different points of view. For the first 50 to 70 pages or so, it was quite confusing. However, once Esta arrives in 1902, the novel is much easier to follow and the number of POVs also becomes limited at that point. Overall, the plot is quite interesting, the characters are complex, and the book is filled with intricate plot twists. I also quite enjoyed the relationship between Harte and Esta. I just wish we got to see more of them together.

My only complaint about the book (and the reason for a 4 star rating) is that the Order and the Brink are not very well explained. If Manhattan is surrounded by the Brink and keeps the Mageus trapped inside, why does it only work one way since Mageus seem to be able to arrive in Manhattan just fine? What is the order doing with the Mageus that they kidnap? Nothing is explained about the experiments that are performed in the Mysterium. At 500 pages, the novel is quite chunky and instead of piling up layer upon layer of cons and deceptions, I think she should have spent a bit more time developing the world and explaining the magic system.

I understand this might not be a stand-alone. The ending is certainly very open and begs for a sequel. However, I am not sure I will be able to retain a lot of detail from this book to jump into a sequel a year from now. So this is likely going to be the only novel I read in this series. 4 out of 5 stars.