TITLE: Will Do Magic for Small Change
AUTHOR: Andrea Hairston
464 pages, TorDotCom Publishing, ISBN 9781250808738 (hardcover; also e-book and audio)
MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5
SHORT REVIEW: In Will Do Magic for Small Change, Andrea Hairston weaves strands of story across two centuries into a beautiful, occasionally heartbreaking but ultimately joyful, tapestry about the transformative powers of love and art and about how we break each other and help each other heal. Hairston does not shy away from the uncomfortable details of racism, homophobia, suicide, abuse (physical and emotional). Violence is at the core of the book, each time frame’s action incited by the death of a loved one. Because of this, Will Do Magic for Small Change is not always an easy read. The book is not all doom-and-gloom, though. It centers joy – from the blush of first love to the comfort of family and friends who truly love you, faults and all. And the moments of honest reconnection and reconciliation after misunderstandings are cleared up and secrets are shared are some of the most powerful and affecting in the book. Also powerful are the scenes where characters get lost in making their art. Will Do Magic for Small Change moved me through the full range of emotions – joy, grief, anger, love – in equal measure and sometimes all at once. It’s a challenging and fulfilling read.
LONGER REVIEW: In Will Do Magic for Small Change, Andrea Hairston weaves strands of story across two centuries into a beautiful, occasionally heartbreaking but ultimately joyful, tapestry about the transformative powers of love and art and about how we break each other and help each other heal.
In 1987, teenager Cinnamon Jones’ life is upended by multiple tragedies and their aftermaths: her father Raven Cooper is shot and falls into a coma, her older half-brother Sekou dies, and her mother Opal struggles to hold herself together and care for her daughter. Her mother’s family are mostly judgmental and not helpful, her father’s family initially too far away to be of help. Cinnamon’s only source of comfort is a magical book left to her by Sekou, “The Chronicles of the Wanderer.” This book chronicles the adventures of a Dahomean warrior woman, Kehinde, and the alien Wanderer who accompanies her, in the 1800s. Somehow, the book connects to Cinnamon’s family history. Hairston skillfully alternates between the two timeframes, neither rushing the reveal of how everything is connected nor pretending there is no connection. The shifts in time are not just indicated by chapter breaks, but also by the way in which new pages of the book reveal themselves to Cinnamon, her closest friends, and her father’s family (whom Cinnamon refers to as “the Elders”).
The characters in both time frames are living rough lives. Kehinde and the Wanderer are searching for someone named Somso across war-torn Dahomey while being hunted themselves, often subsisting just off the land. Cinnamon is searching for answers to questions about her father’s injury and brother’s death while she and Opal are living in increasingly squalid poverty-level conditions in the midst of the worst winter storm Pittsburgh has seen in decades. The pain in all their lives is palpable throughout the book. Hairston does not shy away from the uncomfortable details of racism, homophobia, suicide, abuse (physical and emotional). Violence is at the core of the book, each time frame’s action incited by the death of a loved one. Because of this, Will Do Magic for Small Change is not always an easy read.
The book is not all doom-and-gloom, though. It centers joy – from the blush of first love to the comfort of family and friends who truly love you, faults and all. Those same family members can be infuriating and secretive and inconsistent. Sometimes, the people who love you break you – but they might also be the ones who help you heal. And the moments of honest reconnection and reconciliation after misunderstandings are cleared up and secrets are shared are some of the most powerful and affecting in the book.
Also powerful are the scenes where characters get lost in making their art, which ranges from painting to music to acting to cooking. Almost every major character, and a good number of the supporting cast, find strength, solace, or both, in the art they create or partake of. Tradition also plays a strong role, but in Hairston’s world traditions are a foundation to be built off of rather than an immutable set of rules to be obeyed.
Will Do Magic for Small Change moved me through the full range of emotions – joy, grief, anger, love – in equal measure and sometimes all at once. It’s a challenging and fulfilling read.
I received and read an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Will Do Magic for Small Change released in hardcover on October 11, 2022.