Del Rey
Hardcover. 464 pages.
Mary Anning wants to be a geomagician—a paleontologist who uses fossils to wield magic—but since the Geomagical Society of London refuses to admit women, she’s stuck selling her discoveries to tourists instead. When an ancient egg hatches in her hands, revealing a loveable baby pterodactyl Mary names Ajax, she knows this is the kind of scientific find that could make her career—if she’s strategic.
Mary contacts the Society about her discovery, and they demand to take possession of Ajax. Their emissary is none other than Henry Stanton, a distinguished (and infuriatingly handsome) scholar... and the man who once broke Mary's heart.
Henry claims he believes in the brilliant Mary, and that he only wants to help her obtain the respect she deserves. She knows she can't trust her fellow scholars, who want to discredit her and claim Ajax for their own—but can she even trust Henry, who seems intent on winning Mary back?
Now Mary has a new mystery to solve that's buried deeper than any dinosaur She must uncover the secrets behind the Society and the truth about Henry. As her conscience begins to chafe against her ambition, Mary must decide what lengths she’s willing to go to finally belong—and what her heart really wants."
The Geomagician caught my eye for obviously reasons-- I mean, that cover is captivating, and a baby pterodactyl? I'm in!
I ended up having some pretty mixed feelings about it. I really liked certain aspects, but at the same time it often felt like I'd read something very similar before and that made it feel slightly repetitive and less exciting. It's a very solid story, but not one that necessarily stands out in this genre. Some elements felt a bit tired or overdone, but they were still executed well, which made it an overall generally enjoyable reading experience.
Mary is an incredibly driven and is determined to become a geomagician, and as a reader I appreciated her steadfastness to her goals and ambition. She is very intelligent and confident in her abilities, but she can also be a bit stubborn at times, which I think causes her some professional and interpersonal difficulties. She is someone who appears very caring and quick to fight for what feels right, such as women becoming geomagicians, but she remains somewhat single-minded in fighting for her own future rather than including others in that fight.
Despite her own struggles with poverty and the need to occasionally sell her magic to survive, she is somewhat ignorant of the larger systems at play around her, and that aspect is where things get a bit more interesting. Because of her own experiences struggling with money, she believes she generally understands how things work--and in many ways, she absolutely does--but she also has a large blind spot when it comes to how others around her struggle with similar things. Mary's circumstances, like most people's, are unique, and she has specific support systems in place that many others may not, even if she doesn't like to admit it. I actually think this book does a great job exploring that nuanced topic, and even though it makes Mary a bit frustrating at times, it really feels like something that is a real issue and obstacle that many people have to overcome when learning about other people's situations and struggles.
Mary's relationships were also a bit odd for me and never really made me feel like she had continuous close people around her she could always confide in. Her friendship with Lucy, in particular, was intriguing and frustrating at the same time. They are clearly very close and have been friends for many years, but I found it almost surprising how little Mary seemed to engage with or fully understand Lucy's involvement with some more revolutionary-leaning groups and ideas. She knows Lucy is involved, but she doesn't seem to want to dig deeper than that--and while I understand that, I also just feel like a friend would be more interested. Their arguments also sometimes felt a bit odd and unbalanced, and there would be large fights that were resolved quickly or simple in ways that didn't feel fully explored, and other times where small things seemed to have larger consequences than expected between them. And there were so many moments Mary seemed far too quick to dismiss Lucy when their views didn't align that just left me feeling confused about their friendship.
The Geomagician does a great job exploring themes of sexism and classism, and that's definitely one of its stronger elements. There's a lot of nuance in how it looks at power, opportunity, who gets access to knowledge, and many more things that I think it did really well. One thing that I didn't expect, though, was how much the story was framed against a backdrop of Christianity and faith throughout. This isn't a Christian story, but moreso it explores how the fossils and magical theories around them confront the Christian faith that was dominant in this story. I really just wasn't expecting this going in, and while it somewhat make sense in the world, it wasn't something that felt very fitting to me, and in fact I found it pulled me out of the story a bit every time it came up. I think based on the synopsis I was anticipating a slightly more overtly magical and speculative setting, so it just caught me off guard. It wasn't that it was bad, per say, just not something that I was prepared for.
I loved all of the fossils, dinosaurs, and paleontology talk we got--but honestly, I wanted more! I think there was a lot of it in the beginning of the story, which I loved, but as the story progressed it felt like we were moving on a bit from that as the main focus and began to lean more heavily into other areas of the story.
Because of this, I found the first portion of the book to be really strong and I was genuinely hooked early on and excited to see where things would go. However, as the story progressed, it seemed to shift more heavily into political and revolutionary elements that, although very important to the story and its themes, started to feel a bit overwhelming and almost overpowering to me. It wasn't really what I had come into this book expecting or wanting, and I found myself wishing we had stayed more focused on the elements that initially drew me in.
This is a book that does a lot of things well, especially in its exploration of themes and ideas. There's some really interesting nuance in some of the character work and how they interact with the societal and political struggles portrayed in the story. However, this just isn't a story that really stood out to me, and as previously mentioned, many aspects felt a bit familiar or overdone. I think readers who love this type of story or are newer to the genre will love it, as well as those who enjoy political and social themes, as they will get more out of the story. Unfortunately, I found myself wanting a bit more from this book, especially with the speculative and paleontology-focused elements.
Overall, through the positives and negatives, I think The Geomagician is a really solid read overall, and if you are someone who is intrigued by this synopsis, then I'd encourage you to still give a read because it might just click with you more than it has with me.
