Did I enjoy this book?
Very much so.

Do I recommend it?
Yes, especially if you like action books!

This is one of those books that grabs you by the lapels and drags you along with it and I loved that. The characters are very well written and so likable. It was nice to see a book with a mother and son narration. I liked the setting and the world building. I also enjoyed the social commentary. The action was impactful and made the book unputdownable. The opening does this particularly well, giving the reader emotional whiplash in the best way. This is an excellent gritty urban fantasy and I can’t wait to read more!


Any criticisms?
I wanted more depth with the magical system. It might be done deliberately but I just wanted to know more.

Will I read it again?
Yes, I think I will.

Will I read the sequel?
I really hope there is going to be a sequel!

For fans of:
Supercell
The Girl who could move sh*t with her mind
The City We Became
Rivers of London

‘Trick or Treat? You decide Force-fed sweets mixed with lies.’

Lucid, the debut novel of Oriane Johnson, is a solid beginning to a writing career. Wonder and awe are sprinkled throughout this book to accompany a subtle murder mystery and coming of age story. Set in a alternate Birmingham the world building enhances that which you already know, or helps you build it from the ground up if you have never been.

Joseph and Elizabeth are the main POV characters in the book, a mother and son duo who I would die for, swapping you between the fantastical eyes of a teenager to the blind eyes of a adult. Such a dichotomy between University student and veteran police office is very interesting. This is enhanced as the characters find a way to change and adapt through the book without ever leaving you questioning the choices or the growth of the characters.

Multiple plot points are woven through the book, following alongside others or veering off into a separate direction altogether, leaving you guessing at what could possibly come next. Honestly my only gripe with the book is that a multiple plot points that had time invested into them didn’t ever come to fruition, they lay now as foundations for future books, but left the ending falling a little behind where I personally thought it could have been.

A solid book on all accounts and an incredible debut. Where do I sign up for the next installment?

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. I liked this overall, it has an intriguing premise but I found the first half quite slow going in terms of pacing. There were also sections which I found hard to follow. It did improve in the second half and I liked the divergent POV's and how they came together. I would recommend this for fans of urban fantasy.

There was a lot like that I liked about this book. The imaginative slightly-futuristic Birmingham (a city I'm familiar with in the present day), the multicultural and very grounded cast, the sense of post-pandemic realness that was truly well thought-out... I found myself turning the pages, intrigued to see where the story went.

Sadly I soon found myself pulled out of key moments because of the language. So many words meant nothing to me, and didn't even come up on a quick Google search. Is this a 'Clockwork Orange' Nadsat technique, to indicate the slang of the 'youth of today' in the world of the book? I'm not sure, but all is did was made me feel as if I - as a middle-aged white woman - wasn't the intended audience. Some of it is (perhaps?) contemporary slang, or it could be part of Future-Brum, but while I could gauge meaning from context, it distanced me from the action and left me frustrated.

A good book for a younger audience, to my disappointment.