To Astera, With Love by Amanda Ross is a brutally honest, fantastical reflection of the real America.
Set in 2022, Mercury is a witch who finds himself toeing the limits on what society has deemed permissible for his kind. Doing the right thing sends him and his friends on a terrifying journey for their lives: which is on the receiving end of revenge from a vigilante psychopathic vampire and his cronies.
The vampires of this book are absolutely vicious and commit many violent, trigger warning-worthy atrocities. The same sort of violence that white supremacists during the Jim Crow Era (and beyond) perpetrate against Black folks. If you can handle the disturbing violence, you’ll find this book to be an interesting allegory of race relations in America.
To Astera, With Love, alternated Mercury’s story with journalistic op-eds that give us context to the happenings beyond Mercury’s individual experience. I found the writing style in the op-eds sections to be punchy, irreverent, and interesting. It was a nice, yet informative contrast to Mercury’s story.
I’m very picky about the urban fantasy I read. I like action and I want to see what the characters can do, and see how their magic develops and strengthens over time. I like the writing to be straightforward and clear—accessible if you will—so I can enjoy the ride, rather than try to remember obscure details about how the magic system works. This book marks all my checkboxes.
Amanda Ross does a great job building a magic system that is in sync with the modern world and she effortlessly weaves it into the story. The magic system is interesting and doesn’t get bogged down in spell research, potion making or other things that don’t interest me. Honestly, the magic system is pretty badass. If a tattoo could imbue magical powers in real life, I’d be the first in line to get one. She lets her character’s powers shine and I can’t say more without spoiling anything, but I want to see how magic is used in the upcoming sequel.
As for character development, I especially enjoyed the dynamics between Mercury, Sloane, Griffin, Joelle and Ellis. The five friends are fun and I enjoyed their banter and conflicts. Also, I can see parallels with my own life in the cross-cultural/racial friendship between Mercury and Ellis.
Overall, the story is action-packed and I devoured the entire book in a couple of days. However, It slowed down a bit with the last news-style opinion piece and the ending wasn’t quite what I expected…However, I’m down to ride with the crew in the sequel.
I especially recommend this indie title to people who love urban fantasy, satire, seeing America through a fictional(ish) lens, fans of the Sookie Stackhouse novels/True Blood (before the weird Lilith stuff), and fans of Patricia Briggs’s books in the Mercy Thompson universe.
4/5 stars
