Search - Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic Book)

Utterly fascinating. What Wrede did for Victorian England with her "Magic & Malice" duology, she does here for the Frontiers of the United States in the mid to late 1800's.

It was like reading Caddy Woodlawn and Laura Ingals Wilder, with more danger and magic. Focusing on Eff, the 13th child, and twin to a 7th son of a 7th son, it explores a slightly alternate frontier world than ours. Wrede takes care of the whole Pioneer/Indian thing by not having Indians at all. She makes the Frontier such a completely hostile place that people cannot live there without the aid of magicians and large communities to support each other.

This book follows Eff growing up from 4-18 and the challenges she faces as a 13th child AND the sibling of a Double7 son. Lots of small town/family politics, exploration of magical systems [Wrede wisely lets magic be non-boxed] and the minutiae of living in a hostile environment. Really looking forward to the rest of this series as it comes out.

This was surprisingly good. Though I really shouldn't be surprised as everything I've read by Patricia Wrede has been excellent. This is the first book of a new series involving magic and magical creatures in the old US while mammoths and wholly rhinoceroses roamed.

Eff Rothmer and her family moved to the Frontier when her uncle called the police on her to have her arrested (at 5 years old) because she was a potential danger to the family. As the thirteenth child, her life was viewed as cursed by everyone and she was taught (by ill-meaning relatives - but not her immediately family - and neighbors alike) that she would eventually go bad, evil that is. It's a tough way for a 5 year old to grow up. At 9 she was terrified to make friends in her new school for fear of bringing them down with her when she went bad. She was a mostly lonely child though she did have one good friend, William Graham. Her family has magic and her father teaches at the college in town. Her twin brother, Lan is the seventh son of a seventh son so he is super magical and gets all the positive attention while Eff gets all the negative since as the thirteenth child she is the bringer of doom and gloom. This book chronicles her upbringing from elementary school until she graduated high school (though they weren't called that at the time).

The difficulty of living in the Frontier is the constant fear of the wild creatures entering the city and killing the settlers. The Great Barrier (a magical shield) keeps the wild creatures - steam dragons, sphinxes, mammoths, rhinos, bison, etc - from the city but someone must always maintain the magic. With or without the danger, people are always trying to move westward. As kids graduate, they marry and join settlements that are going further west. Eff has no romantic prospects but she has decided to be a naturalist like Wash and travel to the west protecting the settlers. But that is another story, book 2 in fact, The Great Barrier. I really enjoyed this coming of age story and will continue with Eff, Lan and William's adventures in the wild west.

Reviewed by Andrea for TeensReadToo.com

Eff was born the thirteenth child. She grew up hearing stories about how the "Thirteenth Child" is supposed to have great talent but bring great danger and despair to everyone around her.

Her twin, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son, or a double-seven, and is supposed to have great magical talent, in a good way, and luck that makes everyone in awe of him.

This story tells of their growing up, from Eff's point of view, and the challenges they face.

This story started off really well. I loved reading about Eff, Lan, and their magic. I liked reading about how they grew up and how much magic was involved in their lives. But then towards the end it started talking about these bugs that sucked up the magic, and that was the whole plot of the story at the end.

It kind of turned me off to the story, but overall it was well-written and something different in the YA fantasy world.