In this dual timeline plot, present-day Cinnamon deals with teenaged life after the death of her beloved brother Sekou. She reads a book given to her by Sekou, which is a memoir following the life of an alien and his/her Dahomean warrior lover as they escape wartorn Dahomey Kingdom.

I really wanted to love this book. There was so much to love. The writing was lyrical – full of beautiful imagery. The plot was intriguing. But I guess I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. I suspect it’s not the fault of the book so much as the fact that I (a white, generation X woman who is easily mistaken as a “Karen” on Facebook) am not the target audience. ( )

Will Do Magic for Small Change combined African mythology (the Orisha and masquerades) and science fiction (aliens and time travel) in a story told almost entirely through dialogue.

Cinnamon Jones was easy to relate to, and I liked her gumption. But at the same time I was confused by two things: 1) to me, she didn't read like a 15-year-old and 2) she didn't ask for help from her aunt and grandparents who obviously had special "gifts" of their own. Though, Confusion #2 is something typical of young adult books -- no one goes to the adult who could actually assist with the problem at hand. Confusion #1 however, was exacerbated by all the teen angsty bits of the story. It seemed so out of character for Cinnamon to pine over Klaus and Marie, who came across more like frenemies than actual friends. And I never really felt like Cinnamon's body issues were properly addressed. People either told her to eat more or eat less, and her mom's treatment of her, woo boy.

Recommended to those looking for a more complex "young adult" blend of myth and magic and the paranormal -- in addition to deeper topics like gender, sexuality, and race. Also, if you don't mind being told 90% of the story, that'll help your level of enjoyment.

3 stars
(Will Do Magic for Small Change may have suffered a bit by the fact that I had finished Brown Girl in the Ring the day before.)

"To kill a people without spilling blood, steal their stories, then feed them self-serving lies. Blood is nothing without story."

"A wise woman, tall and fierce, with lightning eyes and hurricane hands, once told me, The most a person can do for another is believe in 'em 'til they come true. Storytellers do this."

"Somso fingered a crossroads talisman at her neck. She sacrificed to the stringy haired orisha who walked on water and raised the dead. His followers ate his body, drank his blood, and named Eshu the devil--a powerful, mysterious cult."

"...Every time we read, we keep the Wanderer from jumping off a bridge. The Wanderer is an alien from the spaces between things and needs us, like light needs an object to shine on or darkness wins. The Wanderer has broken into fragments and scattered, maybe into Ariel the actress. There's nobody believing in the whole Wanderer. The Chronicles is the spell to put the Wanderer back together. Believing can make a body whole."

"What you think you know that ain't so can make you a slave was a great line for her Eshu poem."

"Sekou said everybody is queer. But powerful wizards cast mega-cloaking spells so we no longer know who we are. We think we're who the wizards say we are. Consensus Delusion." ( )

Will Do Magic for Small Change feels like Octavia Butler crossed with Charles de Lint. It genres, with aliens and magic, and explores themes such as race, gender, sexuality, and family history. It’s one of the most original SFF novels I’ve read in years.

Will Do Magic for Small Change opens with Cinnamon Jones, a black girl in 1980’s Philadelphia, attending her half-brother’s funeral. Her brother left her a book written by an alien wanderer from another dimension who appeared in West Africa during the 1890’s. The wanderer’s story is not complete and more sections continue to appear as the course of Cinnamon’s teen years. Eventually, Cinnamon realizes that the wanderer’s story has some mysterious connections to her own family history.

My expectation was that I would enjoy the alien’s story more than Cinnamon’s, but the reverse was true. Cinnamon aspires to be an actress, but the theater is a difficult place for a large, dark skinned black girl. It does provide the opportunity of friendship with two other teenagers, and the three of them become caught up in the mysteries of the Chronicle.

That said, I never skipped over the other sections relating to the wanderer (Taiwo), who gets caught up in the life of a warrior woman of Dahomey, Kehinde, who is searching for her dead brother’s wife and an escape from her own past. New sections of Taiwo and Kehinde’s story appear as the wanderer remembers them, but they’ve fragmented and lost many portions of their own history

Gender and sexual fluidity are at the heart of Will Do Magic for Small Change. Cinnamon is bisexual (although the word is never used) and becomes involved in a fledgling polyamorous romance. The wanderer, Taiwo, is not male or female, but either both or neither. They, like Cinnamon, are bisexual, and various characters they encounter are also queer.

In a large part, Will Do Magic for Small Change is a story of identity and history, with Taiwo trying to form their own identity and recall their personal history. Meanwhile, Cinnamon is searching into her own family history, trying to uncover the truth of the event that led to her father’s coma, and still in the process of self discovery. There’s a sense of searching for a connection between an African American present and an African past.

For me, the characters are what I found most compelling about Will Do Magic for Small Change. I became strongly invested in Cinnamon’s story, and I loved Kehinde, a fierce warrior woman who continues to move forward despite the tragedies in her past. Even characters such as Opal, Cinnamon’s mother, who could have been little more than a two dimensional obstacle for Cinnamon to overcome ultimately proved to be more than that.

If I have one complaint, it lies with the ending. The book ends suddenly and abruptly, without any real conclusion or closure. I’m guessing that there’s some thematic or literary purpose, but I read for entertainment and this didn’t work for me. I’m willing to go with such experimentation in form, but I’m not willing to invest the time in a 400 page + book only for an ending reminiscent of “The Lady or the Tiger?”

That being said, I’m still planning on reading more by Andrea Hairston. The level of quality and imagination she displays here is such that I’m not going to pass up the opportunity to read more. I believe there’s another book about Cinnamon’s grandparents, and I hope to get my hands on it soon.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. ( )