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After reading and enjoying Melissa Keil’s novel, The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl, picking up this novel seemed like an absolute no brainer.
Set in rainy Melbourne, The Secret Science of Magic is a beautifully written story of friendship and love between two unlikely teenage characters; a genius and a magician. The story incorporates a unique blend of loveable characters of all backgrounds and personalities, helping to make the story incredibly interesting. Sophia, or ‘the genius’ would have to be my favourite character; she is socially awkward and terrible at reading people but still so kind and caring in her own individual way.
The story, however, is not entirely focused on love in the sense of romance, it also focuses greatly on the idea of friendship, mostly between Sophia and her best friend, Elsie, but also between Joshua and a variety of his friends. This exploration of friendship is something that I really enjoyed in this novel.
Another unique aspect of the novel is the way that it alternates narrators, with Sophia narrating around three quarters of the novel and Joshua, the other main protagonist, only narrating every fourth chapter or so. This change in perspective helped to mix up the storyline; just when you started to tire of reading from Sophia’s point of view, the novel would suddenly switch to Joshua’s perspective.
Overall, The Secret Science of Magic is a unique story of young love and friendship that I would strongly recommend to anyone looking for a great YA read. 4 stars!
