Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: May 12, 2015
ARC from Edelweiss
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets We Were Liars in this thought-provoking and brilliantly written debut that is part love story, part mystery, part high-stakes drama.
What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything…. When Ari's boyfriend Win dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden—and sometimes dangerous—connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.
Told from four different points of view, this original and affecting novel weaves past and present in a suspenseful narrative that unveils the truth behind a terrible tragedy.
My Thoughts:
The Cost of All
Things starts with Ari grieving over the death of her boyfriend, Win.
Desperate to get rid of the sorrow, Ari visits the local Hekame and
gets a spell that erases her memory of Win and their time together.
The morning after taking the spell, Ari wakes up and soon realizes
that losing the memory of Win has also made her lost other things, in
particular her capability to dance, which means that her future as a
Ballet dancer in New York feels suddenly very distant, when just a
day earlier it already seemed like reality.
I had no idea what
to expect from The Cost Of All Things. At first glance of the cover,
I though it was a contemporary, and I guess it kind of is, but
reading the synopsis made me question that judgement. I was glad to
realize quickly that Lerhman has been able to fit the somewhat
paranormal aspect, the spells and the hekame, into the plot in a way
that they feel normal and thus fit well into the otherwise
contemporary world of the novel. The spells and the hekame, a
solution for many people and many problems, are well established
concept and very intriguing to read about. Though towards the end of
the novel the “magical” aspect of The Cost of All Things gets
occasionally a bit muffled, in general, I really enjoyed this
addition to the story.
The Cost of All
Things alternates between four points of view, introducting the
reading to Ari, Win, Kay and Markos and their pasts and presents.
Ari, as mentioned before, is an aspiring dancer and unfortunately for
her, the death of Win is not the first major loss she has experienced
in her life. Several years before, her parents died in a fire and
back then, Ari was given a trauma spell to make her forget the
details, as a result of which she does not have many memories of her
parents and the life she had with them. Win, Ari's boyfriend, has
already died at the beginning of the novel, but his point of view
offers a glimpse to what happened before, to what he was going
through. Kay, a friend to Ari, has gotten involved with spells as
well, first using a beauty spell to make herself look more attainable
and then a spell called “hook”, tying her friends to her for
eternity. Finally, Markos is the town “bad boy”, a bit of a
player, who is going through the death of his best friend, Win, and
trying to find his place and his identity within a group of brothers
who seem to think they know what is best for Markos.
I think the most
problematic aspect of this novel for me was the chapters that focused
on the point of view of Kay. The way she has been using the spells to
tie people to her, basically forcing them to be her friends, made it
difficult for me to like her. But at the same time, the author treats
her so honestly that at the back of my mind, I had to admit to myself
that I understood why she would do such a thing.
The scenario of
using spells to get rid of your sorrow and grief really made me think
what I would do in such a situation, if I would have the option to
take a spell and get freed from such feelings. My father died when I
was 12 years old, and though at the time the prospect of feeling
better would have been desirable, think about it now, I must admit
that I would never give up my memories of him, even when some of them
are sad ones. The way Lerhman writes about the spells and their
effects is done in detail and in a way that really forces one to
think about such things, thus turning the spells into something
meaningful and not only something that adds a little spice to the
story.
Towards the end of
the book, as mentioned before, the whole spell business gets
unfortunately a bit muffled. Too much happens (compared to the
slow-boiling events of the rest of the novel) and I felt like the
ending was a bit too “explosive” to some extent. I feel like
Lerhman feels pressured to bring all the points of views together as
a result of which the story gets a bit to packed up. But since the
rest of the novel is really intriguing and well constructed, this
little mishap in the end did not bother me too much.
The Cost of All Things is a really well written debut and it really
makes me look forward to what Lerhman (hopefully) comes up with next.
It is original, touching, filled with complicated characters whose
actions I questioned, but also managed to understand. The multiple
points of view work well until the very and with the addition of the
spells into the story, The Cost of All Things is an interesting,
unique read worth the time.
3.5 Snowflakes
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