A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking

Product Information

Magic, gingerbread, warm laughter and feels…this actually turned out to be a perfect holiday read! The protagonist of A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is Mona, a fourteen-year-old baker’s assistant with a minor gift that only works on bread dough. It’s a humble but comfortable existence working at her Aunt Tabitha’s bakery, and Mona is happy enough just to be able to help out. A dead body is an awful thing to find on the floor of a bakery, especially when you’re a fourteen-year-old baker’s assistant with just a minor talent in magic, enough to make gingerbread men dance and biscuit dough turn fluffy on command. It’s worse when the city inquisitor decides to accuse you of the murder, for no particularly good reason. It’s even worse when you realize that there’s a mysterious assassin on the loose, targeting people who have magical powers, no matter how insignificant.

It's a decent Kingfisher, which means the characterization feels solid. There's a few standard characters rolled in (pushy, loving aunt, a thief) as well as some intriguing ones (the uncle, the horse witch). It's ethics and world-building are probably geared a little simply compared to some of her other works, which may be why it feels a little younger. Still, it's a Kingfisher, and the writing is occasionally quite perfect. There were two problems here, both of which will vary tremendously depending on the reader. One, the lead is a very timid sort. While she does grow into her magic, I would hesitate to say she grows significantly into her personhood power. While that is entirely alright, the mileage one gets out of this may vary. She's a young, rule-follower, trusting sort of young person, and that's fine. Her emotional breakdowns are in line with this persona, as are her worries. And I kind of applaud Kingfisher for trying to tell a story about someone who doesn't want to be a hero, and who doesn't get powered-up and stomp all over the story. But. But not my favorite kind of lead character. I might have liked her better if I was ten. I USED MY LIBRARY TO PROCURE THIS BOOK...THEN I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT ONE. A YA NOVEL ABOUT A TEEN. AND IT ***just*** WON A 2021 LOCUS AWARD!! I fully admit that I bought this one for the title. Not that the stabbity-stabbity gingerbread man on the cover isn’t adorable, but it was definitely the title that got me. And I’m so very glad that it did. I also wondered whether this was really YA or whether it was one of those cases where something got called YA because it was fantasy. That doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but it definitely does still happen.Someone is killing magic folk, and suddenly it's up to Mona to figure out who's doing it, AND why . . .before she turns out to be the next victim. She just needs to keep in mind that in magic, creativity is as important as knowledge. Her talent is in convincing dough that it wants to do what SHE wants it to do, so it rises properly and it doesn’t burn. And she can make gingerbread men dance – even if she can’t control what kind of dance they do. Mona’s power has definite limits that she has to work within to make it work at all.

The great wizards, the magi that serve the Duchess, they can throw fireballs around or rip mountains out of the earth, heal the dying, turn lead into gold. Me, I can turn flour and yeast into tasty bread, on a good day. And occasionally make carnivorous sourdough starters.” Just as interesting as her allies what with their reanimated horse corpses and stuff (those minor magic folk certainly had highly unusual talents). Muhahahahahahaha. When you’re different, even just a little different, even in a way that people can’t see, you like to know that people in power won’t judge you for it.” If this sounds like the plot of every other YA fantasy novel, it isn’t. Firstly, the way Mona uses her supposedly small gift to protect herself and her allies is both unique and unnerving; the author’s experience writing horror stories really shows through, as does her attention to detail. Anyone who owns a sourdough starter knows how uncanny it can be to hear this faceless living mass bubbling in a jar. Now imagine if it could ooze around on its own, and eat other things the way it eats flour and water, like your enemy’s face, for example. This creature exists in the novel as Mona’s familiar. She calls it Bob.One morning, Mona finds a dead body in the bakery and from that point on, her life is completely turned upside down.

The second challenge--perhaps like much in baking--was one of scale. Had Kingfisher been content to keep it a smaller story like in Minor Mage, it would have worked better for me. But I found myself puzzled, supremely, by dual ideas (spoilery) of a large enough city that children can escape multiple guards on a canal and through smugglers' pathways, but that same young baker can make seven golems and twenty gingerbread men can hold off an advancing army in a way that a populace can't. Like, how effing incompetent is this city and the advancing army? Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance. But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries… A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher – eBook DetailsNothing But Readi...: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher - Feb 2022 Theme BOM - Award Winner (start 16 Feb) But one day, her world is turned upside down when she comes in to find a dead body on the floor. Worse, she becomes the main suspect in the murder case. Of course, it doesn’t help that the city’s authorities aren’t exactly friendly towards wizards, even those who aren’t considered very powerful. This has emboldened a certain assassin, who is stalking the streets preying on magic users. Soon every wizard is fleeing the city, including poor Mona who has been caught up in the chaos.

if things go wrong in a siege you’ll all die horribly, and in formal weddings the stakes are much higher. Let’s see, what else? The story is abominably fluffy at times, but it is quite marvellously darkly dark for the most part. And what do we say to that? Why, YUM, of course. The villains are magnificently villainous, too. So YUM again. Talking about appetizing stuff, second-hand breakfasts are regularly on the menu in this book. (And no, you don’t want to know that they’re made of.) There are also super savory and most delectable garderobe expeditions. (No, you don’t want to know about these either.) That’s it for the appetite-stimulating side of this story, I think. Unless you consider people who “ look like the ass end of a seagull” as being particularly mouthwatering, that is.In this case, fourteen-year-old Mona’s magic only works on bread or pastries. There are other wizards in the city of Riverbraid but they are similar to Mona with specific abilities or not that powerful at all. Suffice to say that it was utterly charming, perfectly plotted, and ageless -- I think anyone from 9 through adulthood could enjoy this. I’ve seen other reviewers complain that Mona is too passive and quiet, but I found her to be very resourceful, and I greatly enjoyed her voice and outlook.