My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Macmillan Tor/ Forge for an advanced copy of this genre mixing science fictional novel.

Science Fiction has began to grow not only in market but in what science fiction stories can tell. And teach. Stories seem broader now, with not only more influences and diversity, but the limits on what a story can reach for seem left far behind. Not just aliens, not just time travel, not just history, or slice of life, but all this and much, much more. Will Do Magic For Small Change by Andrea Hairston is a story that has a little bit of all that I listed before, but also a lot of love, and a lot of hope.

Cinnamon Jones is at the funeral of her stepbrother who has been recently murdered. For a wake it leaves a lot to be desired. Cinnamon longs to be be a actress like her grandparents, but her size and weight are a detriment that no one wants to mention to her or ruin her dream. Cinnamon's has brought a book that her stepbrother found in the garbage. and pressed on her while standing in line for a movie. The book, covered in dirt which makes pages hard to read, at the time, is entitled The Chronicles, and tells of a alien who came to Earth in Africa, who later performed at the World's Fair. We learn more about this alien as Cinnamon reads the book, and suddenly the world is not the same. Cinnamon is going to need her friends help to figure out the story of The Chronicles and what they might mean.

In giving the plot I left out some parts that really have to be read to get the full grasp of the story. They are worth it. The story is split in narratives with Cinnamon and the alien, the alien told as a story within a story, which sounds confusing, but makes sense. The writing is good, there is a bit of repetition sometimes, but all in all once I found my groove with the book, which might take a bit I quite enjoyed. A mix of historical, mythology, science fiction and self worth. I liked Cinnamon, thought sometimes Cinnamon can get a little annoying, but I can understand why Cinnamon acts or does certain things. The narratives are unique enough that a reader won't get confused of not understand what is happening

A book for people who like their science fiction with a lot going on and a different kind of storyline. This is the first that I have read of Andrea Hairston, I know that Hairston has been nominated for a few prizes, and won quite a few also. I enjoyed this and will add her to my ever expanding list of authors to look out for.

Thank you for sharing this title with me. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the story or the writing. Great cover, though!

Free book from Netgalley for review ~.

I’m sorry I’m going to have to dnf this one. I could probably stick it out and read it because it’s not a case of the actual writing being bad, but I am just not loving any of the characters and it’s too disjointed for my taste.

Also I’ve never been a big fan of whole stories/books inside another book. In this case it feels especially disjointed and jarring to make the switches between innocent, naive and yet still kind of persistently bratty Cinnamon (I must haul this book around at all times ‘cause my dead brother told me, want me to read it to you! [the answer is no, sorry, kiddo]) and the ancestor warrior (fictional?) lady and alien. Despite this, I’m not especially eager to find out how the two stories combine in the end with this one either—if the book works like that at all.

I also can’t express how gross I found it that she’s at her brother’s funeral and starts thinking about how she accidentally saw him with his boyfriend “in the act” when she was thirteen or younger as a way to share that she doesn’t find homosexuality an act of sinning and that it was beautiful. I don’t care. *Don’t make your very underage character a voyeur of her BROTHER, please. * Or any age actually. 🤢 I’m not complaining her brother is gay to be clear. I’d still have a problem if it was his girlfriend. Locks are invented for a reason.)

DNF at 27%. This is the second time that I’ve tried to read this author and failed. Interesting concepts, but I get lost in the telling.

First and foremost, WILL DO MAGIC FOR SMALL CHANGE is a beautifully crafted book. Moderately paced with a character-driven plot, the story opens with twelve-year-old Cinnamon and Taiwo, a newly-bodied alien aka a wanderer from the “space between things.” I’m still not sure if this book was meant to be YA or adult, but it is dual POV (3rd person, past tense), flipping between Taiwo in the 1890’s via a magical book named The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer and teenage Cinnamon in the 1980’s. It’s essentially a magical story within a magical story that ferries the reader halfway across the world, from Pittsburgh to Dahomey, West Africa to Paris to Chicago and then back to Pittsburgh again.

It was easy to connect with Cinnamon’s POV, her loss and hope palpable on every page. I had a harder time with Taiwo’s POV, which often presented itself as poetic riddles, even when their “stillpoint” Kehinde was speaking. I assumed this was intentional because Taiwo is an alien, and their new body, new world, and new languages were foreign to them. My favorite parts in the book always had Aidan, Iris, and Mz. Redwood in them.

If you like ghosts and aliens, creative book formats and blurred genres, story storms and hoodoo magic, then you will love this book!

I received a free e-ARC of this book via @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor.com for the opportunity to review this book. Unfortunately, I did not finish this book and wasnt for me. I got about 30% through and still felt unconnected with both the storytelling and the characters. Once I put this book down for a few days it was extremely hard to pick back up.
This book has stories within a story, with folklore embedded into it.

BY: PHOEBE SALZMAN-COHEN
ISSUE: 17 JULY 2017

Andrea Hairston’s Will Do Magic for Small Change alternates between two narratives, both of which are full enough to be their own novels. One of these is set in 1980s Pittsburgh, where Cinnamon Jones has to cope with the recent suicide of her brother, Sekou. The second narrative, which is set in the 1890s and moves through parts of West Africa, France, and America, is contained within a mysterious book called The Chronicles that Cinnamon spends much of her narrative reading. Cinnamon is lonely and fits in nowhere—she’s smart and observant, which means she tends to ask questions and voice opinions that people don’t like, and “theatrically challenged” (which means that she’s too tall and too heavy to be cast in plays, even though she’s a powerhouse). Her mother, Opal, is dealing with a bevy of issues, and Cinnamon takes inspiration from the other adults in her life: her grandparents, Redwood and Aidan, “theater people” who’ve traveled the world and who do hoodoo[1]; Redwood’s sister Iris, an Oberlin professor obsessed with textiles who writes Cinnamon letters (and who wrote Sekou, too); and Star Deer, dancer extraordinaire and substitute math teacher. The figure that’s missing is Cinnamon’s father, Raven Cooper, who’s in a coma after jumping in front of a bullet that was meant for a lesbian couple.

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/will-do-magic-for-small-change-by-andrea-hairston/

Let us just start by saying, I had no idea this book would be so insanely disjointed as it was.

By the cover on NetGalley, I thought the book was going to be phenomenal.

But halfway through the book, I put it down for about a month and a half.

Not really sure why It was being rereleased again from 2016, but ok!

So, this tells the story of Cinnamon Jones whose brother has died and left her the book “Chronicles of the Wanderer” Now this book happens to be a magical book about an alien wanderer, who has come to Earth to gather stories. But ends up becoming trapped in the middle of Dahomey, with a traitorous warrior woman. Who just happens to be wife of the soon to be deceased king? Now if Cinnamon was not a mere child and we were comparing her to the Ahosi. The Ahosi (the warrior woman) would have met her match, because Cinnamon is 5’ 10” 180lbs, she is boisterous, feisty, and mad as hell!

But Cinnamons rage is because she feels powerless. She has just lost her brother; her father is comatose, and her mother is a piece of work. We will not even go there about the mother.
All Cinnamon really wanted to do was to be on that stage acting, like her famous Grandparents, but that dream will have to be put on hold. Because Cinnamon is feeling the chronicles calling her and the community people to join forces.
Cinnamon will eventually make friends with Taiwo and Kehinde and the Warrior, but will they be
able to save the two worlds?

There is a good amount of African history in the book which does make it interesting.

Other than that, the writing needs work.

The repetition made my head hurt, to the point I almost DNF’d it.

Will I give the author another try? Of course!

She may be fantastic with another genre. Who knows?

This particular book was not for me.

Apologies in advance.

Thank you NetGalley, Andrea Hairston, McMillian-Tor/Forge for this free eARC/ My opinions are of my own volition. Thank you!

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Interesting book; the beginning chapter sets the scene and characters you'll begin to encounter in the journey. Some of the book is difficult to muddle through; I call that "sci Fi writing mode" and just part of the genre. It's worth the read (I think this is a republish too). Esp in a land of alot of retreads this explored new themes and threads.

There were a lot of things I loved about this story, and a lot of things that made it difficult to make progress on at times. I loved the characters and their interpersonal relationships, the magic and adventure, and the African history and legend that forms the story within the story, The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer.

The things I didn't love are really just quirks of the writing and dialogue that are present throughout the story, things like not enough commas, frequent and random italicization of words, repetition of certain words and phrases, and other stylistic elements. These would make it difficult to stay focused at times, but I believe it's still worth reading.

I was going to summarize the plot next, but I don't think I could do that any better than the excellent description on the author's personal website, which I will share now:

Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But at 5’10” and 180 pounds, she’s theatrically challenged. Her family life is a tangle of mystery and deadly secrets, and nobody is telling Cinnamon the whole truth. Before her older brother died, he gave Cinnamon The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer, a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform in Paris and at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The Chronicles may be magic or alien science, but the story is definitely connected to Cinnamon’s family secrets. When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theatre squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds together.

While the book may be a slog at times, if you find yourself loving the characters after a few chapters, I'd say it's worth a read.