Originally posted as part of Queen’s Book Asylum’s SPFBO X reviews.

Set in a world that is equal parts familiar and magical, By A Silver Thread has a primary premise that has now been presented in several other forms, that of the return of magic & magical creatures to the modern world. Seen almost exclusively through the eyes of the primary character, Lola, it veers between things as mundane navigating through traffic to using fae magic to create the car she drives.

For most of the novel, Lola is more reactive than proactive and not quite the feisty and/or hardened character common to many similar works that also use the above premise. Part of that is due to her long-standing subordination to her employer, Victor. Recruited by him as a child, she has had years of relying on his blood magic to stave off reverting to the seeming monster she was when he first found her. The shadow of that inner monster continues to throw her into a panic, resulting in a deeply rooted belief that is all she can ever be.

It is Victor’s sudden disappearance that sets the plot in motion and also creates a ticking clock for Lola, who only has a limited amount of the pills he makes to keep her under his control. While she does everything she can to ration those, her efforts to investigate naturally cause a constant drain on her supply. One nice related touch is that the majority of the chapters start with a reminder of how many pills she has remaining.

One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is Lola’s abilities. As a changeling, she is capable of manipulating her appearance and shape, although it has to be done from memory and can slip when she loses focus or if she starts to draw unwanted attention. She can also extend her ‘gossamer’, the term used for fae magic, outside of herself, into vehicles, replicas etc; something that comes in useful several times but at the cost of her needing one of her precious pills to maintain herself.

Since this is the first book I’ve read by this author, I don’t know how much of an overlap there is between the three series that share the setting of the Detroit Free Zone or DFZ. By A Silver Thread is the first in the third of these series and while it mostly stands alone, it did feel like some of the background to the city, particularly its self-awareness, was brushed over and knowledge of the previous books would fill in those gaps. Having said that, none of that impacted my enjoyment of the book.

4 out of 5 bloodpills