Foz Meadows's Reviews > Thirteenth Child

Something I really appreciated about this story was the extent to which every member of Eff's very large family was a real, distinct character - someone whose actions impacted on everyone else. Wrede has taken the extant idea of power residing in seventh sons and thirteenth children and made it unquestionably her own. In the hands of a lesser writer, the fact that Eff was a thirteenth child would have been little more than a convenient excuse with which to explain her abilities, with her twelve siblings banished to the background. Instead, the plot is driven not only by the realistic nudging of larger events, but by small, domestic struggles: disease, marriage, childbirth, scandal, and the manner in which all such family affairs require the characters to participate, change locations, argue, interact and cope. Particularly given the frontier setting, this lends an enviable realism to Wrede's world, remembering a time when families were larger, stayed closer together and when the actions of individual members had a much more profound impact on the lives of their relatives. The magic was fresh and original, the setting well-executed, the writing crisp and the characters endearing; there is not a single thing about this book I disliked. Bring on the next volume!