Review: A DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAGICIANS by H. G. Parry

 Rating: 2/5 stars

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book because I wasn’t connecting to the characters or the story at all, and I began to dread the moments I would press play on the audiobook. I debated for two whole weeks if I should push myself through or not, but ultimately I decided to just quit because of my lack of enjoyment. Although this book was not for me, I feel that this would be the perfect book for the right audience.

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians is a historical fantasy, and fans of that genre will likely enjoy this book. While I love fantasy, I struggle with historical narratives, and this book was much more historical than I expected it to be; it’s very rich in both history and culture. It almost feels like it could be a nonfiction story if only magic had been real.

Set in the late 1700s, this book tackles civil rights and revolution. The story starts out following a common man who uses magic and is put on trial and jailed for using magic since commoners are not allowed to use magic, and this is the basis for the story. Magicians want different rights for the use of their magic, thus the title.

There are a few perspectives here. The main story follows a vampire and his friend in England, but we also have the POV of a slave girl from Jamaica. I didn’t read far enough to hear much about the girl, but her story goes hand in hand with the main storyline as some magicians are working to abolish slavery while they fight for the rules regarding the use of magic to be changed.

I thought the discussion about magic in this book was actually pretty cool. The commoners are forced to wear bracelets that prevent them from using magic, but of course some higher class magicians think this is wrong and want change. There are a few different types of magicians in this book too, and my favorite part was that that blood magician was actually a vampire. Because consuming blood is how he got his magic to work. 

If heavily historical novels with lots of politics and moral discussions and magic are your cup of tea, then I encourage you to give this book a go. 

I feel like I could potentially enjoy A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians at a different time in my life, and I hope eventually I will be willing to pick it up again and finish it. I do know, however, that I would get a lot more out of it and feel more connected to it reading it with my eyes, so I can say with certainty that if I were to come back to this story, I would not be continuing the audiobook. The narrator had a nice voice and I feel that he adequately portrayed the characters and the story, but something about either him or this book just wasn’t letting me grasp what was going on while listening to it. So maybe if you want to give it a shot try reading it instead? Even though this book wasn’t exactly my thing, I still want to read The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry, and I would definitely consider reading other novels from her in the future too. 

I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.