Seanan McGuire always delivers a well-written tale. MAGIC FOR NOTHING has the expectedly enjoyable interactions with new-to-us cryptids, as well as an interestingly close-up view of workings within the folds of the Covenant but for me the reading experience was not as enjoyable as I had hoped. Your mileage most likely will vary, but all I can base this review on is my own reading experience.

In my personal viewpoint (perhaps colored by me being more than three decades older than the protagonist) I found it incredibly frustrating that the sense of imminent danger created by the author was seemingly ignored by the main character. Pages of wonderful interactions with new people (who are in danger of slaughter) became annoying, simply because McGuire did such a bang-up job of explaining the peril and heightening the tension.

The decisions made by Antimony were as best I could tell perfectly within the realm of her character, which probably made her just as annoying as a small few of the young adults I have met. All that aside, because that part of the plot tension existed because of poor decisions on the part of the main character it did impact my enjoyment of the book in a huge fashion, so my personal rating of the book is 'never read this book again', although I stress again that it was very well-written, the lack lies within me as a reader, not the author as writer.

Was the payoff worth the frustration? Only you can be the judge. If you are a follower of the Incryptid series, then definitely buy this one. If this is your first encounter then I advise you to start with a different book (unless of course you are in your early 20's in which case you will likely have tons of empathy for Antimony.) All I can tell you that when the fewmets hit the fan, I was almost giddy with relief that the tangled deception was over.

On the whole, I DO give MAGIC FOR NOTHING a high rating. It is very well written, all the parts are in place for an enjoyable read and Seanan McGuire's mastery of characterization meant that Antimony was real enough to me to spark my annoyance. Will it be one of my go-to re-reads when I want to immerse myself in another world? Nope.