Review: Magic and Loss (Golgotham, #3)

y Author: Nancy A. Collins
Series: Golgotham, #3
Released: November 5th 2013.
Publisher: Roc
Format: Paperback, 304 pages
Buy: The Book Depository

Located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Golgotham has been the city’s supernatural district for centuries. Populated by creatures from myth and legend, the neighborhood’s most prominent citizens are the Kymera, a race of witches who maintain an uneasy truce with the city’s humans...

It has been several months since Tate Eresby developed her new magical ability to bring whatever she creates to life, but she is still learning to control her power. Struggling to make a living as an artist, she and Hexe can barely make ends meet, but they are happy.

That is until Golgotham’s criminal overlord Boss Marz is released from prison, bent on revenge against the couple responsible for putting him there. Hexe’s right hand is destroyed, leaving him unable to conjure his benign magic. Attempts to repair the hand only succeed in plunging Hexe into a darkness that can’t be lifted—even by news that Tate is carrying his child.

Now, with her pregnancy seeming to progress at an astonishing rate, Tate realizes that carrying a possible heir to the Kymeran throne will attract danger from all corners, even beyond the grave...

Magic and Loss is the long-awaited third installment in Nancy Collins’s Golgotham series. Its release has been pushed back a time or two, so when it finally became available, it completely slipped my mind. In case you’re a fan and the same happened to you, rejoice – it’s out!

Returning to Golgotham is always such a wonderful experience for me. Collins enriched New York with a whole new neighborhood inhabited by the ruling Kymerans, and with them, leprechauns, satyrs, fauns and so many other races. It is a richly detailed world, enchanting and endlessly entertaining. But it is also a dangerous world, especially for powerless, defenseless humans. It is a place of constant turmoil, political games, threat of the supernatural mafia and left-hand magic, the evil kind.

For Tate, a human girl and former heiress, Golgotham has become a home. She is no longer the lost girl who moved there because of low rent. Her newly developed power to animate metal objects she creates through her art, as well as her stable relationship with Hexe, made her a much stronger woman. It was lovely to see her new life, the independence and strength she now possesses.

I always liked Tate, even before she developed her powers. Even as a human in the middle of a supernatural world, she was always a worthy UF heroine – strong, outspoken and decisive. I admired her for finding her way around Golgotham all on her own, and especially for choosing Hexe over her family’s wealth when the time came.

The plot in Magic and Loss is slow to pick up, the first part of the book dedicated solely to painting a picture of Tate and Hexe’s life, with all its advantages and challenges. When the story does pick up, though, it becomes very eventful and extremely emotional. The local mafia boss shatters Hexe’s right hand, stoping him from doing magic and turning him into a bitter, self-centered version of himself. The changes in Hexe come at the worst possible time – Tate is pregnant and scared that she’ll have to raise their child alone, if she doesn’t find a way to make Hexe whole again.


Surprisingly (and disappointingly), Magic and Loss appears to be the final installment. I only realized this when I reached the final chapter – all the threads were tied too neatly. I’m going to miss Tate and Hexe, but even more, I’ll miss all their friends and neighbors and the enchanting atmosphere of Golgotham. Oh, well, I can always reread, right?