Now that we have finished reading The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner and taken the time to let it all *sink in*, we’re going to share our final thoughts on the book as a whole. Our goal is not to review the book, per se, but we will be sharing what we liked and disliked.
Spoiler Free! This post is our general opinions about this book, not a professional review, and contains no spoilers for The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner.
Trigger Warnings for this book include: drug addiction, drug use, alcoholism, blood, vomit, violence, gore elements, suicide, and death.
Thoughts:
Michaela: This was a weird book for me in that it sounded really interesting and I did like it but at the same time, it didn’t live up to what I thought I was getting from the plot summary. There was a lot of adventure, magic, a love story, and an undead mouse, as promised. However, I felt like we only got the surface level of most of those things. The love story was cute and I really enjoyed the love interest character. Many of the characters were interesting but we only got a short amount of time with each and some were rather unlikeable to me. The writing style was different and fun while also at the beginning it was hard to get into and understand what it was trying to say. The magic system was fascinating and I wish we had gotten a bit more in-depth with it, especially the magic pertaining to Buttons (the undead mouse) who is undoubtedly my favorite character. However, magic was the primary focus of the plot so that’s just a wish-fulfilment thing for me. In all, I thought The Ruthless Lady's Guide was a very fun read and I would definitely recommend it but I don’t think it’ll be for everyone. Not sure that it will be a re-read for me for a long time but I would love to read something in the same universe or by the same author.
Jacilyn: I think the author really succeeded in creating a fascinating world with unique social dynamics and magic systems, but the story itself wasn’t one that I would want to re-read, I don’t think. There were some characters I couldn’t get enough of and thought were well-developed, but others really fell flat for me. I found myself wishing for more at the end of the book but honestly I did enjoy the read overall. By the end, I had even become fond of the writing style. I would be interested in reading more by C.M. Waggoner, especially any books that are also set in this world - as far as I know, there’s just one other. I’d love to get the background on the lore and history of the world, and get first-hand accounts of different magic styles. All-in-all, I think The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry is worth a read.
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