The Upstream Writer: Reader's Review: "Too Wyrd" by Sarah Buhrman

Synopsis from Amazon:

Nicola was never a hero. She was an everyday single mother, Heathen witch, and herbalist. She was happy with her quiet life until the night Joseph showed up at her door with news that her step-sister joined a cult… and she had gone missing.

Pressured by family loyalties, Nicola goes back to Indianapolis, dodging old enemies and calling on old friends to help her find her step-sister. What she finds instead is an ex with super-powers, monsters and demigods on the streets, and a detective ready to bring her in for a murder investigation…or three.

Can Nicola become the hero she needs to be, or will she lose everyone she cares for?
>>>>>>>>

My Review:

Wow! What a ride! Buhrman joins the ranks of “kickass-magic-wielding-heroine-comes-up-against-a-supernatural-entity”!

I have enjoyed many a foray into the supernatural genre, from light-hearted, snarky fun, to deep and heavy, feels-wrenching roller coasters. I believe this qualifies as the former, which I found wonderful!

Nicola, an unapologetic Pagan with a penchant for trouble, has one chief rule in life: you don’t mess with her family. And if any of her family is in trouble, she will do what it takes to help them. I loved that about her. The way she pursued her wayward step-sister and got herself neck-deep in powers she wasn’t prepared for, all for Muriel’s sake (and somewhat for her daughter, Ella), resonated with me. It was striking, the friends she had made in connecting with her sister, and the enemies, too, of people who tried to mess with her or set themselves up as superior.

I loved in particular the handling of the lore in this book. Some writers might fall into the trap of over-mysticizing their magic system, or going the route of using so many cliches that there aren't very many explanations we readers haven't heard before. I actually enjoyed the way Buhrman chose straightforward definitions and parameters for magic usage, an intriguing method of social hierarchy, and there is a discourse on "science-versus-religion" at one point that made sense for the context of this series. Plus, the fact that she manages to touch on several different belief systems without disparaging any of them puts her up alongside Brandon Sanderson and Mark Lawrence, as far as matters of "religion in literature" are concerned!

Since this particular adventure involved an ex, a series of Spells Of Ultimate Power, a haphazard attempt at a quasi-Ragnarok, Valkyries, and trips into the astral plane, you best be prepared for anything to happen, because I promise you, it will!

It’s a rollicking good time with close relationships between characters, it’s chuckles and gasps and turning pages as fast as you can... and at the bottom of it all, the message is clear: you mess with godlike powers, you had better be prepared for things to get a bit Too Wyrd!!

TOO WYRD earns a solid *****4.5 STARS***** and if you’re in the market for a great adventure with a worthwhile heroine and pantheon of peril, be sure to check out TOO WYRD and the rest of the Runespells series! It ain’t over yet! It’s only just begun!

Further Reading: (Supernatural/Paranormal/Great Heroines/Dealing With Deities)

-The Boy Named Topaz--Jeffrey Gartshore

-A Spell in the Country--Morgan Smith

-The Seventh Crow--Sherry D. Ramsey

The Fair Folk Chronicles--Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
-Foul is Fair
-Street Fair
-A Fair Fight

The Firebird Fairy Tales--Amy Kuivalainen
-The Cry of the Firebird

Lord of the Wyrde Woods--Nils Visser
-Escape From Neverland
-Dance Into The Wyrd

The Cadeau Series--Connie Olvera
-Who Can You Trust?

The Books of Winter--R. R. Virdi
-Dangerous Ways

-Abiding Flame--Pauline Creeden

The Untamed Series--Madeline Dyer
-Untamed

-Fragmented