Escaping From Houdini (Stalking Jack the Ripper #3) ~ Kerri Maniscalco

Genre: Young Adult/Historical Fiction

Publisher: Jimmy Patterson

ISBN/ 9780316551700

448 pages

Source: Barnes and Noble

Well, I managed to hold out on the third installment of this series for maybe two weeks before giving in.

Impulsive as I may be, I regret nothing. Nothing, I tell you!

I still can’t believe this entire series has taken place over a few short months. Maniscalco has a knack for ripping through stories in a way that leaves me breathless, not realizing I’ve sped through four hundred pages.

I think Escaping from Houdini was everything I wanted out of Caraval but didn’t get. There is “kids magic” and then there’s that good, old fashioned veil that lurks between death anxiety and human curiosity with the morbid facets of our existence.

Gilded masks, (somewhat) death-defying tricks, and otherworldly thrills all set against the sparkling splendor of an endless sea sky at night.

Yeah, that is the kind of magic I want.

And I certainly got it.

The whole story sprinted by in this brilliant whirlwind of mystical mayhem and I didn’t manage to catch my breath until the last page.

The general consensus for this third book has been that the introduced triangle was irritating and unneeded. While partially agree (I love my Cressworth together, thank you), the friction did speak to Audrey Rose’s autonomy and exploration of her self and sexuality. For that, I was willing to suffer the rather useless drama.

Despite that random critique, this chapter of the series certainly had my heart. Now I regret everything because I have to wait so long for the fourth book. Oh, well. It was totally worth it.