These were the first two books I finished reading this year, and I don't plan to write about every book that I read, but The Last Magician was significant for me because it taught me about story structure.
For those of you that don't know, most writers use a three-act plot structure when they write books. If you look this up online, you'll get tons of information about what I'm talking about. Essentially, though, this structure is a guideline for authors to follow that explains specific things that need to occur within a story.
I had heard about this structure in the past, but it was something I never really thought about before. I would just write and put plot pieces together, as if the scenes were a movie playing in my head. But once I read The Last Magician, it opened my eyes to how I could transform my writing, and in particular, my story TGOS.
The Last Magician is actually broken into parts within the book, and this made it easier for me to identify the three-act structure. Once I was able to see it, I realized my story already conformed to this technique, and only needed some refining to make it better. That was the first benefit of this book.
The second benefit is that the book tells the same story through multiple points-of-view. Naturally, this appealed to me since I wrote my book in multiple points-of-view, but it also helped me because I was struggling with how to handle different characters and giving them each a unique voice.
Anyway, besides these techniques, The Last Magician was a fantastic book. I loved the story, as it was set in 1900s New York, and contained magic, secrets, and suspense. The ending completely blew my mind because you don't see it coming. As for the second book, The Devil's Thief, I enjoyed it as well. I thought the first book was better, but the second one still had a great storyline.
This series is one case where I broke my binge read rule, since there will be a third book, but it is not published yet. I'm not entirely sure why I broke my rule. All I know is that I felt the need to read The Last Magician, and I am glad I did because it helped me in so many ways.
Now, please excuse me, as I sit here and wait.
