Allison: The Cost of All Things | Maggie Lehrman | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets We Were Liars in this thought-provoking and brilliantly written debut that is part love story, part mystery, part high-stakes drama.

What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything …. When Ari's boyfriend Win dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden—and sometimes dangerous—connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.

Told from four different points of view, this original and affecting novel weaves past and present in a suspenseful narrative that unveils the truth behind a terrible tragedy.

Have you ever wanted the power to change things? Or to take a magic potion and suddenly have everything become right in your world? Or make it so that people would never leave you? Or to protect someone you love? Or that you would be able to forget all the pain and sorrow in your life? And if you have … have you also ever thought about what having this ability might cost you? What you might lose in the process of getting exactly what you wanted? Or that the choices that you make in life always have consequences?

This is what The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman is all about. It is broken down into four points of view (Markos, Ari, Win, and Kay) where each of these characters has their own story to tell of how they became who they are and how at one point each of them connected with a Hekamist to gain a spell that would change their lives forever. I don’t want to go into too much detail about what each of them requested for their spells as it all part of the mystery of the story. I want others to go into this story the same way I did because I feel that if I had known more about what I was getting myself into I might not have enjoyed it as much. Honestly, this book was an unexpected surprise for me. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did but once I started reading it, the more I wanted to know. And the more intertwined these characters became, the more I wanted to learn about them, and the more I simply couldn’t stop. I loved how interconnected everything was. It was all very surprising for me yet still made perfect sense because it was so well written. As you all may know, I love character driven novels, and that is exactly what I was given here.

I also really liked the world which was crafted by Maggie Lehrman. There is a very contemporary feel in the world which she presents with these young adults who are all dealing with very modern events and emotions. Yet, there is this fantastic paranormal twist with the Hekamists and the different levels of spells which they could give to society. The higher the level of the spell, the greater the consequences. I loved the way that all of this was blended together. It felt very natural. The whole mythology of the Hekamists was very interesting to me. It had me thinking about the things that I have sometimes wanted to change in my life. Would I take or use a spell to change these things? Would it be worth it? Based on my own personal thoughts and reflections and knowing the ending result of the book, I would say that no, one of those spells would never be worth it for me.

In a unique and captivating way, The Cost of All Things explores the complexity of the human psyche when it is presented with a moral dilemma. It also explores how intense a human relationship can get even when it does not involve people with a romantic interest in one another. It is thrilling and heartbreaking and by the end of it, you will be on the edge of your seat wanting to know exactly has happened to each of the four main characters. Now, I know that this review is all sorts of vague but you have to trust me when I say that you should really check this one out. I have a feeling that it is going to be one of my favorite reads of 2015!