I have had this book on my list to read for quite some time. This book is very creative because of the setting. It is all set in the United States during Western Times. The characters are also very engaging and interesting.
I listened to this on audiobook. The audiobook was very well done and I highly recommend listening to this if you have the chance.
Eff is a thirteenth child and twin to her brother, Lan, who is the seventh son of a seventh son. While Lan is supposed to do great things, Eff is only supposed to bring her family misery. Her parents are seeing that Eff is having a hard time of it, so they move out to the Frontier where people dont believe in the bad luck of a thirteenth child. This gives Eff a chance to start over, however the whole family has to deal with magical dangers of Frontier life.
This was a well done historical fantasy set in America in the "Wild West" time frame. I really enjoyed the world-building and thought the characters were very engaging.
The story moves a bit slowly, but was engaging all the same. I love the way magic is dealt with and all the different schools of magic that are discussed. The real strength of this book is world-building. The Frontier is a place where the Great Barrier protects the settlers from attacks from magical beasties. We see glimpses of magical beasts such as Steam Dragons, swarming weasels, mammoths, and strange grubs that destroy crops.
Eff is an excellent character. She has a lot of magic that she has tried to suppress because of being worried about being a 13th child. Because of this she is always a bit down on herself and thinks everything is her fault. She is strangely accepting of all of this and it takes some time for her to start to build some confidence in herself. The story starts when she is very young (4 years old) but most of the story takes place when she is in her upper teens.
Lan is another interesting character. He is in the opposite situation of Eff, everyone expects the world from him and his outstanding magical abilities. He is forced to live up to a lot of expectations and deal with the fact that everyone thinks he has the answer to everything. As you might imagine Lan starts to get a bit conceited and prideful as the story goes on. He is however absolutely steadfast in his loyalty to Eff.
The other character that features a lot is William. He starts out as an enemy of sorts but ends up being a good friend to Eff. He is constantly supporting her and trying to get her to see shes not to blame for everything.
Another highlight in characterization is Effs parents. They are wonderful parents. They do everything they can to give Lan and Eff the best chance at leading a normal and productive life. It was nice to see a young adult book where the parents are genuinely good people.
There has been a lot of controversy over this book because Wrede leaves out Native American people and culture altogether. This confuses me a bit because this is a fantasy. There are mammoths and steam dragons in this book and they didnt exist...I think a fantasy author is free to do what they want with the world they build. I understand there may be some political implications, but this is fantasy so what the author creates is the world and I dont have a problem with that.
I also really enjoyed the different schools of magic and the Rationalist group (who doesnt believe in using magic). They were well laid out and well done.
The biggest drawback to this story is that it moves pretty slow. It takes a long time to set up this world and explain everything. However, by the end of the book I was very engaged in the story and eager to read more about these characters.
Overall I ended up really enjoying this story. I would recommend to fans of fantasy who want to read something that is in a different setting than normal. You don't get a lot of fantasy done in a Wild West setting and this was a good one. There is also some great world-building, a neat magic system, and likable characters. I am excited to see what Eff finds in the next book when she journeys beyond the Great Barrier.
I am loathe to put anything less than 5 stars on a Patricia C. Wrede book (she has been one of my favorite authors for almost 20 years), but I must say that though I liked this book, it was slow going. As another reviewer put: Patricia C. Wrede has done to Frontier America in Thirteenth Child, what she did to Victorian England in her Magic and Malice Series. I love the idea, and like the book. Even more, though? I cannot WAIT to read the next book!
This was surprisingly good. Though I really shouldn't be surprised as everything I've read by Patricia Wrede has been excellent. This is the first book of a new series involving magic and magical creatures in the old US while mammoths and wholly rhinoceroses roamed.
Eff Rothmer and her family moved to the Frontier when her uncle called the police on her to have her arrested (at 5 years old) because she was a potential danger to the family. As the thirteenth child, her life was viewed as cursed by everyone and she was taught (by ill-meaning relatives - but not her immediately family - and neighbors alike) that she would eventually go bad, evil that is. It's a tough way for a 5 year old to grow up. At 9 she was terrified to make friends in her new school for fear of bringing them down with her when she went bad. She was a mostly lonely child though she did have one good friend, William Graham. Her family has magic and her father teaches at the college in town. Her twin brother, Lan is the seventh son of a seventh son so he is super magical and gets all the positive attention while Eff gets all the negative since as the thirteenth child she is the bringer of doom and gloom. This book chronicles her upbringing from elementary school until she graduated high school (though they weren't called that at the time).
The difficulty of living in the Frontier is the constant fear of the wild creatures entering the city and killing the settlers. The Great Barrier (a magical shield) keeps the wild creatures - steam dragons, sphinxes, mammoths, rhinos, bison, etc - from the city but someone must always maintain the magic. With or without the danger, people are always trying to move westward. As kids graduate, they marry and join settlements that are going further west. Eff has no romantic prospects but she has decided to be a naturalist like Wash and travel to the west protecting the settlers. But that is another story, book 2 in fact, The Great Barrier. I really enjoyed this coming of age story and will continue with Eff, Lan and William's adventures in the wild west.
Reviewed by Andrea for TeensReadToo.com
Eff was born the thirteenth child. She grew up hearing stories about how the "Thirteenth Child" is supposed to have great talent but bring great danger and despair to everyone around her.
Her twin, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son, or a double-seven, and is supposed to have great magical talent, in a good way, and luck that makes everyone in awe of him.
This story tells of their growing up, from Eff's point of view, and the challenges they face.
This story started off really well. I loved reading about Eff, Lan, and their magic. I liked reading about how they grew up and how much magic was involved in their lives. But then towards the end it started talking about these bugs that sucked up the magic, and that was the whole plot of the story at the end.
It kind of turned me off to the story, but overall it was well-written and something different in the YA fantasy world.
Patricia C. Wrede is a wonderful fantasy writer who, like so many others, gets hidden away in the young adult section far too often. This is the first book in the "Frontier Magic" trilogy, and that name really sums up a lot. It's set in an alternate, magical USA where Lewis and Clark's expedition met with tragedy, and Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were two of the many hero magicians who created a giant barrier along the Mississippi River, to keep the extremely dangerous western fauna and flora at bay. Eff and her twin brother Lan, born in a large eastern city amidst a huge extended family, have more than the usual amount of magic; he is the fabled 7th son of a 7th son, while she is the cursed 13th child. Luckily, their parents don't believe these superstitions, and when they realize how much both prejudices are harming their youngest children, they decide to take the plunge and move out west, to the edge of civilization, next to the Great Barrier. Here in a rougher, looser world, Lan shines as just another gifted boy, but Eff still worries about the evil she might accidentally do. She worries so much, she manages to repress her magical potential for years. In their late teens, a new kind of danger threatens the settlements on the other side of the Barrier, and the Barrier itself, and it's Eff's study of the natural world and her talent for "coaxing instead of ordering" that save the day.
This book can definitely be enjoyed by kids and teens as a cross between Laura Ingalls and Harry Potter, but there is a lot more happening beneath the surface to keep adults interested. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!
Derrick J. (ravensknight) reviewed Thirteenth Child (Frontier Magic, Bk 1) on + 178 more book reviews 
