Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

A girl with magical powers enters a brutal tournament, trying to win a chance to rewrite her past.As a child, Vesper loved stories about the Oddities and their magic. Then she became one. She's a Harbinger, capable of manifesting people's fears. Ever since a horrifying incident borne of her lack of control, Vesper's been a runaway loner. After landing in San Francisco, she crosses paths with fellow Oddities and learns about a high-stakes cage-fighting tournament; the winning Oddity gets $1 million and one unraveling (undoing something that has happened, altering the past). She doesn't know how to fight and is scared of her own dangerous powers but badly wants to undo her damaging past. Vesper teams up with Sam, a nonmagical Baseline human, who oversees her rigorous training at an MMA gym. The deal is that she gets the cash prize, and he gets the unraveling to correct where things went wrong in his last relationship two years prior. Even while planning to betray him and claim the unraveling, Vesper begins to fall for Sam. All storylines—the tournament, what happened with Sam's ex, why the rules of magic are changing—tie together through flawless pacing and well-balanced action, leading to revelations that foster character growth. While Vesper and Sam are assumed white, secondary characters have varying skin tones.An extraordinary debut packed with richly drawn characters in a sure-to-entertain storyline. (Fantasy. 14-adult)

ALA Booklist (Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2019)

Blair's debut novel gives an interesting twist to the sf trope of superpowered individuals being outcasts or used by the government. While both emerge here, they spawn an fight scene in which "Oddities" wield their powers against each other, with the victor promised a large cash prize and an unraveling undoing of a past event in the individual's life. Vesper has been grappling with her identity as a harbinger, one who can draw people's fears into reality, and she runs away from home in order to keep her family safe from her unpredictable power. When she is taken in by a group of Oddities training for the fighting tournament, Vesper can't resist the chance to save her family from a hurtful fate at her hands. She dedicates herself to mastering her power and learning fighting techniques with Sam, her backer and trainer. Blair provides plenty of action, twists, and duplicity as the story unfolds, incorporating a complicated romance and even discussion of religion along the way. Hand to fans of Emily Lloyd-Jones' Illusive (2014).

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A girl with magical powers enters a brutal tournament, trying to win a chance to rewrite her past.As a child, Vesper loved stories about the Oddities and their magic. Then she became one. She's a Harbinger, capable of manifesting people's fears. Ever since a horrifying incident borne of her lack of control, Vesper's been a runaway loner. After landing in San Francisco, she crosses paths with fellow Oddities and learns about a high-stakes cage-fighting tournament; the winning Oddity gets $1 million and one unraveling (undoing something that has happened, altering the past). She doesn't know how to fight and is scared of her own dangerous powers but badly wants to undo her damaging past. Vesper teams up with Sam, a nonmagical Baseline human, who oversees her rigorous training at an MMA gym. The deal is that she gets the cash prize, and he gets the unraveling to correct where things went wrong in his last relationship two years prior. Even while planning to betray him and claim the unraveling, Vesper begins to fall for Sam. All storylines—the tournament, what happened with Sam's ex, why the rules of magic are changing—tie together through flawless pacing and well-balanced action, leading to revelations that foster character growth. While Vesper and Sam are assumed white, secondary characters have varying skin tones.An extraordinary debut packed with richly drawn characters in a sure-to-entertain storyline. (Fantasy. 14-adult)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Former cheerleader Vesper, 17, remembers her previous life: before she learned that she was an Oddity, before the fire that she inadvertently set took her home and nearly destroyed her family in Los Altos, and before she learned exactly what her powers as a Harbinger-discerning and conjuring a person-s worst fear-could do. On the run, she ends up in San Francisco overnight and falls in with a group of teens, many also Oddities with powers that manifested the same time as her own. This acquaintanceship leads her to an underground gladiatorial tournament and a chance at undoing the past and returning to her former life. The more time she spends with her new friends, including Sam, the Baseline (nonmagical) boy she partners with for the tournament but plans to betray, the more she realizes that something darker is afoot. There-s a shady past to the group who used to police Oddities but have since disappeared-and their secrets threaten to overwhelm the present. Interweaving excellent worldbuilding with the uncertainties of discipline, friendship, and taking ownership of one-s decisions, Blair-s debut will entrance and delight in equal measure. Ages 14-up. Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. (July)