Steampunk dragons. Got me there. I read this coming of age book for fun after watching Archane on Netflix and if you like that type of world-building then this will be fun for you to read too. Allison Pang has a number of Kindle Unlimited books worth checking out and solid world-building. A fun YA novel. Definitely something fun to give your kids.

Every once in a great while I come across a story that knocks my socks off. This is one of them. When it happens, it's always something "a genre," that I've never read before. Brian Lumleys-Wamphyri, or Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I'd never read Steampunk before, and except for this series, I probably won't ever. This world that Allison has created is stunning. The characters are people that I want to know and go "rooftop dancing" with. Clockwork hearts, a mechanical Dragon that can sit on my shoulder, and eat pieces of coal? Yes, please. The entropic city below, and the floating, shiny city above? Yes, yes, yes. Even this plague? Again, yes! I can't wait to visit this world again.

4.2/5

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Interesting premise for the story
~ Excellent descriptions of parkouring through the decrepit city
~ Consistent mystery as to the origin of the moon children and the civilization visible in the sky but untouchable
~ Some romance but no on scene seggs

This is the well-told story of a young woman who frustratingly gets into more trouble than her mental capacities are able to deal with, while stubbornly persisting in repeating this pattern of ineptness. Set against a steampunk-ish fantasy world, Mags is a gutter trash moonchild - her hair is white, her skin is dusty, she was sold to a clan of the lowest sorts and before 25 she will be sent down to the pits with those dying of the Rot, all because her kind are immune. There is more to EVERYTHING as Mags discovers, when she loses friends, when her life is imperiled, and after she finds a clockwork steam dragon with a belly like her heart.

✨Give it a read.

🌱THE MEH
~ The compounding troubles formula is a little too obvious here
~ 🤦 She is the type of stupid I dislike reading about (the ones you KNOW could do better)
~ Her running her mouth consistently without a thought in her head, reminds me of Rin from The Poppy War 😌 Like, peaches, take a moment to think before your unnecessary logorrhea - thank you 🙌

♡🌱 But that’s just me ;)

There is occasionally one of those books that you just cannot put down. This for me was one of them. From the first page I was hooked. The world building and the characterisations are outstanding. Now I want book 2!

Magpie's Song defies easy categorization. It mixes elements of steampunk, dystopia, coming-of-age, and dark fantasy into a singular blend.

BrightStone, ruled from above by the technologically advanced Meridians, is a dangerous city rife with crime and poverty. Its citizens struggle with everyday life, lack of perspectives, and a rampant, deadly plague known as the Rot. Only the Moon Children, Meridian half-breeds, seem immune to the devastating effects of the disease. This makes them useful, but only to lead the victims of the rot into the dreaded Pits, a place no one returns from.

While you'll find snippets of humor here and there, the story goes into dark places and has a serious tone overall. The titular Magpie, a Moon Child known as Raggy Maggy, is a half-breed trapped between two worlds - the run-down city of BrightStone and the floating city of Meridion. When she's framed for a crime she didn't commit, she has to trust exiled Meridian doctor and a clanless Moon Child named Ghost to uncover the cause of the Rot and the secret of her own lineage.

Mags is a great character. An outcast who doesn't belong anywhere. She cares for one person. She finds her freedom dancing on rooftops and her skills at climbing, jumping, and gliding through the city would put most traceurs to shame. Only Ghost does it better than her.

She also has a clockwork heart, and it seems that a clockwork dragon found by a Meridion's dead body likes and follows her. An intriguing combination of a mysterious past and tenacious behavior won me over. I like Mag's voice. Sure, she makes bizarre decisions and trusts the wrong people, but hey, she's only nineteen.

CONCLUSION: Magpie's Song starts in the middle of the action and never slows down. Things happen, characters die, and at times I wasn't sure where it was all going, but I felt engaged throughout. The addition of a few subplots makes the narrative unfocused in places, but on a scene level, it never disappoints.

I thoroughly enjoyed Magpie's Song a lot and plan to continue the series.

Such a fun read! Allison Pang hits the ground running right from the start, making the book hard to put down from the start. Her descriptive storytelling brought the world and characters to life, Our main character, Raggy Maggy's world is a mix of fantasy/dystopia that was artfully blended. You have a strong heroine, religious zealots, disease, and a steampunk dragon. Well worth the read!

As the first book in a new series Magpie's Song follows Raggy Maggy, a strongwilled, impulsive orphan living on the streets trying to make a living as a scrapper. She dreams of one day going to Meridion, the city floating above her world yet she gets sucked into a quest to save the population from The Rot which will also hopefully lead to a better life for Moon Children like her.
Since this is the first and understandably used for setting up the different characters and building the world in which they live, the pace is rather slow and especially in the middle it seems like nothing really happens for pages at a time. Yet the characters are well drawn, Maggy is the story's voice and that's also why you learn tidbits here and there just like she does. At the end of the book I am left with more questions than answers, it's definitely an ending towards a second book without any closure and since I got real invested in Magpie's story and want to find out what happens next I hope the next book will follow quickly!

***Thank you Netgalley and Allison Pang for giving me the chance to read and review this book***

a REALLY interesting world. the world building and the mystery was really cool. I will say we spend the whole book building up to mags going into the pits and then we don't even see her in them which was a good cliffhanger cause I want to read the second one but it left me a little on the lurch like "oh is that it?"
I really liked the main character she was really cool and had a good vibe. she makes friends and has good judgement but she isn't a moron that has me yelling every time she messes up.
the dragon is adorable and I want one lol

A decent YA dystopia tale with a scrappy orphan protagonist. Raggy Maggy is likable. The setting is intriguing, with a mysterious floating city overhead, a mysterious plague, which certain people are immune to and also get white hair at age 12, a mysterious underground dungeon where anyone plague infected is sent, some mysterious clockwork dragons, and one mysterious clockwork heart. I found the pacing slow, not much happens, and there are not enough of the mysteries revealed by the end. The ending was more of a teaser for the sequel than an actual conclusion.

Raggy Maggy, aka Magpie, is a Moon-Child, a supposed unwanted child of a BrightStone woman and a Meridian male. She collects scrap in the desolate wastelands of the Warrens for her clan. Maggy stumbles upon a strange clock-work dragon and a dead Meridian male. The dragon’s presence heralds all kinds of changes for poor Mags. When her clan exiles her, she has no alternative but to agree to her saviors’ mad plans of sneaking down into the Pits, a dark place where the Rot-infected people are placed. Can Maggy find the truth behind the peculiar plague’s existence? Or will Maggy lose more people she cares about before the journey begins?

Maggy is quite the unorthodox, yet interesting, character. I love how she refuses to allow the pariah status associated with her kind to have any real power over her. Maggy proves continuously through the book she’s capable of thinking for herself. She tends to consider angles her companions would never consider. I love her wily cleverness. I enjoy Mag’s interaction with Ghost, and I cannot wait to see the direction their relationship takes in future books. But what I admire the most about Maggy is her tenaciousness in both the things she puts her mind to and the people she cares about.

MAGPIE’S SONG is book one in Allison Pang’s brand new, self-published series, IRONHEART CHRONICLES. The story starts out rather slow, which is necessary for the author to properly set up the world and the characters. I like how the story is written in Maggy’s point-of-view. It did take me some time to adjust to Maggy’s distinct narrative.

MAGPIE’S SONG is a dark dystopian story with a balanced mix-mash of steampunk and fantasy. I enjoyed the uniqueness of the author’s world, especially the details she intricately wove into the tale. I cannot wait to delve into more of Maggy’s adventures.

I mainly picked this up for the book cover but god DANG this was such a fun ride! It was great curling up in my bed while doing online school and just getting sucked into the characters’ world and their relationships