Magic At The Grand Dragonfly Theatre by Brandie June (book review).
Too many fantasy novels involve themselves with the politics of the created world. The plot often centres on characters who seek power or suffer from the ruling class’s injustices. Wars immerse us in the front line, involving bloody battles as regimes strive for dominance. If they confront the common man, it is frequently in the capacity of the put-upon onlooker/participant in the power struggle. It is therefore refreshing to take a step back and consider the people who are desperately trying to keep out of the way of political events and wars even though, inevitably, they will impinge on everyone.
In ‘Magic At The Grand Dragonfly Theatre’, there is a war, but it doesn’t impact on the lives of most people, unless there is a conjuror in the family. This is a world where some people have the gift of magic. Conjurors can create objects, seemingly out of nothing, and there doesn’t seem to be a penalty for this either mentally or physically. For this reason, though we never know exactly how, they are essential for the war effort. Once they were expected to volunteer, but as the war dragged on, conjurors were conscripted, and it became illegal to conceal one.
We never know what it is like on the front line or whether the other side also uses conjurors. There are bounty hunters to sniff them out. There are more people with the lesser gift of illusion. What they create fades within a short time but is effective for entertainment. A prism is very rare, and it is believed that there are none living. Their value is that they can work with an illusionist and create the same effect as a conjurer. Bounty hunters and the Noble Guard use a bone of a Prism to identify and brand undeclared Conjurors.
Iris and Violet are sisters who live with their uncle at the Grand Dragonfly Theatre. Both their parents were Conjurors and were taken to serve in the war when they were young children. Now in their teens, the elder, Iris, is a performer skilled at sleight of hand illusions. Their uncle, Leopold von Frey, is the owner of the theatre and an illusionist. Violet is a conjuror and rarely uses her talents, preferring to stay in the background. Everyone in the company is aware that she will be forcibly taken away if her gift is discovered.
Roman Whitlock is a bounty hunter, determined to prove that one of the sisters is a conjurer. Since he was the one who turned in their mother, he reckoned that at least one of the daughters must be, as their father was one, too. The theatre is on an island, and since Iris and Violet never leave it and their uncle has banned him from the island, he needs to use subterfuge. He recruits Alec Morgan, a young illusionist who has been imprisoned for using his powers for the crime of trying to get enough money to feed his mother and brothers. With forged references, he gets a job at The Grand Dragonfly Theatre. While he initially intends only to find proof that Iris is a conjuror so that he doesn’t get sent back to jail, he soon finds that he is treated with respect and begins to care for the people at the theatre and especially Iris.
This is marketed as YA, as the main characters are in their late teens and just beginning to discover the attraction of the opposite sex. There is not just the developing relationship between Alec and Iris but also between Violet and Harmon, the talented set designer. While Violet is content to stay at the theatre and develop a newfound skill as a playwright, Iris is anxious to spread her wings, so when she is invited for an audition at a highly respected theatre on the mainland, she isn’t truly aware how much danger she is putting everyone in. This is because everyone is keeping secrets. It is the truth behind these secrets that, when revealed, means that the community of trust they have built begins to unravel.
At the heart of this book is an interesting take on magic, and it will be enjoyed by many readers. To some extent, the plot is predictable, and, at the end, there is an issue of an inconsistency revolving around the use of Prism bones to detect Conjurors.
Pauline Morgan
October 2025
(pub: CamCat Books, Charlotte, NC, USA. 275 page hardback. Price: $19.99 (US), £16.99 (UK), $25.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-744-31179-2.
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