At the turn of the 21st century, a family cursed and divided reaches its conclusion with the coming of age of Trey and Tai whose immense power brings everything full circle.

McKinney immediately introduces the twins in a way that highlight their personalities-Tai is sleeping in after reading too much fanfic the previous night to be awoken by a scream from her twin, Trey who, in his anxiety over his cello audition, has given himself Ronald McDonald hair.

Yep, the hijinks of a magical household but it’s not a laughing matter in the bigger picture. Their dad refers to their powers as a “situation” and generally tries to downplay it or avoid the subject alltogether as he cannot help them with their increasing disasters. Ever since the disappearance of their mother ten years early, the only one who could really help them, the two have lived by a code to never mention it to others.

Trey’s powers are a variety from strength that can crumble walls and transform objects.

Tai’s are much like her ancestor (though she doesn’t know it) seeing bad events of the future in reflective surfaces. Basically, she has avoided looking at clear mirrors most of her life. It’s a power that she sometimes laments as it seems so useless yet disturbing compared to her brother’s.

But that’s nothing compared to the curse that has haunted their family, two good events followed by one bad and it sees to be getting worse each year and this is the year where Trey gets a chance to be first chair in orchestra, securing his musical legacy; Tai gets a chance to meet a cute girl; Oh, and three FBI-looking white officials seem to be chasing them, and have their own magic to boot.

As this is the conclusion to an intergeneral story, it had big shoes to fill and I think it does the job for the most part but had some gaps. So let’s look at the positive and negative.

Positive-wise, I enjoyed Tai and Trey’s distinct personalities and the opportunity it gave for McKinney to introduce a dual narrative and expand the world as Tai accidentally ends up in a Corvus compound while Trey meets up with that secret magical society Blake fell into at the end of Fractured Path.

I also enjoyed how their respective powers not only called back to their ancestors-Trey’s to Zora’s and Tai’s to Elva’s- but how it provide commentary on their African-American identity.

Trey’s powers necessitate that he keep himself calm and push down his feelings in order to avoid hurting someone accidentally. It sort of leans into “the angry black man” trope that Trey has to swallow his (sometimes) rightful anger in order to be nonthreatening and it’s just hard that he constantly has to keep himself level instead of getting to feel or vent.

Tai’s powers were initially confusing to the family and they had thought she was a little girl just making up stories about the things she saw in the mirror. Yep, just like famous oracle, Cassandra. Of course, the family caught on but Tai still feels that she has to prove her visions are real somehow or else others won’t take her warnings/visions seriously. It’s a feeling she hates, being told that she’s being irrational or exaggerating, something that many women are sure to identify with even without the magical oracular powers.

But I may be looking too into that and seeing symbolism that isn’t there.

Otherwise, McKinney expands an already magical world with Tai learning more about her powers (they end up being super cool) and finally contacting Elva which leads to surreal settings and action that you can envision easily in your mind. In the more mundane end, the family life is realistic yet cozy and I liked the introducton of Ayesha as Tai’s crush and her surprising helpfulness when she gets caught up in the forboding danger of the Corvus Society.

Now for the negatives. A minor nitpick but some of the slang seemed to be modern today rather than 2000s like “extra.” I didn’t hear that until high school and that was 2010, a decade later. I know 2000 isn’t too different from today but I was expecting more era-specific stuff to get a feel for the era like the layering of clothes, reality tv, ipods. It felt a weird limbo between 90s and today rather than the specific year.

McKinney really takes her time setting up the family life and Tai/Trey’s struggles so the action of Corvus people hunting the twins/them finding out about the mirror etc. doesn’t start till halfway through and rushes the conclusion.

This leads to some spoiler-specific points so stop reading here!!!

When Tai finds her mom, she has been apparently trapped in a hospital waiting room inside Corvus’ medieval castle. I don’t understand the point as the story emphasized how the Society would torture and kill magical people and Tai finds the prison are apparently fine. No mention of bruises or trauma so that completely undercut the danger that Corvus was built up as. Just general the danger felt real in about two chapters but falls flat in the rest of the book.

It was surprising that Blake had been captive for ten years, and Ian, her nemesis wouldn’t have tried hurting her at all? Or brainwashing her as it is said he did to other magical people. I’m glad she’s not dead but I don’t understand Ian’s motivation for keeping her alive if she had no information on the mirror and he wasn’t using her as bait for Trey/Tai.

Also why does Ian want the mirror in the first place. I forget if he mentioned it in Fractured Path but why? Does he just want to destroy it? Use it to get other magical people? Does he even know about Elva?

Blake went to the Corvus Society to face Ian and save her Aunt Remi and Uncle Cole and ended up captured. And then Remi and Cole aren’t mentioned again! Did they die during those ten years? They aren’t mentioned in the happy reunion so I guess they did die but I feel like they should have had a bit more angst considering their importance in the previous book and how they were the catalyst for Blake’s mission against Corvus. Also the quartet is all about family and these formerly major supporting characters are dropped off entirely from the narrative and the family.

Speaking of family, Zora is reduced to a cameo. If you didn’t read her book, you would have still been able to understand everything here which feels wrong. There should have been more interconnectedness in that sense as Zora is also descended from the Sumbella lineage (which Trey/Tai apparently got from their father) and her relationship with Philip is what led to the reconnection of the family’s after the dissolution of Elva and Meredith’s friendship. So Zora’s part was important and I wished it had been folded into Trey/Tai’s story to emphasize the generational aspect of the quartet.

The themes of broken promises has been repeated throughout the quartet as each generation breaks a promise, strengthening the curse. Here, it is finally broken and it was anticlimatic. In fact, I didn’t even realize the big promise that trey and Tai kept was that they’d always support and save each other. Maybe it’s just so understood that family will always support you that I didn’t realize it was “the promise that was kept.” When it was revealed that it broke the curse it felt like a surprise. It makes sense but just also came out of nowhere.

Perhaps it’s unfair but I’m ultimately giving this 3 stars as it falters under the expectation it has set and left me with more questions than satisfaction.