Book Review: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher


I’ve quickly become a fan of T. Kingfisher and thought that this young adult book of hers would be a guaranteed pleasure. It features a young baker named Mona who is talented at both baking and magic. In fact, her magic is all baking-related. She can keep bread from burning, make gingerbread men dance, and has a semi-sentient sourdough starter which her uncle is afraid of. When a body appears in her bakery one morning, it feels like the start of a fast-paced magical cozy mystery.

As Mona and a new young friend named Spindle investigate the death, they learn the death and disappearance of magickers in their city is part of a larger plot. When they eventually discover how serious it is, it will be up to Mona and her limited baking magic to save the city from destruction.

While this has some of the charm of T. Kingfisher’s other works, such as the creepy sourdough starter and Knackering Molly, it is not my favorite of her books. There are too many elements that I’ve seen too many other times. I don’t mind a cozy mystery, but kingdom in danger and only two scrappy kids can save it felt tired. Defeating the orcs in a siege felt overdone. The milieu felt like a slightly more modern version of the McFantasyland we’ve all spent time in. I liked that magic involved creativity and that even extremely specialized skills could be profoundly useful. I liked the subtlety of public opinion being manipulated against outsiders. But despite this, it lacked the impressive creativity of T. Kingfisher’s other works. For a young adult fantasy book, it’s pretty good. For a T. Kingfisher book, it’s not that great.




View all my reviews