To the Death / Andrea Tang / Book Review

TO THE DEATH

Tamsin Blackwood's a household name. She's only just entered the professional magic duel circuit, but she's already known. Because she's a nepo baby, the product of her master magician father Mateus Blackwood. He's the one who trained her to uphold his legacy. His is the name she's carrying. And she's tired of it. Tired of him.

So when she receives a challenge from prodigy Lysander Rook with prize money greater than she could have dreamed, she jumps at the offer. That kind of money could change her life, could free her from her father.

But Lysander's left other champions not just defeated but destroyed. And this challenge hasn't come to Tamsin by chance. It's been perfectly calculated by Lysander's second, a certain Samantha Chan. A Samantha Chan whose brother died in an illegal magic duel years ago. Whose brother's death was caused by a certain Mateus Blackwood.

THOUGHTS

This book was really fun! I wanted more of it. It's completely contained in itself, and I really appreciated that. But this is the type of book that could be (or actually should be) expanded into a whole series. The world, the characters, the arcs: everything is vibrant and exciting. And the fact that it is just a standalone is really to its detriment. Because what I got was good. But what it could have been, given room to breathe, would have been excellent.

PROS

Casual	LGBTQ+ YA books love labels, which is great. It's great to give a name, to give a vocabulary, especially for a younger audience (a still-figuring-it-out audience). It's nice to have that representation and to have the language to talk about it so that you know you're not alone. But you know what's also nice? A book that's so accepting of its sapphic characters that it doesn't feel compelled to label them at all. These girls don't dive into their labels, their personal identities. They don't ruminate on how and when and why they discovered this about themselves. They just get to know each other, fall into one another, get tangled up in the mess of their interconnected lives, and move on. And that very casual queer representation is so nice. It is so refreshing. Labels are good. But just letting characters exist in their lives is good, too.
Flashing Lights	I adored this world! It has all the airs of competitive sports at a professional level. The flashing lights of the paparazzi. The build-up to the fight in the arena ring. The interpersonal drama in the training gyms and beyond. It's flashy magic and sticking to the basics. It's highly skilled child prodigies and their ambitious seconds. It's fun. I could have spent so much more in this world.
Magic & Murder	Not only is the world here immersive, but the concept is just... so good? And Andrea Tang really pulls it off. The magic is dazzlingly sharp. The competition is exceedingly high. The dueling is strict, the kind of thing you train years for. And it's dangerous. What's a sport without a bit of danger? And high-stakes sports betting. And an illegal duel ring or two. Yeah, I loved it.

CONS

This is the type of immersive world that you can really get lost in, and I just didn't have enough time to get lost in it. It's the type of plot that could have been developed more. It's the type of characters that really could have grown with you. And what we got isn't bad, but it also isn't enough. Because one book is fine. But with another book or two (or three or four) behind it, this is exactly the type of world that could be a fantasy fan's favorite. And we just didn't get enough of it here for it to be truly satisfying. The potential is so untapped.	Too Short
Boy, did we forget that these characters are in high school. But they definitely are (at least, Samantha Chan is). And they definitely didn't need to be. YA has been skewing older and older. Having 18-year-old characters who have already graduated? Perfectly fine these days in this marketing category. So the fact that we're still in high school but really just having nothing to do with high school (and/or the parents we supposedly have) feels... strange. Like we needed them to be in high school for set dressing for some reason, but we forgot it in every practical application. It almost feels like this book was meant to be for an older audience, and you know what? Maybe it should have been.	High School?
The arena, the duel, the flashing lights: it's fun. Not so fun? Not being quite able to picture the magic. In a book as splashy and vibrant as this, it is important to be seated right alongside the spectators, watching this magic extravaganza unfold. And the descriptions here... are fine. We've got threads of arcane energy. We've got arcing and sparking. And... these descriptions are repeated every time we're witnessing magic. Not word-for-word, mind, but the same terminology. It all became rather pat in a way that meant for the reader this magic doesn't sparkle. It doesn't dazzle. And if it is dazzling the crowd watching it, it really should be dazzling me, too. It can be hard to convey something so hyped up in-world across the page, so I get it. But still, somewhat disappointing.	In the Void

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10

Those who loved the gritty fighting of Marie Lu's Legend will like this new arcane twist on rough-and-tumble duels. Those who liked the underground rings (and dirty money) of R.C. Lewis's Stitching Snow will love getting their hands dirty in this magic arena.

Details Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers Date: February 10, 2026 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.