To know the name of a living thing is to be able to harness its magic in the world of Carrie Vaughn’s The Naturalist Society. Except, that’s too simple. To really be able to do feats of magic using Arcane Taxonomy, naturalists have to study every species very carefully to understand how a woodpecker can demolish a tree or a pigeon can always return to the same place from anywhere on earth. Beth Stanley is very good at watching the birds of New York City through her opera glasses and, if she had only been born male, she would have been one of the greatest naturalists of her time. But it’s 1880 and there are very few people willing to listen to her, let alone read her manuscripts...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.