An Unkindness of Magicians – Kat Howard

A solid book, written with skill. It does not draw the reader in as well as it might, because the milieu is ugly and too many of the characters are evil - on a scale that runs from “torture children for power” to “negligent of harm to others”.

The milieu itself is almost abstract. There are magical families living in New York City. For purposes of the novel, they have no interaction with magical families outside the city, and they have no interaction with mundanes. They compete fiercely and sometimes murderously for power. We’re never told why it matters. Maybe most of them are bored and have nothing better to do. They are desperate enough for power that, some generations back, they agreed to tithe relatives in exchange for power - apparently without asking too many questions.

About once a generation there is a general formal, cutthroat, competition for prominence. We are never told what triggers one, but at the start of the book a new competition has been announced - earlier than expected. One of the participants was once tithed.